> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.scrapely.io/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Quickstart

> Get up and running with Scrapely in under 5 minutes.

Welcome to the Scrapely quickstart guide! In this tutorial, you will learn how to get your API key, install the Python SDK, and make your first successful web scraping request.

<Note>
  If you find Scrapely useful, please consider giving our [Python SDK a star on GitHub](https://github.com/scrapely-io/scrapely-python-client) ⭐!
</Note>

## 1. Get your API Key

Before you can make any requests, you need an API key.

1. Go to the [Scrapely Dashboard](https://scrapely.io/dashboard) and log in or create an account.
2. Navigate to the **API Keys** section.
3. Click **Create New Key** and copy it to a secure location.

<Warning>
  Never commit your API key to public repositories like GitHub. Use environment variables (like `.env` files) to store it safely.
</Warning>

## 2. Install the SDK

While you can interact with Scrapely using any HTTP client (like cURL or Postman), we highly recommend using our official Python SDK for the best developer experience. It provides typed responses, built-in polling, and automatic error handling.

Install the package via pip:

```bash theme={null}
pip install scrapely-python-client
```

## 3. Make your first request

Now let's write a simple script to scrape a website. Create a new file called `scrape.py` and add the following code. Replace `"YOUR_API_KEY"` with the key you generated in step 1.

<CodeGroup>
  ```python Python SDK theme={null}
  from scrapely import Scrapely

  # 1. Initialize the client
  client = Scrapely(api_key="YOUR_API_KEY")

  # 2. Create a crawl task
  print("Starting crawl task...")
  task = client.crawler.crawl(
      website_url="https://example.com",
      return_page_source=True
  )

  # 3. Print the fully rendered HTML
  print("Crawl completed successfully!")
  print(task.result.html)
  ```

  ```bash cURL theme={null}
  curl -X POST https://api.scrapely.io/v2/tasks/create \
    -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
    -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_API_KEY" \
    -d '{
      "crawler": {
        "websiteURL": "https://example.com",
        "return_page_source": true
      }
    }'
  ```
</CodeGroup>

If you are using the Python SDK, run the script:

```bash theme={null}
python scrape.py
```

You should see the fully rendered HTML source code of `https://example.com` printed to your terminal. Behind the scenes, Scrapely spun up a headless browser, bypassed any necessary anti-bot protections, rendered the JavaScript, and returned the clean HTML.

## Next Steps

Now that you've made your first request, explore what else Scrapely can do:

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Browser Instructions" icon="mouse-pointer" href="/crawler/instructions">
    Learn how to click buttons, type in forms, and scroll before extracting data.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Solve CAPTCHAs" icon="shield-check" href="/captcha/recaptcha-v2">
    Bypass reCAPTCHA and Cloudflare Turnstile easily.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>