Changelog

All notable changes to Crawl4AI will be documented in this file.

The format is based on Keep a Changelog, and this project adheres to Semantic Versioning.

[0.8.0] - 2026-01-12

Security

🔒 CRITICAL: Remote Code Execution Fix: Removed __import__ from hook allowed builtins
- Prevents arbitrary module imports in user-provided hook code
- Hooks now disabled by default via CRAWL4AI_HOOKS_ENABLED environment variable
- Credit: Neo by ProjectDiscovery
🔒 HIGH: Local File Inclusion Fix: Added URL scheme validation to Docker API endpoints
- Blocks file://, javascript:, data: URLs on /execute_js, /screenshot, /pdf, /html
- Only allows http://, https://, and raw: URLs
- Credit: Neo by ProjectDiscovery

Breaking Changes

Docker API: Hooks disabled by default: Set CRAWL4AI_HOOKS_ENABLED=true to enable
Docker API: file:// URLs blocked: Use Python library directly for local file processing

Added

🚀 init_scripts for BrowserConfig: Pre-page-load JavaScript injection for stealth evasions
🔄 CDP Connection Improvements: WebSocket URL support, proper cleanup, browser reuse
💾 Crash Recovery for Deep Crawl: resume_state and on_state_change for BFS/DFS/Best-First strategies
📄 PDF/MHTML for raw:/file:// URLs: Generate PDFs and MHTML from cached HTML content
📸 Screenshots for raw:/file:// URLs: Render cached HTML and capture screenshots
🔗 base_url Parameter: Proper URL resolution for raw: HTML processing
⚡ Prefetch Mode: Two-phase deep crawling with fast link extraction
🔀 Enhanced Proxy Support: Improved proxy rotation and sticky sessions
🌐 HTTP Strategy Proxy Support: Non-browser crawler now supports proxies
🖥️ Browser Pipeline for raw:/file://: New process_in_browser parameter
📋 Smart TTL Cache for Sitemap Seeder: cache_ttl_hours and validate_sitemap_lastmod parameters
📚 Security Documentation: Added SECURITY.md with vulnerability reporting guidelines

Fixed

raw: URL Parsing: Fixed truncation at # character (CSS color codes like #eee)
Caching System: Various improvements to cache validation and persistence

Documentation

Multi-sample schema generation section
URL seeder smart TTL cache parameters
v0.8.0 migration guide
Security policy and disclosure process

[Unreleased]

Added

🔒 HTTPS Preservation for Internal Links: New preserve_https_for_internal_links configuration flag
- Maintains HTTPS scheme for internal links even when servers redirect to HTTP
- Prevents security downgrades during deep crawling
- Useful for security-conscious crawling and sites supporting both protocols
- Fully backward compatible with opt-in flag (default: False)
- Fixes issue #1410 where HTTPS URLs were being downgraded to HTTP

[0.7.3] - 2025-08-09

Added

🕵️ Undetected Browser Support: New browser adapter pattern with stealth capabilities
- browser_adapter.py with undetected Chrome integration
- Bypass sophisticated bot detection systems (Cloudflare, Akamai, custom solutions)
- Support for headless stealth mode with anti-detection techniques
- Human-like behavior simulation with random mouse movements and scrolling
- Comprehensive examples for anti-bot strategies and stealth crawling
- Full documentation guide for undetected browser usage
🎨 Multi-URL Configuration System: URL-specific crawler configurations for batch processing
- Different crawling strategies for different URL patterns in a single batch
- Support for string patterns with wildcards ("*.pdf", "*/blog/*")
- Lambda function matchers for complex URL logic
- Mixed matchers combining strings and functions with AND/OR logic
- Fallback configuration support when no patterns match
- First-match-wins configuration selection with optional fallback
🧠 Memory Monitoring & Optimization: Comprehensive memory usage tracking
- New memory_utils.py module for memory monitoring and optimization
- Real-time memory usage tracking during crawl sessions
- Memory leak detection and reporting
- Performance optimization recommendations
- Peak memory usage analysis and efficiency metrics
- Automatic cleanup suggestions for memory-intensive operations
📊 Enhanced Table Extraction: Improved table access and DataFrame conversion
- Direct result.tables interface replacing generic result.media approach
- Instant pandas DataFrame conversion with pd.DataFrame(table['data'])
- Enhanced table detection algorithms for better accuracy
- Table metadata including source XPath and headers
- Improved table structure preservation during extraction
💰 GitHub Sponsors Integration: 4-tier sponsorship system
- Supporter ($5/month): Community support + early feature previews
- Professional ($25/month): Priority support + beta access
- Business ($100/month): Direct consultation + custom integrations
- Enterprise ($500/month): Dedicated support + feature development
- Custom arrangement options for larger organizations
🐳 Docker LLM Provider Flexibility: Environment-based LLM configuration
- LLM_PROVIDER environment variable support for dynamic provider switching
- .llm.env file support for secure configuration management
- Per-request provider override capabilities in API endpoints
- Support for OpenAI, Groq, and other providers without rebuilding images
- Enhanced Docker documentation with deployment examples

Fixed

URL Matcher Fallback: Resolved edge cases in URL pattern matching logic
Memory Management: Fixed memory leaks in long-running crawl sessions
Sitemap Processing: Improved redirect handling in sitemap fetching
Table Extraction: Enhanced table detection and extraction accuracy
Error Handling: Better error messages and recovery from network failures

Changed

Architecture Refactoring: Major cleanup and optimization
- Moved 2,450+ lines from main async_crawler_strategy.py to backup
- Cleaner separation of concerns in crawler architecture
- Better maintainability and code organization
- Preserved backward compatibility while improving performance

Documentation

Comprehensive Examples: Added real-world URLs and practical use cases
API Documentation: Complete CrawlResult field documentation with all available fields
Migration Guides: Updated table extraction patterns from result.media to result.tables
Undetected Browser Guide: Full documentation for stealth mode and anti-bot strategies
Multi-Config Examples: Detailed examples for URL-specific configurations
Docker Deployment: Enhanced Docker documentation with LLM provider configuration

[0.7.x] - 2025-06-29

Added

Virtual Scroll Support: New VirtualScrollConfig for handling virtualized scrolling on modern websites
- Automatically detects and handles three scrolling scenarios:
  - Content unchanged (continue scrolling)
  - Content appended (traditional infinite scroll)
  - Content replaced (true virtual scroll - Twitter/Instagram style)
- Captures ALL content from pages that replace DOM elements during scroll
- Intelligent deduplication based on normalized text content
- Configurable scroll amount, count, and wait times
- Seamless integration with existing extraction strategies
- Comprehensive examples including Twitter timeline, Instagram grid, and mixed content scenarios

[Unreleased]

Added

Flexible LLM Provider Configuration (Docker):
- Support for LLM_PROVIDER environment variable to override default provider
- Per-request provider override via optional provider parameter in API endpoints
- Automatic provider validation with clear error messages
- Updated Docker documentation and examples

Changed

WebScrapingStrategy Refactoring: Simplified content scraping architecture
- WebScrapingStrategy is now an alias for LXMLWebScrapingStrategy for backward compatibility
- Removed redundant BeautifulSoup-based implementation (~1000 lines of code)
- LXMLWebScrapingStrategy now inherits directly from ContentScrapingStrategy
- All existing code using WebScrapingStrategy continues to work without modification
- Default scraping strategy remains LXMLWebScrapingStrategy for optimal performance

Added

AsyncUrlSeeder: High-performance URL discovery system for intelligent crawling at scale
- Discover URLs from sitemaps and Common Crawl index
- Extract and analyze page metadata without full crawling
- BM25 relevance scoring for query-based URL filtering
- Multi-domain parallel discovery with many_urls() method
- Automatic caching with TTL for discovered URLs
- Rate limiting and concurrent request management
- Live URL validation with HEAD requests
- JSON-LD and Open Graph metadata extraction
SeedingConfig: Configuration class for URL seeding operations
- Support for multiple discovery sources (sitemap, cc, sitemap+cc)
- Pattern-based URL filtering with wildcards
- Configurable concurrency and rate limiting
- Query-based relevance scoring with BM25
- Score threshold filtering for quality control
Comprehensive documentation for URL seeding feature
- Detailed comparison with deep crawling approaches
- Complete API reference with examples
- Integration guide with AsyncWebCrawler
- Performance benchmarks and best practices
Example scripts demonstrating URL seeding:
- url_seeder_demo.py: Interactive Rich-based demonstration
- url_seeder_quick_demo.py: Screenshot-friendly examples
Test suite for URL seeding with BM25 scoring

Changed

Updated __init__.py to export AsyncUrlSeeder and SeedingConfig
Enhanced documentation with URL seeding integration examples

Fixed

Corrected examples to properly extract URLs from seeder results before passing to arun_many()
Fixed logger color compatibility issue (changed lightblack to bright_black)

[0.6.2] - 2025-05-02

Added

New RegexExtractionStrategy for fast pattern-based extraction without requiring LLM
- Built-in patterns for emails, URLs, phone numbers, dates, and more
- Support for custom regex patterns
- generate_pattern utility for LLM-assisted pattern creation (one-time use)
Added fit_html as a top-level field in CrawlResult for optimized HTML extraction
Added support for network response body capture in network request tracking

Changed

Updated documentation for no-LLM extraction strategies
Enhanced API reference to include RegexExtractionStrategy examples and usage
Improved HTML preprocessing with optimized performance for extraction strategies

[0.6.1] - 2025-04-24

Added

New dedicated tables field in CrawlResult model for better table extraction handling
Updated crypto_analysis_example.py to use the new tables field with backward compatibility

Changed

Improved playground UI in Docker deployment with better endpoint handling and UI feedback

[0.6.0] ‑ 2025‑04‑22

Added

Browser pooling with page pre‑warming and fine‑grained geolocation, locale, and timezone controls
Crawler pool manager (SDK + Docker API) for smarter resource allocation
Network & console log capture plus MHTML snapshot export
Table extractor: turn HTML <table>s into DataFrames or CSV with one flag
High‑volume stress‑test framework in tests/memory and API load scripts
MCP protocol endpoints with socket & SSE support; playground UI scaffold
Docs v2 revamp: TOC, GitHub badge, copy‑code buttons, Docker API demo
“Ask AI” helper button (work‑in‑progress, shipping soon)
New examples: geo‑location usage, network/console capture, Docker API, markdown source selection, crypto analysis
Expanded automated test suites for browser, Docker, MCP and memory benchmarks

Changed

Consolidated and renamed browser strategies; legacy docker strategy modules removed
ProxyConfig moved to async_configs
Server migrated to pool‑based crawler management
FastAPI validators replace custom query validation
Docker build now uses Chromium base image
Large‑scale repo tidy‑up (≈36 k insertions, ≈5 k deletions)

Fixed

Async crawler session leak, duplicate‑visit handling, URL normalisation
Target‑element regressions in scraping strategies
Logged‑URL readability, encoded‑URL decoding, middle truncation for long URLs
Closed issues: #701, #733, #756, #774, #804, #822, #839, #841, #842, #843, #867, #902, #911

Removed

Obsolete modules under crawl4ai/browser/* superseded by the new pooled browser layer

Deprecated

Old markdown generator names now alias DefaultMarkdownGenerator and emit warnings

Upgrade notes

Update any direct imports from crawl4ai/browser/* to the new pooled browser modules
If you override AsyncPlaywrightCrawlerStrategy.get_page, adopt the new signature
Rebuild Docker images to pull the new Chromium layer
Switch to DefaultMarkdownGenerator (or silence the deprecation warning)

121 files changed, ≈36 223 insertions, ≈4 975 deletions :contentReference[oaicite:0]{index=0}:contentReference[oaicite:1]{index=1}

[Feature] 2025-04-21

Implemented MCP protocol for machine-to-machine communication
- Added WebSocket and SSE transport for MCP server
- Exposed server endpoints via MCP protocol
- Created tests for MCP socket and SSE communication
Enhanced Docker server with file handling and intelligent search
- Added PDF and screenshot endpoints with file saving capability
- Added JavaScript execution endpoint for page interaction
- Implemented advanced context search with BM25 and code chunking
- Added file path output support for generated assets
Improved server endpoints and API surface
- Added intelligent context search with query filtering
- Added syntax-aware code function chunking
- Implemented efficient HTML processing pipeline
Added support for controlling browser geolocation via new GeolocationConfig class
- Added locale and timezone configuration options to CrawlerRunConfig
- Added example script demonstrating geolocation and locale usage
- Added documentation for location-based identity features

[Refactor] 2025-04-20

Replaced crawler_manager.py with simpler crawler_pool.py implementation
Added global page semaphore for hard concurrency cap
Implemented browser pool with idle cleanup
Added playground UI for testing and stress testing
Updated API handlers to use pooled crawlers
Enhanced logging levels and symbols
Added memory tests and stress test utilities

[Added] 2025-04-17

Added content source selection feature for markdown generation
- New content_source parameter allows choosing between cleaned_html, raw_html, and fit_html
- Provides flexibility in how HTML content is processed before markdown conversion
- Added examples and documentation for the new feature
- Includes backward compatibility with default cleaned_html behavior

Version 0.5.0.post5 (2025-03-14)

Added

(crawler) Add experimental parameters dictionary to CrawlerRunConfig to support beta features
(tables) Add comprehensive table detection and extraction functionality with scoring system
(monitor) Add real-time crawler monitoring system with memory management
(content) Add target_elements parameter for selective content extraction
(browser) Add standalone CDP browser launch capability
(schema) Add preprocess_html_for_schema utility for better HTML cleaning
(api) Add special handling for single URL requests in Docker API

Changed

(filters) Add reverse option to URLPatternFilter for inverting filter logic
(browser) Make CSP nonce headers optional via experimental config
(browser) Remove default cookie injection from page initialization
(crawler) Optimize response handling for single-URL processing
(api) Refactor crawl request handling to streamline processing
(config) Update default provider to gpt-4o
(cache) Change default cache_mode from aggressive to bypass in examples

Fixed

(browser) Clean up browser context creation code
(api) Improve code formatting in API handler

Breaking Changes

WebScrapingStrategy no longer returns 'scraped_html' in its output dictionary
Table extraction logic has been modified to better handle thead/tbody structures
Default cookie injection has been removed from page initialization

Version 0.5.0 (2025-03-02)

Added

(profiles) Add BrowserProfiler class for dedicated browser profile management
(cli) Add interactive profile management to CLI with rich UI
(profiles) Add ability to crawl directly from profile management interface
(browser) Support identity-based browsing with persistent profiles
(deep-crawling) Add max_pages parameter to limit the number of pages crawled in all deep crawling strategies
(deep-crawling) Add score_threshold parameter to BFS and DFS strategies to filter URLs by score

Changed

(browser) Refactor profile management from ManagedBrowser to BrowserProfiler class
(cli) Enhance CLI with profile selection and status display for crawling
(examples) Update identity-based browsing example to use BrowserProfiler class
(docs) Update identity-based crawling documentation
(docs) Update deep crawling documentation with max_pages and score_threshold parameters
(examples) Add example demonstrating the use of max_pages and score_threshold parameters

Fixed

(browser) Fix profile detection and management on different platforms
(cli) Fix CLI command structure for better user experience
(deep-crawling) Improve BFS and DFS strategies to handle page count limits more efficiently

Version 0.5.0 (2025-02-21)

Added

(crawler) [breaking] Add memory-adaptive dispatcher with rate limiting
(scraping) [breaking] Add LXML-based scraping mode for improved performance
(content-filter) Add LLMContentFilter for intelligent markdown generation
(dispatcher) [breaking] Add streaming support for URL processing
(browser) [breaking] Improve browser context management and add shared data support
(config) [breaking] Add streaming support and config cloning
(crawler) Add URL redirection tracking
(extraction) Add LLM-powered schema generation utility
(proxy) Add proxy configuration support to CrawlerRunConfig
(robots) Add robots.txt compliance support
(release) [breaking] Prepare v0.4.3 beta release
(proxy) Add proxy rotation support and documentation
(browser) Add CDP URL configuration support
(demo) Uncomment feature demos and add fake-useragent dependency
(pdf) Add PDF processing capabilities
(crawler) [breaking] Enhance JavaScript execution and PDF processing
(docker) Add Docker deployment configuration and API server
(docker) Add Docker service integration and config serialization
(docker) [breaking] Enhance Docker deployment setup and configuration
(api) Improve cache handling and add API tests
(crawler) [breaking] Add deep crawling capabilities with BFS strategy
(proxy) [breaking] Add proxy rotation strategy
(deep-crawling) Add DFS strategy and update exports; refactor CLI entry point
(cli) Add command line interface with comprehensive features
(config) Enhance serialization and add deep crawling exports
(crawler) Add HTTP crawler strategy for lightweight web scraping
(docker) [breaking] Implement supervisor and secure API endpoints
(docker) [breaking] Add JWT authentication and improve server architecture

Changed

(browser) Update browser channel default to 'chromium' in BrowserConfig.from_args method
(crawler) Optimize response handling and default settings
(crawler) - Update hello_world example with proper content filtering
- Update hello_world.py example
(docs) [breaking] Reorganize documentation structure and update styles
(dispatcher) [breaking] Migrate to modular dispatcher system with enhanced monitoring
(scraping) [breaking] Replace ScrapingMode enum with strategy pattern
(browser) Improve browser path management
(models) Rename final_url to redirected_url for consistency
(core) [breaking] Improve type hints and remove unused file
(docs) Improve code formatting in features demo
(user-agent) Improve user agent generation system
(core) [breaking] Reorganize project structure and remove legacy code
(docker) Clean up import statements in server.py
(docker) Remove unused models and utilities for cleaner codebase
(docker) [breaking] Improve server architecture and configuration
(deep-crawl) [breaking] Reorganize deep crawling functionality into dedicated module
(deep-crawling) [breaking] Reorganize deep crawling strategies and add new implementations
(crawling) [breaking] Improve type hints and code cleanup
(crawler) [breaking] Improve HTML handling and cleanup codebase
(crawler) [breaking] Remove content filter functionality
(examples) Update API usage in features demo
(config) [breaking] Enhance serialization and config handling

Docs

Add Code of Conduct for the project (#410)

Documentation

(extraction) Add clarifying comments for CSS selector behavior
(readme) Update personal story and project vision
(urls) [breaking] Update documentation URLs to new domain
(api) Add streaming mode documentation and examples
(readme) Update version and feature announcements for v0.4.3b1
(examples) Update demo scripts and fix output formats
(examples) Update v0.4.3 features demo to v0.4.3b2
(readme) Update version references and fix links
(multi-url) [breaking] Improve documentation clarity and update examples
(examples) Update proxy rotation demo and disable other demos
(api) Improve formatting and readability of API documentation
(examples) Add SERP API project example
(urls) Update documentation URLs to new domain
(readme) Resolve merge conflict and update version info

Fixed

(browser) Update default browser channel to chromium and simplify channel selection logic
(browser) [breaking] Default to Chromium channel for new headless mode (#387)
(browser) Resolve merge conflicts in browser channel configuration
Prevent memory leaks by ensuring proper closure of Playwright pages
Not working long page screenshot (#403)
(extraction) JsonCss selector and crawler improvements
(models) [breaking] Make model fields optional with default values
(dispatcher) Adjust memory threshold and fix dispatcher initialization
(install) Ensure proper exit after running doctor command

Miscellaneous Tasks

(cleanup) Remove unused files and improve type hints
Add .gitattributes file

License Update

Crawl4AI v0.5.0 updates the license to Apache 2.0 with a required attribution clause. This means you are free to use, modify, and distribute Crawl4AI (even commercially), but you must clearly attribute the project in any public use or distribution. See the updated LICENSE file for the full legal text and specific requirements.

Version 0.4.3b2 (2025-01-21)

This release introduces several powerful new features, including robots.txt compliance, dynamic proxy support, LLM-powered schema generation, and improved documentation.

Features

Robots.txt Compliance:
- Added robots.txt compliance support with efficient SQLite-based caching.
- New check_robots_txt parameter in CrawlerRunConfig to enable robots.txt checking before crawling a URL.
- Automated robots.txt checking is now integrated into AsyncWebCrawler with 403 status codes for blocked URLs.
Proxy Configuration:
- Added proxy configuration support to CrawlerRunConfig, allowing dynamic proxy settings per crawl request.
- Updated documentation with examples for using proxy configuration in crawl operations.
LLM-Powered Schema Generation:
- Introduced a new utility for automatic CSS and XPath schema generation using OpenAI or Ollama models.
- Added comprehensive documentation and examples for schema generation.
- New prompt templates optimized for HTML schema analysis.
URL Redirection Tracking:
- Added URL redirection tracking to capture the final URL after any redirects.
- The final URL is now available in the redirected_url field of the AsyncCrawlResponse object.
Enhanced Streamlined Documentation:
- Refactored and improved the documentation structure for clarity and ease of use.
- Added detailed explanations of new features and updated examples.
Improved Browser Context Management:
- Enhanced the management of browser contexts and added shared data support.
- Introduced the shared_data parameter in CrawlerRunConfig to pass data between hooks.
Memory Dispatcher System:
- Migrated to a memory dispatcher system with enhanced monitoring capabilities.
- Introduced MemoryAdaptiveDispatcher and SemaphoreDispatcher for improved resource management.
- Added RateLimiter for rate limiting support.
- New CrawlerMonitor for real-time monitoring of crawler operations.
Streaming Support:
- Added streaming support for processing crawled URLs as they are processed.
- Enabled streaming mode with the stream parameter in CrawlerRunConfig.
Content Scraping Strategy:
- Introduced a new LXMLWebScrapingStrategy for faster content scraping.
- Added support for selecting the scraping strategy via the scraping_strategy parameter in CrawlerRunConfig.

Bug Fixes

Browser Path Management:
- Improved browser path management for consistent behavior across different environments.
Memory Threshold:
- Adjusted the default memory threshold to improve resource utilization.
Pydantic Model Fields:
- Made several model fields optional with default values to improve flexibility.

Refactor

Documentation Structure:
- Reorganized documentation structure to improve navigation and readability.
- Updated styles and added new sections for advanced features.
Scraping Mode:
- Replaced the ScrapingMode enum with a strategy pattern for more flexible content scraping.
Version Update:
- Updated the version to 0.4.248.
Code Cleanup:
- Removed unused files and improved type hints.
- Applied Ruff corrections for code quality.
Updated dependencies:
- Updated dependencies to their latest versions to ensure compatibility and security.
Ignored certain patterns and directories:
- Updated .gitignore and .codeiumignore to ignore additional patterns and directories, streamlining the development environment.
Simplified Personal Story in README:
- Streamlined the personal story and project vision in the README.md for clarity.
Removed Deprecated Files:
- Deleted several deprecated files and examples that are no longer relevant.

Previous Releases:

0.4.24x (2024-12-31)

Enhanced SSL & Security: New SSL certificate handling with custom paths and validation options for secure crawling.
Smart Content Filtering: Advanced filtering system with regex support and efficient chunking strategies.
Improved JSON Extraction: Support for complex JSONPath, JSON-CSS, and Microdata extraction.
New Field Types: Added computed, conditional, aggregate, and template field types.
Performance Boost: Optimized caching, parallel processing, and memory management.
Better Error Handling: Enhanced debugging capabilities with detailed error tracking.
Security Features: Improved input validation and safe expression evaluation.

0.4.247 (2025-01-06)

Added

Windows Event Loop Configuration: Introduced a utility function configure_windows_event_loop to resolve NotImplementedError for asyncio subprocesses on Windows. (#utils.py, #tutorials/async-webcrawler-basics.md)
page_need_scroll Method: Added a method to determine if a page requires scrolling before taking actions in AsyncPlaywrightCrawlerStrategy. (#async_crawler_strategy.py)

Changed

Version Bump: Updated the version from 0.4.246 to 0.4.247. (#version.py)
Improved Scrolling Logic: Enhanced scrolling methods in AsyncPlaywrightCrawlerStrategy by adding a scroll_delay parameter for better control. (#async_crawler_strategy.py)
Markdown Generation Example: Updated the hello_world.py example to reflect the latest API changes and better illustrate features. (#examples/hello_world.py)
Documentation Update:
- Added Windows-specific instructions for handling asyncio event loops. (#async-webcrawler-basics.md)

Removed

Legacy Markdown Generation Code: Removed outdated and unused code for markdown generation in content_scraping_strategy.py. (#content_scraping_strategy.py)

Fixed

Page Closing to Prevent Memory Leaks:
- Description: Added a finally block to ensure pages are closed when no session_id is provided.
- Impact: Prevents memory leaks caused by lingering pages after a crawl.
- File: async_crawler_strategy.py
- Code:
```
finally:
    # If no session_id is given we should close the page
    if not config.session_id:
        await page.close()
```
Multiple Element Selection: Modified _get_elements in JsonCssExtractionStrategy to return all matching elements instead of just the first one, ensuring comprehensive extraction. (#extraction_strategy.py)
Error Handling in Scrolling: Added robust error handling to ensure scrolling proceeds safely even if a configuration is missing. (#async_crawler_strategy.py)

[0.4.267] - 2025 - 01 - 06

Added

Windows Event Loop Configuration: Introduced a utility function configure_windows_event_loop to resolve NotImplementedError for asyncio subprocesses on Windows. (#utils.py, #tutorials/async-webcrawler-basics.md)
page_need_scroll Method: Added a method to determine if a page requires scrolling before taking actions in AsyncPlaywrightCrawlerStrategy. (#async_crawler_strategy.py)

[0.4.24] - 2024-12-31

Added

Browser and SSL Handling
- SSL certificate validation options in extraction strategies
- Custom certificate paths support
- Configurable certificate validation skipping
- Enhanced response status code handling with retry logic
Content Processing
- New content filtering system with regex support
- Advanced chunking strategies for large content
- Memory-efficient parallel processing
- Configurable chunk size optimization
JSON Extraction
- Complex JSONPath expression support
- JSON-CSS and Microdata extraction
- RDFa parsing capabilities
- Advanced data transformation pipeline
Field Types
- New field types: computed, conditional, aggregate, template
- Field inheritance system
- Reusable field definitions
- Custom validation rules

Changed

Performance
- Optimized selector compilation with caching
- Improved HTML parsing efficiency
- Enhanced memory management for large documents
- Batch processing optimizations
Error Handling
- More detailed error messages and categorization
- Enhanced debugging capabilities
- Improved performance metrics tracking
- Better error recovery mechanisms

Deprecated

Old field computation method using eval
Direct browser manipulation without proper SSL handling
Simple text-based content filtering

Removed

Legacy extraction patterns without proper error handling
Unsafe eval-based field computation
Direct DOM manipulation without sanitization

Fixed

Memory leaks in large document processing
SSL certificate validation issues
Incorrect handling of nested JSON structures
Performance bottlenecks in parallel processing

Security

Improved input validation and sanitization
Safe expression evaluation system
Enhanced resource protection
Rate limiting implementation

[0.4.1] - 2024-12-08

File: `crawl4ai/async_crawler_strategy.py`

New Parameters and Attributes Added

text_mode (boolean): Enables text-only mode, disables images, JavaScript, and GPU-related features for faster, minimal rendering.
light_mode (boolean): Optimizes the browser by disabling unnecessary background processes and features for efficiency.
viewport_width and viewport_height: Dynamically adjusts based on text_mode mode (default values: 800x600 for text_mode, 1920x1080 otherwise).
extra_args: Adds browser-specific flags for text_mode mode.
adjust_viewport_to_content: Dynamically adjusts the viewport to the content size for accurate rendering.

Browser Context Adjustments

Added viewport adjustments: Dynamically computed based on text_mode or custom configuration.
Enhanced support for light_mode and text_mode by adding specific browser arguments to reduce resource consumption.

Dynamic Content Handling

Full Page Scan Feature:
- Scrolls through the entire page while dynamically detecting content changes.
- Ensures scrolling stops when no new dynamic content is loaded.

Session Management

Added create_session method:
- Creates a new browser session and assigns a unique ID.
- Supports persistent and non-persistent contexts with full compatibility for cookies, headers, and proxies.

Improved Content Loading and Adjustment

adjust_viewport_to_content:
- Automatically adjusts viewport to match content dimensions.
- Includes scaling via Chrome DevTools Protocol (CDP).
Enhanced content loading:
- Waits for images to load and ensures network activity is idle before proceeding.

Error Handling and Logging

Improved error handling and detailed logging for:
- Viewport adjustment (adjust_viewport_to_content).
- Full page scanning (scan_full_page).
- Dynamic content loading.

Refactoring and Cleanup

Removed hardcoded viewport dimensions in multiple places, replaced with dynamic values (self.viewport_width, self.viewport_height).
Removed commented-out and unused code for better readability.
Added default value for delay_before_return_html parameter.

Optimizations

Reduced resource usage in light_mode by disabling unnecessary browser features such as extensions, background timers, and sync.
Improved compatibility for different browser types (chrome, firefox, webkit).

File: `docs/examples/quickstart_async.py`

Schema Adjustment

Changed schema reference for LLMExtractionStrategy:
- Old: OpenAIModelFee.schema()
- New: OpenAIModelFee.model_json_schema()
- This likely ensures better compatibility with the OpenAIModelFee class and its JSON schema.

Documentation Comments Updated

Improved extraction instruction for schema-based LLM strategies.

New Features Added

Text-Only Mode:
- Focuses on minimal resource usage by disabling non-essential browser features.
Light Mode:
- Optimizes browser for performance by disabling background tasks and unnecessary services.
Full Page Scanning:
- Ensures the entire content of a page is crawled, including dynamic elements loaded during scrolling.
Dynamic Viewport Adjustment:
- Automatically resizes the viewport to match content dimensions, improving compatibility and rendering accuracy.
Session Management:
- Simplifies session handling with better support for persistent and non-persistent contexts.

Bug Fixes

Fixed potential viewport mismatches by ensuring consistent use of self.viewport_width and self.viewport_height throughout the code.
Improved robustness of dynamic content loading to avoid timeouts and failed evaluations.

[0.3.75] December 1, 2024

PruningContentFilter

1. Introduced PruningContentFilter (Dec 01, 2024) (Dec 01, 2024)

A new content filtering strategy that removes less relevant nodes based on metrics like text and link density.

Affected Files:

crawl4ai/content_filter_strategy.py: Enhancement of content filtering capabilities.

Implemented effective pruning algorithm with comprehensive scoring.

README.md: Improved documentation regarding new features.

Updated to include usage and explanation for the PruningContentFilter.

docs/md_v2/basic/content_filtering.md: Expanded documentation for users.

Added detailed section explaining the PruningContentFilter.

2. Added Unit Tests for PruningContentFilter (Dec 01, 2024) (Dec 01, 2024)

Comprehensive tests added to ensure correct functionality of PruningContentFilter

Affected Files:

tests/async/test_content_filter_prune.py: Increased test coverage for content filtering strategies.

Created test cases for various scenarios using the PruningContentFilter.

Development Updates

3. Enhanced BM25ContentFilter tests (Dec 01, 2024) (Dec 01, 2024)

Extended testing to cover additional edge cases and performance metrics.

Affected Files:

tests/async/test_content_filter_bm25.py: Improved reliability and performance assurance.

Added tests for new extraction scenarios including malformed HTML.

Infrastructure & Documentation

4. Updated Examples (Dec 01, 2024) (Dec 01, 2024)

Altered examples in documentation to promote the use of PruningContentFilter alongside existing strategies.

Affected Files:

docs/examples/quickstart_async.py: Enhanced usability and clarity for new users.
Revised example to illustrate usage of PruningContentFilter.

[0.3.746] November 29, 2024

Major Features

Enhanced Docker Support (Nov 29, 2024)
- Improved GPU support in Docker images.
- Dockerfile refactored for better platform-specific installations.
- Introduced new Docker commands for different platforms:
  - basic-amd64, all-amd64, gpu-amd64 for AMD64.
  - basic-arm64, all-arm64, gpu-arm64 for ARM64.

Infrastructure & Documentation

Enhanced README.md to improve user guidance and installation instructions.
Added installation instructions for Playwright setup in README.
Created and updated examples in docs/examples/quickstart_async.py to be more useful and user-friendly.
Updated requirements.txt with a new pydantic dependency.
Bumped version number in crawl4ai/__version__.py to 0.3.746.

Breaking Changes

Streamlined application structure:
- Removed static pages and related code from main.py which might affect existing deployments relying on static content.

Development Updates

Developed post_install method in crawl4ai/install.py to streamline post-installation setup tasks.
Refined migration processes in crawl4ai/migrations.py with enhanced logging for better error visibility.
Updated docker-compose.yml to support local and hub services for different architectures, enhancing build and deploy capabilities.
Refactored example test cases in docs/examples/docker_example.py to facilitate comprehensive testing.

README.md

Updated README with new docker commands and setup instructions. Enhanced installation instructions and guidance.

crawl4ai/install.py

Added post-install script functionality. Introduced post_install method for automation of post-installation tasks.

crawl4ai/migrations.py

Improved migration logging. Refined migration processes and added better logging.

docker-compose.yml

Refactored docker-compose for better service management. Updated to define services for different platforms and versions.

requirements.txt

Updated dependencies. Added pydantic to requirements file.

crawler/version.py

Updated version number. Bumped version number to 0.3.746.

docs/examples/quickstart_async.py

Enhanced example scripts. Uncommented example usage in async guide for user functionality.

main.py

Refactored code to improve maintainability. Streamlined app structure by removing static pages code.

[0.3.743] November 27, 2024

Enhance features and documentation

Updated version to 0.3.743
Improved ManagedBrowser configuration with dynamic host/port
Implemented fast HTML formatting in web crawler
Enhanced markdown generation with a new generator class
Improved sanitization and utility functions
Added contributor details and pull request acknowledgments
Updated documentation for clearer usage scenarios
Adjusted tests to reflect class name changes

CONTRIBUTORS.md

Added new contributors and pull request details. Updated community contributions and acknowledged pull requests.

crawl4ai/version.py

Version update. Bumped version to 0.3.743.

crawl4ai/async_crawler_strategy.py

Improved ManagedBrowser configuration. Enhanced browser initialization with configurable host and debugging port; improved hook execution.

crawl4ai/async_webcrawler.py

Optimized HTML processing. Implemented 'fast_format_html' for optimized HTML formatting; applied it when 'prettiify' is enabled.

crawl4ai/content_scraping_strategy.py

Enhanced markdown generation strategy. Updated to use DefaultMarkdownGenerator and improved markdown generation with filters option.

crawl4ai/markdown_generation_strategy.py

Refactored markdown generation class. Renamed DefaultMarkdownGenerationStrategy to DefaultMarkdownGenerator; added content filter handling.

crawl4ai/utils.py

Enhanced utility functions. Improved input sanitization and enhanced HTML formatting method.

docs/md_v2/advanced/hooks-auth.md

Improved documentation for hooks. Updated code examples to include cookies in crawler strategy initialization.

tests/async/test_markdown_genertor.py

Refactored tests to match class renaming. Updated tests to use renamed DefaultMarkdownGenerator class.

[0.3.74] November 17, 2024

This changelog details the updates and changes introduced in Crawl4AI version 0.3.74. It's designed to inform developers about new features, modifications to existing components, removals, and other important information.

1. File Download Processing

Users can now specify download folders using the downloads_path parameter in the AsyncWebCrawler constructor or the arun method. If not specified, downloads are saved to a "downloads" folder within the .crawl4ai directory.
File download tracking is integrated into the CrawlResult object. Successfully downloaded files are listed in the downloaded_files attribute, providing their paths.
Added accept_downloads parameter to the crawler strategies (defaults to False). If set to True you can add JS code and wait_for parameter for file download.

Example:

import asyncio
import os
from pathlib import Path
from crawl4ai import AsyncWebCrawler

async def download_example():
    downloads_path = os.path.join(Path.home(), ".crawl4ai", "downloads")
    os.makedirs(downloads_path, exist_ok=True)

    async with AsyncWebCrawler(
        accept_downloads=True, 
        downloads_path=downloads_path, 
        verbose=True
    ) as crawler:
        result = await crawler.arun(
            url="https://www.python.org/downloads/",
            js_code="""
                const downloadLink = document.querySelector('a[href$=".exe"]');
                if (downloadLink) { downloadLink.click(); }
            """,
            wait_for=5 # To ensure download has started
        )

        if result.downloaded_files:
            print("Downloaded files:")
            for file in result.downloaded_files:
                print(f"- {file}")

asyncio.run(download_example())

2. Refined Content Filtering

Introduced the RelevanceContentFilter strategy (and its implementation BM25ContentFilter) for extracting relevant content from web pages, replacing Fit Markdown and other content cleaning strategy. This new strategy leverages the BM25 algorithm to identify chunks of text relevant to the page's title, description, keywords, or a user-provided query.
The fit_markdown flag in the content scraper is used to filter content based on title, meta description, and keywords.

Example:

from crawl4ai import AsyncWebCrawler
from crawl4ai.content_filter_strategy import BM25ContentFilter

async def filter_content(url, query):
    async with AsyncWebCrawler() as crawler:
        content_filter = BM25ContentFilter(user_query=query)
        result = await crawler.arun(url=url, extraction_strategy=content_filter, fit_markdown=True)
        print(result.extracted_content)  # Or result.fit_markdown for the markdown version
        print(result.fit_html) # Or result.fit_html to show HTML with only the filtered content

asyncio.run(filter_content("https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple", "fruit nutrition health"))

3. Raw HTML and Local File Support

Added support for crawling local files and raw HTML content directly.
Use the file:// prefix for local file paths.
Use the raw: prefix for raw HTML strings.

Example:

async def crawl_local_or_raw(crawler, content, content_type):
    prefix = "file://" if content_type == "local" else "raw:"
    url = f"{prefix}{content}"
    result = await crawler.arun(url=url)
    if result.success:
        print(f"Markdown Content from {content_type.title()} Source:")
        print(result.markdown)

# Example usage with local file and raw HTML
async def main():
    async with AsyncWebCrawler() as crawler:
        # Local File
        await crawl_local_or_raw(
            crawler, os.path.abspath('tests/async/sample_wikipedia.html'), "local"
        )
        # Raw HTML
        await crawl_raw_html(crawler, "<h1>Raw Test</h1><p>This is raw HTML.</p>")
        

asyncio.run(main())

4. Browser Management

New asynchronous crawler strategy implemented using Playwright.
ManagedBrowser class introduced for improved browser session handling, offering features like persistent browser sessions between requests (using session_id parameter) and browser process monitoring.
Updated to tf-playwright-stealth for enhanced stealth capabilities.
Added use_managed_browser, use_persistent_context, and chrome_channel parameters to AsyncPlaywrightCrawlerStrategy.

Example:

async def browser_management_demo():
    user_data_dir = os.path.join(Path.home(), ".crawl4ai", "user-data-dir")
    os.makedirs(user_data_dir, exist_ok=True)  # Ensure directory exists
    async with AsyncWebCrawler(
        use_managed_browser=True,
        user_data_dir=user_data_dir,
        use_persistent_context=True,
        verbose=True
    ) as crawler:
        result1 = await crawler.arun(
            url="https://example.com", session_id="my_session"
        )
        result2 = await crawler.arun(
            url="https://example.com/anotherpage", session_id="my_session"
        )

asyncio.run(browser_management_demo())

5. API Server & Cache Improvements

Added CORS support to API server.
Implemented static file serving.
Enhanced root redirect functionality.
Cache database updated to store response headers and downloaded files information. It utilizes a file system approach to manage large content efficiently.
New, more efficient caching database built using xxhash and file system approach.
Introduced CacheMode enum (ENABLED, DISABLED, READ_ONLY, WRITE_ONLY, BYPASS) and always_bypass_cache parameter in AsyncWebCrawler for fine-grained cache control. This replaces bypass_cache, no_cache_read, no_cache_write, and always_by_pass_cache.

🗑️ Removals

Removed deprecated: crawl4ai/content_cleaning_strategy.py.
Removed internal class ContentCleaningStrategy
Removed legacy cache control flags: bypass_cache, disable_cache, no_cache_read, no_cache_write, and always_by_pass_cache. These have been superseded by cache_mode.

⚙️ Other Changes

Moved version file to crawl4ai/__version__.py.
Added crawl4ai/cache_context.py.
Added crawl4ai/version_manager.py.
Added crawl4ai/migrations.py.
Added crawl4ai-migrate entry point.
Added config NEED_MIGRATION and SHOW_DEPRECATION_WARNINGS.
API server now requires an API token for authentication, configurable with the CRAWL4AI_API_TOKEN environment variable. This enhances API security.
Added synchronous crawl endpoint /crawl_sync for immediate result retrieval, and direct crawl endpoint /crawl_direct bypassing the task queue.

⚠️ Deprecation Notices

The synchronous version of WebCrawler is being phased out. While still available via crawl4ai[sync], it will eventually be removed. Transition to AsyncWebCrawler is strongly recommended. Boolean cache control flags in arun are also deprecated, migrate to using the cache_mode parameter. See examples in the "New Features" section above for correct usage.

🐛 Bug Fixes

Resolved issue with browser context closing unexpectedly in Docker. This significantly improves stability, particularly within containerized environments.
Fixed memory leaks associated with incorrect asynchronous cleanup by removing the __del__ method and ensuring the browser context is closed explicitly using context managers.
Improved error handling in WebScrapingStrategy. More detailed error messages and suggestions for debugging will minimize frustration when running into unexpected issues.
Fixed issue with incorrect text parsing in specific HTML structures.

Example of migrating to the new CacheMode:

Old way:

crawler = AsyncWebCrawler(always_by_pass_cache=True)
result = await crawler.arun(url="https://example.com", bypass_cache=True)

New way:

from crawl4ai import CacheMode

crawler = AsyncWebCrawler(always_bypass_cache=True)
result = await crawler.arun(url="https://example.com", cache_mode=CacheMode.BYPASS)

[0.3.74] - November 13, 2024

File Download Processing (Nov 14, 2024)
- Added capability for users to specify download folders
- Implemented file download tracking in crowd result object
- Created new file: tests/async/test_async_doanloader.py
Content Filtering Improvements (Nov 14, 2024)
- Introduced Relevance Content Filter as an improvement over Fit Markdown
- Implemented BM25 algorithm for content relevance matching
- Added new file: crawl4ai/content_filter_strategy.py
- Removed deprecated: crawl4ai/content_cleaning_strategy.py
Local File and Raw HTML Support (Nov 13, 2024)
- Added support for processing local files
- Implemented raw HTML input handling in AsyncWebCrawler
- Enhanced crawl4ai/async_webcrawler.py with significant performance improvements
Browser Management Enhancements (Nov 12, 2024)
- Implemented new async crawler strategy using Playwright
- Introduced ManagedBrowser for better browser session handling
- Added support for persistent browser sessions
- Updated from playwright_stealth to tf-playwright-stealth
API Server Component
- Added CORS support
- Implemented static file serving
- Enhanced root redirect functionality

[0.3.731] - November 13, 2024

Added

Support for raw HTML and local file crawling via URL prefixes ('raw:', 'file://')
Browser process monitoring for managed browser instances
Screenshot capability for raw HTML and local file content
Response headers storage in cache database
New fit_markdown flag for optional markdown generation

Changed

Switched HTML parser from 'html.parser' to 'lxml' for ~4x performance improvement
Optimized BeautifulSoup text conversion and element selection
Pre-compiled regular expressions for better performance
Improved metadata extraction efficiency
Response headers now stored alongside HTML in cache

Removed

__del__ method from AsyncPlaywrightCrawlerStrategy to prevent async cleanup issues

Fixed

Issue #256: Added support for crawling raw HTML content
Issue #253: Implemented file:// protocol handling
Missing response headers in cached results
Memory leaks from improper async cleanup

[v0.3.731] - 2024-11-13 Changelog for Issue 256 Fix

Fixed: Browser context unexpectedly closing in Docker environment during crawl operations.
Removed: del method from AsyncPlaywrightCrawlerStrategy to prevent unreliable asynchronous cleanup, ensuring - browser context is closed explicitly within context managers.
Added: Monitoring for ManagedBrowser subprocess to detect and log unexpected terminations.
Updated: Dockerfile configurations to expose debugging port (9222) and allocate additional shared memory for improved browser stability.
Improved: Error handling and resource cleanup processes for browser lifecycle management within the Docker environment.

[v0.3.73] - 2024-11-05

Major Features

New Doctor Feature
- Added comprehensive system diagnostics tool
- Available through package hub and CLI
- Provides automated troubleshooting and system health checks
- Includes detailed reporting of configuration issues
Dockerized API Server
- Released complete Docker implementation for API server
- Added comprehensive documentation for Docker deployment
- Implemented container communication protocols
- Added environment configuration guides
Managed Browser Integration
- Added support for user-controlled browser instances
- Implemented ManagedBrowser class for better browser lifecycle management
- Added ability to connect to existing Chrome DevTools Protocol (CDP) endpoints
- Introduced user data directory support for persistent browser profiles
Enhanced HTML Processing
- Added HTML tag preservation feature during markdown conversion
- Introduced configurable tag preservation system
- Improved pre-tag and code block handling
- Added support for nested preserved tags with attribute retention

Improvements

Browser Handling
- Added flag to ignore body visibility for problematic pages
- Improved browser process cleanup and management
- Enhanced temporary directory handling for browser profiles
- Added configurable browser launch arguments
Database Management
- Implemented connection pooling for better performance
- Added retry logic for database operations
- Improved error handling and logging
- Enhanced cleanup procedures for database connections
Resource Management
- Added memory and CPU monitoring
- Implemented dynamic task slot allocation based on system resources
- Added configurable cleanup intervals

Technical Improvements

Code Structure
- Moved version management to dedicated _version.py file
- Improved error handling throughout the codebase
- Enhanced logging system with better error reporting
- Reorganized core components for better maintainability

Bug Fixes

Fixed issues with browser process termination
Improved handling of connection timeouts
Enhanced error recovery in database operations
Fixed memory leaks in long-running processes

Dependencies

Updated Playwright to v1.47
Updated core dependencies with more flexible version constraints
Added new development dependencies for testing

Breaking Changes

Changed default browser handling behavior
Modified database connection management approach
Updated API response structure for better consistency

Migration Guide

When upgrading to v0.3.73, be aware of the following changes:

Docker Deployment:
- Review Docker documentation for new deployment options
- Update environment configurations as needed
- Check container communication settings
If using custom browser management:
- Update browser initialization code to use new ManagedBrowser class
- Review browser cleanup procedures
For database operations:
- Check custom database queries for compatibility with new connection pooling
- Update error handling to work with new retry logic
Using the Doctor:
- Run doctor command for system diagnostics: crawl4ai doctor
- Review generated reports for potential issues
- Follow recommended fixes for any identified problems

[v0.3.73] - 2024-11-04

This commit introduces several key enhancements, including improved error handling and robust database operations in async_database.py, which now features a connection pool and retry logic for better reliability. Updates to the README.md provide clearer instructions and a better user experience with links to documentation sections. The .gitignore file has been refined to include additional directories, while the async web crawler now utilizes a managed browser for more efficient crawling. Furthermore, multiple dependency updates and introduction of the CustomHTML2Text class enhance text extraction capabilities.

[v0.3.73] - 2024-10-24

Added

preserve_tags: Added support for preserving specific HTML tags during markdown conversion.
Smart overlay removal system in AsyncPlaywrightCrawlerStrategy:
- Automatic removal of popups, modals, and cookie notices
- Detection and removal of fixed/sticky position elements
- Cleaning of empty block elements
- Configurable via remove_overlay_elements parameter
Enhanced screenshot capabilities:
- Added screenshot_wait_for parameter to control timing
- Improved screenshot handling with existing page context
- Better error handling with fallback error images
New URL normalization utilities:
- normalize_url function for consistent URL formatting
- is_external_url function for better link classification
Custom base directory support for cache storage:
- New base_directory parameter in AsyncWebCrawler
- Allows specifying alternative locations for .crawl4ai folder

Enhanced

Link handling improvements:
- Better duplicate link detection
- Enhanced internal/external link classification
- Improved handling of special URL protocols
- Support for anchor links and protocol-relative URLs
Configuration refinements:
- Streamlined social media domain list
- More focused external content filtering
LLM extraction strategy:
- Added support for separate API base URL via api_base parameter
- Better handling of base URLs in configuration

Fixed

Screenshot functionality:
- Resolved issues with screenshot timing and context
- Improved error handling and recovery
Link processing:
- Fixed URL normalization edge cases
- Better handling of invalid URLs
- Improved error messages for link processing failures

Developer Notes

The overlay removal system uses advanced JavaScript injection for better compatibility
URL normalization handles special cases like mailto:, tel:, and protocol-relative URLs
Screenshot system now reuses existing page context for better performance
Link processing maintains separate dictionaries for internal and external links to ensure uniqueness

[v0.3.72] - 2024-10-22

Added

New ContentCleaningStrategy class:
- Smart content extraction based on text density and element scoring
- Automatic removal of boilerplate content
- DOM tree analysis for better content identification
- Configurable thresholds for content detection
Advanced proxy support:
- Added proxy_config option for authenticated proxy connections
- Support for username/password in proxy configuration
New content output formats:
- fit_markdown: Optimized markdown output with main content focus
- fit_html: Clean HTML with only essential content

Enhanced

Image source detection:
- Support for multiple image source attributes (src, data-src, srcset, etc.)
- Automatic fallback through potential source attributes
- Smart handling of srcset attribute
External content handling:
- Made external link exclusion optional (disabled by default)
- Improved detection and handling of social media links
- Better control over external image filtering

Fixed

Image extraction reliability with multiple source attribute checks
External link and image handling logic for better accuracy

Developer Notes

The new ContentCleaningStrategy uses configurable thresholds for customization
Proxy configuration now supports more complex authentication scenarios
Content extraction process now provides both regular and optimized outputs

[v0.3.72] - 2024-10-20

Fixed

Added support for parsing Base64 encoded images in WebScrapingStrategy

Added

Forked and integrated a customized version of the html2text library for more control over Markdown generation
New configuration options for controlling external content:
- Ability to exclude all external links
- Option to specify domains to exclude (default includes major social media platforms)
- Control over excluding external images

Changed

Improved Markdown generation process:
- Added fine-grained control over character escaping in Markdown output
- Enhanced handling of code blocks and pre-formatted text
Updated AsyncPlaywrightCrawlerStrategy.close() method to use a shorter sleep time (0.5 seconds instead of 500)
Enhanced flexibility in CosineStrategy with a more generic load_HF_embedding_model function

Improved

Optimized content scraping and processing for better efficiency
Enhanced error handling and logging in various components

Developer Notes

The customized html2text library is now located within the crawl4ai package
New configuration options are available in the config.py file for external content handling
The WebScrapingStrategy class has been updated to accommodate new external content exclusion options

[v0.3.71] - 2024-10-19

Added

New chunking strategies:
- OverlappingWindowChunking: Allows for overlapping chunks of text, useful for maintaining context between chunks.
- Enhanced SlidingWindowChunking: Improved to handle edge cases and last chunks more effectively.

Changed

Updated CHUNK_TOKEN_THRESHOLD in config to 2048 tokens (2^11) for better compatibility with most LLM models.
Improved AsyncPlaywrightCrawlerStrategy.close() method to use a shorter sleep time (0.5 seconds instead of 500), significantly reducing wait time when closing the crawler.
Enhanced flexibility in CosineStrategy:
- Now uses a more generic load_HF_embedding_model function, allowing for easier swapping of embedding models.
Updated JsonCssExtractionStrategy and JsonXPathExtractionStrategy for better JSON-based extraction.

Fixed

Addressed potential issues with the sliding window chunking strategy to ensure all text is properly chunked.

Developer Notes

Added more comprehensive docstrings to chunking strategies for better code documentation.
Removed hardcoded device setting in CosineStrategy, now using the automatically detected device.
Added a new example in quickstart_async.py for generating a knowledge graph from crawled content.

These updates aim to provide more flexibility in text processing, improve performance, and enhance the overall capabilities of the crawl4ai library. The new chunking strategies, in particular, offer more options for handling large texts in various scenarios.

[v0.3.71] - 2024-10-18

Changes

Version Update:
- Updated version number from 0.3.7 to 0.3.71.
Crawler Enhancements:
- Added sleep_on_close option to AsyncPlaywrightCrawlerStrategy for delayed browser closure.
- Improved context creation with additional options:
  - Enabled accept_downloads and java_script_enabled.
  - Added a cookie to enable cookies by default.
Error Handling Improvements:
- Enhanced error messages in AsyncWebCrawler's arun method.
- Updated error reporting format for better visibility and consistency.
Performance Optimization:
- Commented out automatic page and context closure in crawl method to potentially improve performance in certain scenarios.

Documentation

Updated quickstart notebook:
- Changed installation command to use the released package instead of GitHub repository.
- Updated kernel display name.

Developer Notes

Minor code refactoring and cleanup.

[v0.3.7] - 2024-10-17

New Features

Enhanced Browser Stealth:
- Implemented playwright_stealth for improved bot detection avoidance.
- Added StealthConfig for fine-tuned control over stealth parameters.
User Simulation:
- New simulate_user option to mimic human-like interactions (mouse movements, clicks, keyboard presses).
Navigator Override:
- Added override_navigator option to modify navigator properties, further improving bot detection evasion.
Improved iframe Handling:
- New process_iframes parameter to extract and integrate iframe content into the main page.
Flexible Browser Selection:
- Support for choosing between Chromium, Firefox, and WebKit browsers.
Include Links in Markdown:
- Added support for including links in Markdown content, by definin g a new flag include_links_on_markdown in crawl method.

Improvements

Better Error Handling:
- Enhanced error reporting in WebScrapingStrategy with detailed error messages and suggestions.
- Added console message and error logging for better debugging.
Image Processing Enhancements:
- Improved image dimension updating and filtering logic.
Crawling Flexibility:
- Added support for custom viewport sizes.
- Implemented delayed content retrieval with delay_before_return_html parameter.
Performance Optimization:
- Adjusted default semaphore count for parallel crawling.

Bug Fixes

Fixed an issue where the HTML content could be empty after processing.

Examples

Added new example crawl_with_user_simulation() demonstrating the use of user simulation and navigator override features.

Developer Notes

Refactored code for better maintainability and readability.
Updated browser launch arguments for improved compatibility and performance.

[v0.3.6] - 2024-10-12

1. Improved Crawling Control

New Hook: Added before_retrieve_html hook in AsyncPlaywrightCrawlerStrategy.
Delayed HTML Retrieval: Introduced delay_before_return_html parameter to allow waiting before retrieving HTML content.
- Useful for pages with delayed content loading.
Flexible Timeout: smart_wait function now uses page_timeout (default 60 seconds) instead of a fixed 30-second timeout.
- Provides better handling for slow-loading pages.
How to use: Set page_timeout=your_desired_timeout (in milliseconds) when calling crawler.arun().

2. Browser Type Selection

Added support for different browser types (Chromium, Firefox, WebKit).
Users can now specify the browser type when initializing AsyncWebCrawler.
How to use: Set browser_type="firefox" or browser_type="webkit" when initializing AsyncWebCrawler.

3. Screenshot Capture

Added ability to capture screenshots during crawling.
Useful for debugging and content verification.
How to use: Set screenshot=True when calling crawler.arun().

4. Enhanced LLM Extraction Strategy

Added support for multiple LLM providers (OpenAI, Hugging Face, Ollama).
Custom Arguments: Added support for passing extra arguments to LLM providers via extra_args parameter.
Custom Headers: Users can now pass custom headers to the extraction strategy.
How to use: Specify the desired provider and custom arguments when using LLMExtractionStrategy.

5. iframe Content Extraction

New feature to process and extract content from iframes.
How to use: Set process_iframes=True in the crawl method.

6. Delayed Content Retrieval

Introduced get_delayed_content method in AsyncCrawlResponse.
Allows retrieval of content after a specified delay, useful for dynamically loaded content.
How to use: Access result.get_delayed_content(delay_in_seconds) after crawling.

Improvements and Optimizations

1. AsyncWebCrawler Enhancements

Flexible Initialization: Now accepts arbitrary keyword arguments, passed directly to the crawler strategy.
Allows for more customized setups.

2. Image Processing Optimization

Enhanced image handling in WebScrapingStrategy.
Added filtering for small, invisible, or irrelevant images.
Improved image scoring system for better content relevance.
Implemented JavaScript-based image dimension updating for more accurate representation.

3. Database Schema Auto-updates

Automatic database schema updates ensure compatibility with the latest version.

4. Enhanced Error Handling and Logging

Improved error messages and logging for easier debugging.

5. Content Extraction Refinements

Refined HTML sanitization process.
Improved handling of base64 encoded images.
Enhanced Markdown conversion process.
Optimized content extraction algorithms.

6. Utility Function Enhancements

perform_completion_with_backoff function now supports additional arguments for more customized API calls to LLM providers.

Bug Fixes

Fixed an issue where image tags were being prematurely removed during content extraction.

Examples and Documentation

Updated quickstart_async.py with examples of:
- Using custom headers in LLM extraction.
- Different LLM provider usage (OpenAI, Hugging Face, Ollama).
- Custom browser type usage.

Developer Notes

Refactored code for better maintainability, flexibility, and performance.
Enhanced type hinting throughout the codebase for improved development experience.
Expanded error handling for more robust operation.

These updates significantly enhance the flexibility, accuracy, and robustness of crawl4ai, providing users with more control and options for their web crawling and content extraction tasks.

[v0.3.5] - 2024-09-02

Enhance AsyncWebCrawler with smart waiting and screenshot capabilities

Implement smart_wait function in AsyncPlaywrightCrawlerStrategy
Add screenshot support to AsyncCrawlResponse and AsyncWebCrawler
Improve error handling and timeout management in crawling process
Fix typo in CrawlResult model (responser_headers -> response_headers)

[v0.2.77] - 2024-08-04

Significant improvements in text processing and performance:

🚀 Dependency reduction: Removed dependency on spaCy model for text chunk labeling in cosine extraction strategy.
🤖 Transformer upgrade: Implemented text sequence classification using a transformer model for labeling text chunks.
⚡ Performance enhancement: Improved model loading speed due to removal of spaCy dependency.
🔧 Future-proofing: Laid groundwork for potential complete removal of spaCy dependency in future versions.

These changes address issue #68 and provide a foundation for faster, more efficient text processing in Crawl4AI.

[v0.2.76] - 2024-08-02

Major improvements in functionality, performance, and cross-platform compatibility! 🚀

🐳 Docker enhancements: Significantly improved Dockerfile for easy installation on Linux, Mac, and Windows.
🌐 Official Docker Hub image: Launched our first official image on Docker Hub for streamlined deployment.
🔧 Selenium upgrade: Removed dependency on ChromeDriver, now using Selenium's built-in capabilities for better compatibility.
🖼️ Image description: Implemented ability to generate textual descriptions for extracted images from web pages.
⚡ Performance boost: Various improvements to enhance overall speed and performance.

A big shoutout to our amazing community contributors:

@aravindkarnam for developing the textual description extraction feature.
@FractalMind for creating the first official Docker Hub image and fixing Dockerfile errors.
@ketonkss4 for identifying Selenium's new capabilities, helping us reduce dependencies.

Your contributions are driving Crawl4AI forward! 🙌

[v0.2.75] - 2024-07-19

Minor improvements for a more maintainable codebase:

🔄 Fixed typos in chunking_strategy.py and crawler_strategy.py to improve code readability
🔄 Removed .test_pads/ directory from .gitignore to keep our repository clean and organized

These changes may seem small, but they contribute to a more stable and sustainable codebase. By fixing typos and updating our .gitignore settings, we're ensuring that our code is easier to maintain and scale in the long run.

[v0.2.74] - 2024-07-08

A slew of exciting updates to improve the crawler's stability and robustness! 🎉

💻 UTF encoding fix: Resolved the Windows "charmap" error by adding UTF encoding.
🛡️ Error handling: Implemented MaxRetryError exception handling in LocalSeleniumCrawlerStrategy.
🧹 Input sanitization: Improved input sanitization and handled encoding issues in LLMExtractionStrategy.
🚮 Database cleanup: Removed existing database file and initialized a new one.

[v0.2.73] - 2024-07-03

💡 In this release, we've bumped the version to v0.2.73 and refreshed our documentation to ensure you have the best experience with our project.

Supporting website need "with-head" mode to crawl the website with head.
Fixing the installation issues for setup.py and dockerfile.
Resolve multiple issues.

[v0.2.72] - 2024-06-30

This release brings exciting updates and improvements to our project! 🎉

📚 Documentation Updates: Our documentation has been revamped to reflect the latest changes and additions.
🚀 New Modes in setup.py: We've added support for three new modes in setup.py: default, torch, and transformers. This enhances the project's flexibility and usability.
🐳 Docker File Updates: The Docker file has been updated to ensure seamless compatibility with the new modes and improvements.
🕷️ Temporary Solution for Headless Crawling: We've implemented a temporary solution to overcome issues with crawling websites in headless mode.

These changes aim to improve the overall user experience, provide more flexibility, and enhance the project's performance. We're thrilled to share these updates with you and look forward to continuing to evolve and improve our project!

[0.2.71] - 2024-06-26

Improved Error Handling and Performance 🚧

🚫 Refactored crawler_strategy.py to handle exceptions and provide better error messages, making it more robust and reliable.
💻 Optimized the get_content_of_website_optimized function in utils.py for improved performance, reducing potential bottlenecks.
💻 Updated utils.py with the latest changes, ensuring consistency and accuracy.
🚫 Migrated to ChromeDriverManager to resolve Chrome driver download issues, providing a smoother user experience.

These changes focus on refining the existing codebase, resulting in a more stable, efficient, and user-friendly experience. With these improvements, you can expect fewer errors and better performance in the crawler strategy and utility functions.

[0.2.71] - 2024-06-25

Fixed

Speed up twice the extraction function.

[0.2.6] - 2024-06-22

Fixed

Fix issue #19: Update Dockerfile to ensure compatibility across multiple platforms.

[0.2.5] - 2024-06-18

Added

Added five important hooks to the crawler:
- on_driver_created: Called when the driver is ready for initializations.
- before_get_url: Called right before Selenium fetches the URL.
- after_get_url: Called after Selenium fetches the URL.
- before_return_html: Called when the data is parsed and ready.
- on_user_agent_updated: Called when the user changes the user_agent, causing the driver to reinitialize.
Added an example in quickstart.py in the example folder under the docs.
Enhancement issue #24: Replaced inline HTML tags (e.g., DEL, INS, SUB, ABBR) with textual format for better context handling in LLM.
Maintaining the semantic context of inline tags (e.g., abbreviation, DEL, INS) for improved LLM-friendliness.
Updated Dockerfile to ensure compatibility across multiple platforms (Hopefully!).

[v0.2.4] - 2024-06-17

Fixed

Fix issue #22: Use MD5 hash for caching HTML files to handle long URLs

Uh oh!

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[0.8.0] - 2026-01-12

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[0.7.3] - 2025-08-09

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[0.7.x] - 2025-06-29

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[0.6.2] - 2025-05-02

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[0.6.1] - 2025-04-24

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[0.6.0] ‑ 2025‑04‑22

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[Feature] 2025-04-21

[Refactor] 2025-04-20

[Added] 2025-04-17

Version 0.5.0.post5 (2025-03-14)

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Version 0.5.0 (2025-03-02)

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Version 0.5.0 (2025-02-21)

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Version 0.4.3b2 (2025-01-21)

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0.4.24x (2024-12-31)

0.4.247 (2025-01-06)

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[0.4.267] - 2025 - 01 - 06

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[0.4.24] - 2024-12-31

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File: `crawl4ai/async_crawler_strategy.py`

File: `docs/examples/quickstart_async.py`