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BrightData

Free

Advanced web scraping with multi-tier escalation.

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Free Β· Opens the source repo

What BrightData does

BrightData is a web scraping skill designed to handle complex scraping tasks with an intelligent four-tier escalation system. It allows users to scrape a single URL or crawl entire sites while adapting to various levels of bot detection and CAPTCHA challenges. The skill starts with the least resource-intensive method, WebFetch, and only escalates to more advanced techniques when necessary, ensuring efficient use of resources and minimizing costs associated with Bright Data proxies.

The four tiers of scraping include: Tier 1 using WebFetch for public content, Tier 2 employing curl with Chrome headers for basic bot detection, Tier 3 utilizing Interceptor for JavaScript-rendered pages, and Tier 4 relying on Bright Data's residential IP proxy for advanced challenges like CAPTCHA. This structured approach allows developers to navigate through different scraping scenarios effectively, making it suitable for various web scraping needs.

BrightData is particularly useful for developers and data analysts who need to extract content from sites that may employ bot detection mechanisms. By automating the escalation process, users can focus on the data they need without manually switching scraping methods. The output is consistently formatted in markdown, making it easy to integrate into documentation or reports.

However, users should be aware that this skill is not intended for scraping simple public content or for social media platforms that require authentication. In such cases, other tools like WebFetch or Apify may be more appropriate. Overall, BrightData provides a robust solution for those facing challenges in web scraping due to bot detection and site restrictions.

When to use it

Use BrightData when you need to scrape websites that employ bot detection and may block access to content. It is ideal for extracting data from sites that require advanced scraping techniques.

When not to use it

This skill is not suitable for simple public content scraping or sites requiring logged-in sessions. For those scenarios, consider using WebFetch or Interceptor instead.

What you can build with it

Scraping E-commerce Data

Use BrightData to extract product information from e-commerce sites that implement bot detection.

Gathering Research Data

Crawl academic or research-oriented websites that may restrict access to their content using CAPTCHAs.

Monitoring Competitor Websites

Set up BrightData to regularly scrape competitor sites for updates while navigating through potential blocks.

How to install BrightData

View source

1. Install with the skills CLI

npx skills add danielmiessler/lifeos/BrightData --agent claude-code

2. Or install it manually

Download the skill folder and drop it into ~/.claude/skills/ for all projects, or .claude/skills/ to scope it to one repo. Restart Claude Code so it picks up the new skill.

Anthropic's agentic coding CLI, and the reference implementation of Agent Skills. Drop a skill folder into ~/.claude/skills and Claude Code loads it automatically whenever a task matches the skill's description. Claude Code docs

Inside SKILL.md

Written by danielmiessler

Customization

Before executing, check for user customizations at: ~/.claude/LIFEOS/USER/CUSTOMIZATIONS/SKILLS/BrightData/

If this directory exists, load and apply any PREFERENCES.md, configurations, or resources found there. These override default behavior. If the directory does not exist, proceed with skill defaults.

🚨 MANDATORY: Voice Notification (REQUIRED BEFORE ANY ACTION)

You MUST send this notification BEFORE doing anything else when this skill is invoked.

  1. Send voice notification:

    curl -s -X POST http://localhost:31337/notify \
      -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
      -d '{"message": "Running the WORKFLOWNAME workflow in the BrightData skill to ACTION"}' \
      > /dev/null 2>&1 &
    
  2. Output text notification:

    Running the **WorkflowName** workflow in the **BrightData** skill to ACTION...
    

This is not optional. Execute this curl command immediately upon skill invocation.

BrightData

Scrapes a single URL (FourTierScrape) or crawls a whole site (Crawl), escalating through four tiers only as far as each page needs. Output is always markdown. Start at Tier 1 and step up only when blocked β€” reaching for the heavy proxy every time wastes Tier-4 credits. A Cloudflare Accept: text/markdown pre-check runs before Tier 1 (recipe in FourTierScrape.md).

The four tiers (tool contract)

TierToolWins onCost / latency
1WebFetchpublic content, no bot detectionfree Β· ~2-5s
2curl + Chrome headersuser-agent / basic header checksfree Β· ~3-7s
3Interceptor (real Chrome)JavaScript-rendered / SPA pagesfree Β· ~10-20s
4Bright Data MCP mcp__Brightdata__scrape_as_markdownCAPTCHA, advanced fingerprinting, residential-IP needsBright Data credits Β· ~5-15s

Playwright is banned across LifeOS β€” Tier 3 is Interceptor. Skip-ahead: explicit "use Bright Data" β†’ Tier 4; "use browser" β†’ Tier 3; a domain that already failed Tier 1 β†’ start at Tier 2. The exact curl header block, Cloudflare pre-check, and Interceptor commands live in Workflows/FourTierScrape.md.

Workflows

When routing, output: Running the **WorkflowName** workflow in the **BrightData** skill to ACTION...

WorkflowTriggerFile
FourTierScrape"scrape/fetch/pull/get/retrieve [URL]", "can't access this site", "site is blocking me", "use Bright Data to fetch"Workflows/FourTierScrape.md
Crawl"crawl this site", "spider this domain", "map this website", "get all pages from", "scrape the whole site", "crawl all pages under /docs"Workflows/Crawl.md

Crawl picks Light Crawl (MCP scrape_batch + link loop, ≀50 pages, ~$0.006/page) for a section, or Full Crawl (Bright Data Crawl API api.brightdata.com/datasets/v3/trigger, $1.50/1K pages) for whole sites.

Gotchas

  • 4-tier escalation: WebFetch β†’ curl β†’ Interceptor β†’ Bright Data proxy. Always start at Tier 1 and escalate only when blocked. Playwright is banned across LifeOS.
  • Bright Data proxy has usage costs. Don't use Tier 4 for sites accessible via Tier 1-3.
  • CAPTCHA-solving introduces latency. Allow extra time for Tier 4 responses.
  • Credentials in ~/.claude/.env β€” BRIGHTDATA_API_KEY.

Execution Log

After completing any workflow, append a single JSONL entry:

echo '{"ts":"'$(date -u +%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ)'","skill":"BrightData","workflow":"WORKFLOW_USED","input":"8_WORD_SUMMARY","status":"ok|error","duration_s":SECONDS}' >> ~/.claude/LIFEOS/MEMORY/SKILLS/execution.jsonl

Replace WORKFLOW_USED with the workflow executed, 8_WORD_SUMMARY with a brief input description, and SECONDS with approximate wall-clock time. Log status: "error" if the workflow failed.

Frequently asked questions about BrightData

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