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search: --categories rejects "developer" client-side although POST /v2/search accepts it #222

Description

@StartupBros

Summary

firecrawl search --categories developer exits 1 with Error: Invalid category "developer". Valid categories: github, research, pdf before any request is made, but the API accepts the category and returns results tagged developer.

Version

firecrawl-cli 1.19.26 (npm), Node 24.12.0, Linux.

Where

dist/index.js line 701 in the published package:

const validCategories = ['github', 'research', 'pdf'];

Reproduction

$ firecrawl search "foundationdb queue worker shutdown" --categories developer --limit 2 --json
Error: Invalid category "developer". Valid categories: github, research, pdf

The same request against the API succeeds (2026-09-13):

POST https://api.firecrawl.dev/v2/search
{"query": "foundationdb queue worker shutdown", "categories": ["developer"], "limit": 2}
-> HTTP 200, success: true, creditsUsed present, results with "category": "developer"
   (forums.foundationdb.org pages, which the github category does not return)

The hosted MCP server's firecrawl_search tool already lists developer in its categories enum alongside github, research, and pdf.

Suggested fix

Add 'developer' to validCategories, or drop the client-side list and let the API validate so new categories work without a CLI release.

Activity

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