Quickstart - Extralt Docs

This guide walks you through your first extraction. Every step shows the dashboard workflow and the API equivalent. Use whichever you prefer.

Prerequisites

Create an account at extralt.com
Create an organization
Subscribe to a plan (Start includes a 7-day free trial with 5,000 credits)
Generate an API key from the dashboard (needed for API usage)

See Account Setup for detailed instructions.

Create a robot

A robot is an AI-generated crawler for a specific site. Provide a product URL and country to build one.

• Dashboard: go to Extract > Robots > New, enter a product URL from the target site, select a country, and start the build.

• API:

export EXTRALT_API_KEY="your-api-key"

curl -s -X POST "https://api.extralt.com/v0/extract/robot-builds" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $EXTRALT_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "url": "https://example-store.com/products/sample",
    "country_code": "US"
  }' | jq

The response is { "id": "<id>" }. A 202 status means a new build started (id is the build ID — poll it). A 200 status means a robot already exists for this host and country (id is the robot ID — skip the wait step and jump straight to creating a run).

For sites already in the library, this completes instantly. For new sites, the AI analyzes the site structure and generates a compiled crawler in 3-5 minutes.

Wait for the build

• Dashboard: watch the build progress in the Builds tab under Extract > Robots. When the build completes, the robot appears in the List tab.

Builds tab showing a completed and a building build

• API: poll the build endpoint until it completes.

curl -s "https://api.extralt.com/v0/extract/robot-builds/$BUILD_ID" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $EXTRALT_API_KEY" | jq '.status'

When the build completes, the read response includes robotId — that's the robot you'll use to start runs.

Start a run

A run extracts data from one or more URLs using a robot.

• Dashboard: click Start Run on your robot in the list, or go to Extract > Runs and create a new run. Enter your start URLs and an optional budget, then start the run.

New run form showing robot selector, URL input, and budget field

• API:

curl -s -X POST "https://api.extralt.com/v0/extract/runs" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $EXTRALT_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "robot_id": "'$ROBOT_ID'",
    "start_urls": ["https://example-store.com/products/sample"],
    "budget": 10
  }' | jq

The response is 202 Accepted with { "id": "<run_id>" }.

View your captures

Once the run completes, your extracted data is ready.

• Dashboard: go to Extract > Captures, select your run from the filter, and browse the results. Click any row to see the full extraction data. You can export to JSONL or Parquet using the download button.

Captures table showing extracted product data

• API:

curl -s "https://api.extralt.com/v0/extract/captures?run_id=$RUN_ID" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $EXTRALT_API_KEY" | jq

Want to automate recurring extractions? Check out Schedules to run extractions on a cadence.