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Open Notebook

Open Notebook reads every web link you add as a source with its URL engine. Set two environment variables and its Firecrawl engine reads pages through SpecStream's Extract API, at $0.80 per 1,000 pages, with no code change.

SpecStream for Open NotebookAI assistants

What you need

  • An Open Notebook install you can configure, with Docker Compose or from source.
  • A SpecStream account. New accounts start with $10 of credit, no card. Create one.

  1. 1. Get your SpecStream key

    Get your key on the Search API screen of your SpecStream workspace. The same key works for search and for page reading.

  2. 2. Set the Firecrawl variables

    Open Notebook's Firecrawl engine reads FIRECRAWL_API_URL and FIRECRAWL_API_KEY from the environment of its worker. Its documentation calls the address the base URL of a self-hosted Firecrawl; SpecStream answers Firecrawl's v2 scrape request at that base address.

    With Docker Compose, add both lines to the environment list of the open_notebook service in docker-compose.yml. From source, put them in .env. Write the address with no version: the Firecrawl client adds /v2/scrape itself.

    docker-compose.yml, open_notebook service
    environment:
          - FIRECRAWL_API_URL=https://api.specstream.ai/firecrawl
          - FIRECRAWL_API_KEY=YOUR_SPECSTREAM_KEY

  3. 3. Restart Open Notebook

    The worker reads these variables when it starts. With Docker Compose, run docker compose up -d so the container is created again with the new environment. From source, stop and start the API and worker.

  4. 4. Choose the URL engine

    Open Settings, then Content Processing. Leave URL Processing Engine at Auto (Recommended), which tries Firecrawl first once a Firecrawl key is set, or pick Firecrawl to send every web link to SpecStream. Click Save.

    The setting applies to sources processed after you save. To read an existing web link again, choose Refresh content in its card menu.

  5. 5. Check it

    Add a source with Add URL and paste a page that renders with JavaScript. When it finishes, the source holds the page's text and title. The call appears in your SpecStream workspace history.

What Open Notebook sends

Open Notebook extracts web links with its content-core library. Its Firecrawl engine calls the Firecrawl Python SDK's scrape with the formats markdown and html, then keeps markdown as the source text and metadata.title as its title. SpecStream answers POST https://api.specstream.ai/firecrawl/v2/scrape in that shape, with data.markdown and data.metadata. The key goes as a Bearer token.

Variables that have no effect

The engine choice comes from Settings, so CCORE_URL_ENGINE is overridden and does nothing. The Jina engine calls https://r.jina.ai directly and has no address variable, so it cannot be pointed at SpecStream. Use Firecrawl or Crawl4AI for that.

Or use the Crawl4AI engine

Open Notebook can also send links to a remote Crawl4AI server, and SpecStream answers Crawl4AI's /crawl request. Set CRAWL4AI_API_URL to https://api.specstream.ai/crawl4ai and CRAWL4AI_API_TOKEN to your key, restart, and pick Crawl4AI as the URL Processing Engine. Do not set OPEN_NOTEBOOK_ENABLE_CRAWL4AI: it installs a local Chromium that the remote address does not need.

Cost

Each page read is one Extract API page at $0.80 per 1,000 pages, and a page with no text is not charged. It comes out of your balance, with no quote and no approval. New accounts start with $10 of credit, no card. Open Notebook retries a failed fetch, and each retry that returns text is a page read. Balance and billing has the details.

Disconnect

Remove both variables and restart Open Notebook. Auto then falls back to Jina, Crawl4AI or a plain HTTP fetch. To end the key's access, revoke it in your SpecStream workspace under Agents & API, then API keys. Questions go to [email protected].

More

SpecStream for Open Notebook covers what it does in Open Notebook on one page. Every other tool has its guide in Connect your tools. You see the most a request can cost before it starts, and the matches are paid from your balance. Billing has the details. For help, email [email protected].