ScrapingBee extract_rules returns structured JSON for free - stop parsing HTML by hand

TL;DR

ScrapingBee can return structured JSON directly via extract_rules - free, no extra credits - and most people still parse HTML by hand.

Fix

1. ScrapingBee can return structured JSON directly via extract_rules - free, no extra credits - and most people still parse HTML by hand. Expected: you can confirm this matches your situation.

When to use

• You are dealing with this situation.
• The symptom matches: ScrapingBee extract_rules returns structured JSON for free - stop parsing HTML by hand.

When NOT to use

• Unrelated issues with a different cause.
• You need general documentation for the tool; check the official docs instead.

Compatibility

Reported per the linked source.

Variant phrasings

ScrapingBee extract_rules returns structured JSON for free - stop parsing HTML by hand

Why it happens

ScrapingBee docs (via de0ch/claude-env SKILL.md): extractrules returns JSON instead of HTML at no extra cost - prefer it over parsing the HTML yourself. JSON params must be stringified in the query string. Shorthand form: {"title": "h1", "link": "a@href"}; full form uses selector, type (item or list), output (text, html, @attr, tablejson, tablearray, or nested rules), and clean. tablejson turns a table into row objects keyed by headers - no BeautifulSoup needed. AI extraction (aiquery / aiextract_rules) costs +5 credits for semantic or irregularly structured fields.

Edge cases

• If your error message differs even slightly, this is probably a different issue; search the exact text.
• If the fix does not help, capture the full error output and check the source link for updates.

Source: ScrapingBee docs (via de0ch/claude-env SKILL.md): extractrules returns JSON instead of HTML at no extra cost - prefer it over parsing the HTML yourself. JSON params must be stringified in the query string. Shorthand form: {"title": "h1", "link": "a@href"}; full form uses selector, type (item or list), output (text, html, @attr, tablejson, tablearray, or nested rules), and clean. tablejson turns a table into row objects keyed by headers - no BeautifulSoup needed. AI extraction (aiquery / aiextract_rules) costs +5 credits for semantic or irregularly structured fields.

Verified resolution: ScrapingBee can return structured JSON directly via extractrules - free, no extra credits - and most people still parse HTML by hand. The shorthand is {"title": "h1", "link": "a@href"}; for tables, output tablejson turns rows into objects keyed by headers. The one catch: the rules JSON must be stringified in the query string. Save the +5-credit AI extraction (aiquery) for genuinely irregular fields - extractrules handles the structured cases for free.

Source URL: https://github.com/de0ch/claude-env/blob/HEAD/.claude/skills/scrapingbee/SKILL.md