BuiltWith CLI 🔍

Non-interactive, scriptable CLI for the BuiltWith API — designed for automation, CI/CD pipelines, and AI agent consumption.

bw domain lookup shopify.com --format table
bw domain lookup shopify.com --nopii | jq '.Results[0].Technologies[].Name'
bw live feed --duration 60 > events.ndjson
bw mcp   # start MCP server for Claude Desktop, VS Code, etc.

🤔 Why this exists

The BuiltWith TUI is great for interactive exploration. This CLI is intentionally different:

stdout = data only (JSON/table/CSV) — safe to pipe anywhere
stderr = human output (spinners, errors, debug info)
Structured exit codes — scripts can distinguish auth failures from rate limits from network errors
Multiple auth paths — works in CI with env vars, locally with rc files, or inline with --key

📦 Installation

npm install -g builtwith-official-cli

Or run directly without installing:

npx builtwith-official-cli domain lookup example.com --key YOUR_KEY

Registers as both bw (short) and builtwith (discoverable).

🔑 Authentication

API key is resolved in priority order:

Priority	Method
1	`--key <value>` CLI flag
2	`BUILTWITH_API_KEY` environment variable
3	`.builtwithrc` in current directory
4	`.builtwithrc` in home directory

.env files in the current directory are loaded automatically, so BUILTWITH_API_KEY=xxx in .env works too.

.builtwithrc format:

{"key": "YOUR_API_KEY"}

Copy .builtwithrc.example to get started:

cp .builtwithrc.example ~/.builtwithrc
# then edit with your key

💻 Commands

🌐 Domain

bw domain lookup <domain> [flags]

Flag	Description
`--nopii`	Exclude PII data
`--nometa`	Exclude meta data
`--noattr`	Exclude attribution data
`--liveonly`	Only currently-live technologies
`--fdrange <YYYYMMDD-YYYYMMDD>`	First-detected date range
`--ldrange <YYYYMMDD-YYYYMMDD>`	Last-detected date range

bw domain lookup shopify.com
bw domain lookup shopify.com --format table
bw domain lookup shopify.com --nopii --liveonly | jq '.Results[0].Technologies[].Name'
bw domain lookup shopify.com --fdrange 20240101-20241231

📋 Lists

bw lists tech <tech> [--offset <n>] [--limit <n>]

bw lists tech WordPress
bw lists tech Shopify --limit 50 --offset 100

🔗 Relationships

bw relationships lookup <domain>

🆓 Free

bw free lookup <domain>

🏢 Company

bw company find <name>

bw company find "Shopify"

🏷️ Tags

bw tags lookup <lookup>

💡 Recommendations

bw recommendations lookup <domain>

↪️ Redirects

bw redirects lookup <domain>

🔤 Keywords

bw keywords lookup <domain>

📈 Trends

bw trends tech <tech>

bw trends tech React

🛍️ Products

bw products search <query> [--page <n>] [--limit <n>]

bw products search "coffee maker"
bw products search "running shoes" --page 2 --limit 50

🛡️ Trust

bw trust lookup <domain>

👤 Account

bw account whoami
bw account usage

📡 Live Feed

Stream live technology detection events as NDJSON, one event per line.

bw live feed [--duration <seconds>]

# Stream indefinitely (Ctrl+C to stop)
bw live feed

# Capture 60 seconds of events
bw live feed --duration 60 > events.ndjson

# Pipe to jq in real time
bw live feed | jq --unbuffered '.domain'

🚩 Global Flags

Available on every command:

Flag	Description
`--key <apikey>`	API key (highest priority)
`--format <fmt>`	`json` (default) \| `table` \| `csv`
`--no-color`	Disable color on stderr
`--dry-run`	Print request URL (key masked) and exit
`--debug`	Print HTTP metadata to stderr
`--quiet`	Suppress spinner/info stderr output

🖨️ Output Formats

JSON (default)

bw domain lookup example.com | jq '.Results[0].Technologies[].Name'

Table

bw domain lookup example.com --format table

CSV

bw domain lookup example.com --format csv > results.csv

🚦 Exit Codes

Scripts can use exit codes to handle different failure modes:

Code	Meaning
`0`	✅ Success
`1`	💥 Unexpected error
`2`	🔐 Auth failure (missing key, 401, 403)
`3`	🔍 Not found (404)
`4`	⏱️ Rate limit (429)
`5`	⚠️ Other API error
`6`	🌐 Network failure
`7`	❌ Invalid input
`8`	🛑 Interrupted (SIGINT)

bw domain lookup example.com
case $? in
  0) echo "success" ;;
  2) echo "check your API key" ;;
  4) echo "rate limited — slow down" ;;
  6) echo "network error" ;;
esac

🔧 Pipeline Examples

# Get all live tech names for a domain
bw domain lookup shopify.com --liveonly | \
  jq -r '.Results[0].Technologies[].Name' | sort

# Check if a domain uses WordPress
bw domain lookup example.com --quiet --liveonly | \
  jq -e '.Results[0].Technologies[] | select(.Name == "WordPress")' > /dev/null \
  && echo "uses WordPress"

# Export tech stack to CSV
bw domain lookup shopify.com --format csv > shopify-tech.csv

# Capture 5 minutes of live events
bw live feed --duration 300 --quiet > feed.ndjson

# Find all sites using a technology (paginated)
for offset in 0 20 40 60 80; do
  bw domain lists tech React --offset $offset --limit 20 --quiet
done | jq -s 'add'

# CI/CD: fail build if domain check fails
bw domain lookup mysite.com --key "$BUILTWITH_API_KEY" --quiet || exit 1

🐛 Dry Run & Debugging

# Preview the URL that would be called (key is masked)
bw domain lookup example.com --key MYKEY --dry-run
# → https://api.builtwith.com/v22/api.json?KEY=REDACTED&LOOKUP=example.com

# See HTTP response metadata
bw domain lookup example.com --debug

🤖 MCP Server

bw mcp starts a Model Context Protocol server over stdio, exposing all BuiltWith API endpoints as structured tools that any MCP-compatible client can call — Claude Desktop, VS Code, Cursor, Zed, and more.

bw mcp
bw mcp --key YOUR_API_KEY   # pass key inline instead of env/rc file
bw mcp --debug              # log JSON-RPC traffic to stderr

⚙️ Client configuration

Add to your MCP client config (e.g. claude_desktop_config.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "builtwith": {
      "command": "bw",
      "args": ["mcp"]
    }
  }
}

If your API key isn't in an env var or .builtwithrc, pass it inline:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "builtwith": {
      "command": "bw",
      "args": ["mcp", "--key", "YOUR_API_KEY"]
    }
  }
}

🧰 Available tools

Tool	Description
`domain_lookup`	🌐 Technology stack for a domain (supports `nopii`, `liveonly`, date ranges)
`lists_tech`	📋 Domains currently using a technology
`relationships_lookup`	🔗 Related domains (shared infra, ownership)
`free_lookup`	🆓 Free-tier category counts for a domain
`company_find`	🏢 Domains associated with a company name
`tags_lookup`	🏷️ Domains related to an IP or tag attribute
`recommendations_lookup`	💡 Technology recommendations for a domain
`redirects_lookup`	↪️ Live and historical redirect chains
`keywords_lookup`	🔤 Keyword data for a domain
`trends_tech`	📈 Historical adoption trend for a technology
`products_search`	🛍️ Search ecommerce products across indexed stores
`trust_lookup`	🛡️ Trust/quality score for a domain
`account_whoami`	👤 Authenticated account identity
`account_usage`	📊 API usage statistics

🔬 Implementation note

The MCP server is implemented as a pure JSON-RPC 2.0 stdio server with no additional dependencies — auth, HTTP calls, and error handling all use the same code paths as the regular CLI commands.

🛠️ Development

git clone https://github.com/builtwith/builtwith-cli
cd builtwith-cli
npm install
npm test        # 24 tests, node:test built-in (no extra framework)

# Run without installing globally
node bin/bw.js domain lookup example.com --key YOUR_KEY

🔗 Related

BuiltWith TUI — interactive terminal UI for the BuiltWith API
BuiltWith API Docs — full API reference

📄 License

MIT

Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
Latest commit History 8 Commits
.github/workflows		.github/workflows
bin		bin
lib		lib
skills		skills
test		test
.builtwithrc.example		.builtwithrc.example
.gitignore		.gitignore
README.md		README.md
package-lock.json		package-lock.json
package.json		package.json

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BuiltWith CLI 🔍

🤔 Why this exists

📦 Installation

🔑 Authentication

💻 Commands

🌐 Domain

📋 Lists

🔗 Relationships

🆓 Free

🏢 Company

🏷️ Tags

💡 Recommendations

↪️ Redirects

🔤 Keywords

📈 Trends

🛍️ Products

🛡️ Trust

👤 Account

📡 Live Feed

🚩 Global Flags

🖨️ Output Formats

JSON (default)

Table

CSV

🚦 Exit Codes

🔧 Pipeline Examples

🐛 Dry Run & Debugging

🤖 MCP Server

⚙️ Client configuration

🧰 Available tools

🔬 Implementation note

🛠️ Development

🔗 Related

📄 License

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