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Set up your first crawler path

Create an account, register a domain, scope a key, and prove the first render before changing crawler traffic.

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1. Account setup

Start with a free account to inspect one crawler path before paying or changing production traffic. Free includes 500 fresh browser renders/month for one registered domain.

Create account and verify your email.
Open the dashboard after sign-in.
Keep this page open while you add the domain and first key.

PageFlash keys do not work until at least one domain is registered. This prevents a leaked key from rendering arbitrary third-party sites.

Before you start, make sure you can update the edge, server, or proxy that owns crawler routing and that the route you plan to render is public.

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2. Add the domain you want crawlers to see

Register the production hostname of your SPA, for example app.example.com. Requests for unregistered hostnames are rejected before the browser starts.

Open Dashboard - Domains.
Enter the hostname without protocol or path.
Save the returned domain ID if you plan to automate sitemap warming or push refresh.

Hostname format

example.com
www.example.com
docs.example.com

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3. Create a scoped API key

Create one key per integration. For production crawler middleware, use a domain-scoped key and store it only on the server.

Open Dashboard - API keys.
Name the key after the integration, such as production middleware.
Select a domain scope, then copy the key once and store it as a server-side secret.

Environment variable

PAGEFLASH_KEY=pk_live_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

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4. Run the first render

Use the render endpoint to confirm the key, domain scope, and first fresh render all pass before adding middleware.

First HTML render

curl -H "Authorization: Bearer $PAGEFLASH_KEY" \
  "https://pageflash.io/render?url=https://example.com/pricing"

A successful response returns the rendered HTML crawlers will see. If monthly quota is exhausted on a cache miss, PageFlash returnsMONTHLY_QUOTA_EXCEEDED before the browser starts.

Success means the crawler request returns the title, H1, canonical, and public body you expect.