CLI Reference¶

Complete reference for recurl command-line options.

Basic Usage¶

recurl [OPTIONS] [curl flags...] <URL>

recurl accepts all standard curl flags. They are passed through unchanged to the underlying curl engine.

recurl-Specific Flags¶

All recurl flags are namespaced with --recurl- to avoid conflicts with curl flags.

Mode Control¶

Flag	Description
`--recurl-strict`	Disable all fallback, pure curl passthrough
`--recurl-debug`	Show escalation steps and diagnostic output

Impersonation¶

Flag	Description
`--recurl-impersonate <profile>`	Force impersonation with specified profile

Available profiles:

chrome - Latest Chrome TLS fingerprint (default)
chrome119, chrome120 - Specific Chrome versions
firefox - Latest Firefox fingerprint
firefox121 - Specific Firefox version
safari - Latest Safari fingerprint
edge - Latest Edge fingerprint

Platform Support

Impersonation is only available on Linux and macOS. On Windows, this flag is ignored.

JS Preflight¶

Flag	Description
`--recurl-js`	Force JS preflight (skip to Chromium)
`--recurl-js-rendered`	Return rendered DOM instead of curl replay
`--recurl-js-wait <selector>`	Wait for CSS selector before proceeding
`--recurl-js-timeout <ms>`	JS preflight timeout (default: 30000)

Daemon Control¶

Flag	Description
`--recurl-daemon on`	Force daemon usage for JS preflight
`--recurl-daemon off`	Disable daemon, run Chromium inline

Environment Variables¶

Variable	Description	Default
`RCURL_STRICT`	Set to `1` for strict mode	(disabled)
`RCURL_DEBUG`	Set to `1` for debug output	(disabled)
`RCURL_DAEMON_IDLE_MS`	Daemon idle timeout in ms	`60000`

Examples¶

Basic Requests¶

# Simple GET
recurl https://example.com

# POST with JSON
recurl -X POST \
    -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
    -d '{"key": "value"}' \
    https://api.example.com

# Download file
recurl -o output.html https://example.com

# Follow redirects
recurl -L https://httpbin.org/redirect/3

With Debug Output¶

# See what recurl is doing
recurl --recurl-debug https://protected-site.com

# Combined with curl verbose
recurl --recurl-debug -v https://protected-site.com

Strict Mode¶

# No fallback, identical to curl
recurl --recurl-strict https://example.com

# Via environment
RCURL_STRICT=1 recurl https://example.com

Force Impersonation¶

# Use Chrome fingerprint
recurl --recurl-impersonate chrome https://example.com

# Use Firefox fingerprint
recurl --recurl-impersonate firefox https://example.com

Force JS Preflight¶

# Skip to Chromium
recurl --recurl-js https://spa-site.com

# Wait for element
recurl --recurl-js --recurl-js-wait ".content" https://spa-site.com

# Get rendered HTML
recurl --recurl-js-rendered https://spa-site.com

# Custom timeout (60 seconds)
recurl --recurl-js --recurl-js-timeout 60000 https://slow-site.com

Daemon Control¶

# Force daemon usage
recurl --recurl-daemon on --recurl-js https://example.com

# Disable daemon (run inline)
recurl --recurl-daemon off --recurl-js https://example.com

Combined Options¶

# Debug + JS preflight + wait for element
recurl --recurl-debug \
    --recurl-js \
    --recurl-js-wait "#app-ready" \
    --recurl-js-timeout 45000 \
    https://spa-site.com

# Save rendered HTML to file
recurl --recurl-js-rendered \
    --recurl-js-wait ".content-loaded" \
    -o rendered.html \
    https://spa-site.com

curl Flag Compatibility¶

All curl flags work with recurl:

# Headers
recurl -H "Authorization: Bearer token" \
    -H "Accept: application/json" \
    https://api.example.com

# Auth
recurl -u username:password https://example.com
recurl --basic -u user:pass https://example.com

# Data
recurl -d "param=value" https://example.com
recurl --data-binary @file.json https://example.com
recurl -F "[email protected]" https://example.com

# Output
recurl -o output.html https://example.com
recurl -O https://example.com/file.zip
recurl -D headers.txt https://example.com
recurl -i https://example.com  # Include headers in output

# TLS
recurl -k https://self-signed.example.com  # Skip verification
recurl --cacert ca.pem https://example.com
recurl --cert client.pem https://example.com

# Timeouts
recurl --connect-timeout 10 https://example.com
recurl --max-time 30 https://example.com

# Redirects
recurl -L https://example.com  # Follow redirects
recurl -L --max-redirs 5 https://example.com

# Proxy
recurl -x http://proxy:8080 https://example.com
recurl --proxy-user user:pass -x http://proxy:8080 https://example.com

Exit Codes¶

recurl preserves curl exit codes:

Code	Description
0	Success
1	Unsupported protocol
3	URL malformed
6	Couldn't resolve host
7	Couldn't connect
22	HTTP error (with `-f`)
28	Timeout
35	SSL connect error

In smart mode, the exit code reflects the final attempt (after all escalations).

In strict mode, the exit code is identical to running curl directly.