CLI

Every command and subcommand, with the flags that matter and a runnable example for each.

fb <command> [args] [flags]

Run fb <command> --help for the exact flag list on any command. This page is the complete map: what each command emits, the flags that change its behaviour, and one example you can paste.

Every command shares the global flags (output format, limits, rate, cache). Reads are anonymous: fb crawls the public pages Facebook serves to search engines, with no login. See how fb reads Facebook.

Command index

Command	What it does
`page`	A Page, fully resolved; stream its posts, photos, videos, events
`profile`	A person's public profile and timeline
`group`	A group and its feed
`post`	One or more posts, with comments and reactions
`comments`	Every comment and reply on a post
`reactions`	The reaction breakdown, or every reactor
`photos` / `photo`	A handle's photos; one photo's full metadata
`videos` / `video`	A Page's videos and reels; one video with playable streams
`events` / `event`	A Page's events; one event, full
`search`	Search across pages, profiles, groups, posts, photos, videos, events
`feed`	Stream the feed of any handle, whatever its type
`id`	Classify any Facebook id or URL without a network call
`seed` / `crawl`	Expand a root into URLs, then fetch them into records and a DB
`archive`	Mirror a Page's feed to incremental Markdown, indexed by month
`db`	Query the local SQLite store
`whoami`	Report how fb is accessing Facebook
`config` / `cache`	Inspect configuration, paths, and the cache
`completion` / `version`	Shell completion; build info

Entity commands

page

fb page <slug|id|url>... [flags]

Resolves a Page to a full record (name, category, about, like and follower counts, verified flag, website, phone, address, rating, cover and avatar). With a stream flag it walks the corresponding surface to exhaustion, bounded only by --limit.

Flag	Meaning
`--about`	Metadata only (the default)
`--posts`	Stream the Page's feed
`--photos`	Stream the Page's photos
`--videos`	Stream the Page's videos and reels
`--events`	Stream the Page's public events

fb page nasa                       # the Page record
fb page nasa --posts -n 50         # its 50 most recent posts
fb page nasa --posts -n 0          # every post the feed exposes
fb page nasa cocacola -o jsonl     # several Pages at once

profile

fb profile <user|id|url> [flags]

A person's public profile: intro, bio, work, education, hometown, current city, relationship, follower and friend counts. --posts streams the public timeline; --photos streams their photos.

fb profile zuck --about
fb profile zuck --posts -n 20 -o jsonl

group

fb group <id|slug|url> [flags]

A group record (name, description, privacy, member count, category) and, with --posts, its feed.

fb group 123456789 --about
fb group 123456789 --posts -n 0 -o jsonl > group-feed.jsonl

Post and engagement commands

post

fb post <url|id>... [flags]

Resolves one or more posts to full records: text, author, timestamps, reaction / comment / share / view counts, attached media, external links, and pinned state. Add engagement with the flags below.

Flag	Meaning
`--comments`	Also stream the comment thread
`--replies`	Expand nested replies (implies the comment walk)
`--reactions`	Emit the reaction breakdown
`--no-detail`	Counters only, skip the detail fetch (faster)

fb post "https://www.facebook.com/nasa/posts/pfbid0xyz"
fb post "<url>" --comments --replies -o jsonl     # the whole thread, replies and all
fb post "<url>" --reactions -o json               # the reaction breakdown

comments

fb comments <post-url|id> [flags]

Streams every comment on a post, following the "View more comments" pagination to the end. --replies expands each comment's reply thread inline, with parent_id set so you can reconstruct the tree.

Flag	Meaning
`--replies`	Expand all nested replies, attributing each to its parent
`--order`	`chrono` (default) or `ranked`

fb comments "<post-url>" -n 0 -o jsonl            # every top-level comment
fb comments "<post-url>" --replies -n 0 -o jsonl  # every comment and reply

reactions

fb reactions <post-url|id> [flags]

By default emits the per-type breakdown (like, love, care, haha, wow, sad, angry, total). --list emits one row per reactor instead.

fb reactions "<post-url>"                 # the breakdown
fb reactions "<post-url>" --list -o jsonl # every reactor as a row

Media commands

photos

fb photos <page|profile|url> [flags]

Streams a handle's photos, walking albums to exhaustion. Each photo carries its full and thumbnail URLs, dimensions, album, caption, and counts.

fb photos nasa -n 0 -o jsonl
fb photos nasa -o url > photo-urls.txt    # just the full-resolution URLs

photo

fb photo <fbid|url>

One photo with complete metadata.

fb photo "https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=123"

videos

fb videos <page> [flags]

Streams a Page's videos and reels: title, description, duration, view / like / comment / share counts, thumbnail, and reel flag.

fb videos nasa -n 0 -o jsonl

video

fb video <id|url> [flags]

One video or reel. --streams adds the playable source URLs (quality, MIME, dimensions) so you can download the media.

fb video "https://fb.watch/abc123/"
fb video "<url>" --streams -o jsonl

Discovery commands

events / event

fb events <page>
fb event  <id|url>

events streams a Page's public events; event resolves one to a full record (name, description, start and end, location, host, going / interested counts).

fb events nasa -o jsonl
fb event 1234567890 -o json

search

fb search <query> [flags]

Searches across Facebook's surfaces. --type narrows to one of all (default), page, profile, group, post, photo, video, event.

fb search "open source" -n 20 -o jsonl
fb search nasa --type page -o table

feed

fb feed <slug|id>... [flags]

Streams the feed of any handle without you having to know whether it is a page, profile, or group; fb classifies it and walks the right surface.

fb feed nasa zuck -n 25 -o jsonl

id

fb id <thing>

Classifies any Facebook id or URL (slug, numeric id, pfbid, story_fbid, group id, fb.watch / fb.me short link) into a typed record. Pure: no network call, so it is instant and works offline.

fb id nasa
fb id "https://www.facebook.com/groups/123/permalink/456" -o json

Bulk and storage

seed

fb seed <page|profile|group|search> <arg> [flags]

Expands a root into a stream of URLs on stdout, ready to pipe into crawl.

fb seed page nasa | fb crawl --db fb.db
fb seed search "climate" --type page | fb crawl -o jsonl

crawl

fb crawl [flags]

Reads URLs from stdin (or --from <file>), fetches each into a full record, and optionally upserts into a SQLite store. --comments also pulls each post's thread.

Flag	Meaning
`--from`	Read URLs from a file instead of stdin
`--db`	Upsert records into this SQLite store
`--comments`	Also fetch each post's comments

fb seed page nasa | fb crawl --db fb.db --comments
cat urls.txt | fb crawl -o jsonl > records.jsonl

Flag	Meaning
`--out`	Root directory for the archive (default `~/data`)
`--comments`	Fetch and embed each post's comments (default on)
`--replies`	Expand reply threads under comments
`--force`	Re-fetch and overwrite posts already on disk

db

fb db --db <file> query <sql> [flags]

Runs read-only SQL against the local store built by crawl.

fb db --db fb.db query "select name, followers_count from pages order by followers_count desc limit 10"

Utility

whoami

fb whoami

Reports how fb is accessing Facebook: the mode (always anonymous) and the user agent requests are sent with.

config

fb config show    # resolved configuration
fb config path    # config / cache / data directories

cache

fb cache dir      # the cache directory
fb cache clear    # empty it

completion

fb completion bash|zsh|fish|powershell

Generates a shell completion script. See your shell's docs for where to install it.

version

fb version

Prints the version, commit, and build date.

Global flags

These apply to every command. See configuration for the network flags and output for the formatting flags.

Flag	Meaning
`-o, --output`	`table\|json\|jsonl\|csv\|tsv\|yaml\|url\|raw` (default auto)
`--fields`	Comma-separated columns to keep and order
`--template`	Go `text/template` applied per record
`--no-header`	Omit the header row (table / csv / tsv)
`-n, --limit`	Maximum records emitted (`0` = unlimited)
`--since` / `--until`	Bound a feed walk by date (`YYYY-MM-DD`)
`--surface`	`mbasic`, `mobile`, or `auto`
`--lang`	`Accept-Language` / locale (default `en-US`)
`--rate`	Minimum delay between requests (default `2s`)
`--retries`	Retry attempts on 429 / 5xx (default `4`)
`--timeout`	Per-request timeout (default `30s`)
`-j, --workers`	Concurrency for fan-out commands (default `2`)
`--proxy`	HTTP / SOCKS proxy URL
`--user-agent`	Override the default rotating UA set
`--no-cache`	Bypass the on-disk cache
`--cache-ttl`	Cache freshness window (default `1h`)
`--raw`	Print the upstream HTML / JSON untouched
`--dry-run`	Print the requests that would be made, do nothing
`-q, --quiet`	Suppress progress on stderr
`-v, --verbose`	Increase verbosity (repeatable)