#Google blocking my openclaw project

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boreal plank
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I've been trying to use openclaw with gog and firecrawl API to do business development. Openclaw scrapes data, qualifies leads and puts them in a spreadsheet. My project gets blocked, this is what I get:

This project appears to be committing a general terms of service violation.
This violates the Google Cloud Platform Terms of Service (including each applicable Google API Terms of Service ).
Your project may be suspended unless you take action and submit the form below:
Please fix the issue by getting in touch with our team by submitting the form below so we can provide more clarification.

What is the best setup these days that is safe? I don't necessarily need to use google, I just want a working lead scraper for my business. Thank you!

sour troutBOT
rugged lionBOT
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To help others find answers, you can mark your question as solved via Right click solution message -> Apps -> ✅ Mark Solution

dusty kiteBOT
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Let me check the local docs so I don't make up config advice.

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It’s probably not OpenClaw itself getting you flagged, it’s the Google project being used for an automated lead-gen / scraping workflow. Google is pretty twitchy about anything that looks spammy, bulk harvesting, or policy-gray.

Safest setup today:

  1. Use Firecrawl for extraction
  2. Store leads outside Google first
    Good sinks: Postgres/Supabase, Baserow, Airtable, or even CSV/JSON
  3. Only sync reviewed/final leads into Sheets/CRM if you still want spreadsheet output

So the safer pattern is:

OpenClaw → Firecrawl → qualify leads → DB/table/CSV
and only after that, optionally:
reviewed leads → Google Sheets / HubSpot / Pipedrive

Why this is safer:

  • keeps Google OAuth/GCP out of the scraping path
  • reduces the chance your Google project looks like a bulk-harvesting system
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  • makes it easier to rate-limit, audit, and swap vendors

A few guardrails I’d strongly recommend:

  • scrape public pages only
  • respect site terms / robots / rate limits
  • avoid scraping login-gated content
  • be careful with personal emails / personal data
  • don’t auto-send outreach from the same pipeline unless you’re sure it’s compliant

If you still want spreadsheets, I’d honestly use Baserow/Airtable first, then export/sync to Google later.

OpenClaw docs for the relevant bits:

If you want, I can sketch a recommended lead-gen stack for:

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  • cheapest
  • most compliant / safest
  • best “works today” setup with OpenClaw

Also, if you want to debug the current warning specifically, paste:

openclaw --version
openclaw status --all

and I can help narrow down whether the trigger is OAuth scope usage, API volume, or the workflow shape.

boreal plank
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What is the industry-standard solution as of April 17, 2026?

dusty kiteBOT
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The industry-standard answer in 2026 is basically:

Don’t use Google as the core of a lead-scraping pipeline.
Use a data source + enrichment layer + CRM/database, and treat Sheets as optional output only.

What most teams do now

Enterprise

  • ZoomInfo / Cognism / Apollo / 6sense
  • synced into Salesforce or HubSpot
  • enrichment + scoring on top

Startup / SMB

  • Clay as the workflow layer
  • data from Apollo / People Data Labs / Clearbit-style enrichment
  • sink into HubSpot / Airtable / Postgres
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DIY / agentic

  • Firecrawl / Apify / Bright Data for public-web extraction
  • Postgres / Supabase / Baserow / Airtable as system of record
  • HubSpot / Pipedrive for sales ops
  • optional export to Google Sheets after review

Safest setup for your use case

If you want something that actually works and is lower-risk:

OpenClaw + Firecrawl + Postgres/Supabase + HubSpot/Pipedrive

or, if you want spreadsheet vibes:

OpenClaw + Firecrawl + Baserow/Airtable

Then only export approved rows to Sheets if needed.

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Why this is the standard

  • Google is not a great place to run the acquisition part
  • CRMs/databases are better for dedupe, audit trails, ownership, pipelines
  • dedicated data providers are less likely to trigger “you look spammy” reviews
  • Sheets is fine for reporting, weak as the core workflow backend

My blunt recommendation

If your priority is safest/compliant:

  • use a licensed lead provider + CRM

If your priority is cheap + flexible:

  • use Firecrawl/Apify + Postgres/Baserow
  • keep Google out of the scraping path

If you want, I can give you a 2026 “best practical stack” in one of these flavors:

  1. cheapest
  2. safest/compliant
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  1. best OpenClaw-native setup
boreal plank
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  1. cheapest but decent quality
dusty kiteBOT
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For cheapest but decent quality, I’d do this:

Recommended stack

  • OpenClaw for orchestration
  • Firecrawl for search/scrape
  • Baserow or Supabase/Postgres for storage
  • HubSpot free only if you need CRM stages later
  • No Google in the scraping path

Why this stack

  • cheap
  • easy to swap parts
  • less likely to get policy-flagged than using Google APIs for lead-gen
  • better than Sheets as a system of record

Practical flow

  1. Find targets
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Search by niche, geography, keywords
2. Scrape public pages
homepage, about, pricing, contact, team, careers
3. Extract fields
company name, website, ICP fit, industry, size hints, location, contact page URL
4. LLM qualify
use a cheap model for first-pass scoring
5. Store everything in Baserow/Postgres
6. Only export approved leads to CSV / Sheets / CRM

My budget-minded pick

If you want the simplest version:

OpenClaw + Firecrawl + Baserow

That’s the sweet spot for “cheap, understandable, works.”

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Important tip

Use Sheets only as an output/report, not the main backend.
That one change alone usually makes these setups way less fragile.

If you want contact data

Don’t try to scrape everything yourself. Cheapest sane option is:

  • scrape company/site data yourself
  • use a separate enrichment vendor only for the shortlisted companies

That keeps costs down and quality up.

If you want, I can sketch the exact OpenClaw workflow + table schema for this setup.

boreal plank
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Give me a step by step guide to implement this from scratch, I am a non technical person

dusty kiteBOT
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Yep. For a non-technical person, I’d build this in 2 phases:

  • Phase 1: simple, manual, works reliably
  • Phase 2: automate it after you trust the results

That’s the safest path. If you automate too early, you just get bad leads faster 😅

What you’re building

OpenClaw + Firecrawl + Baserow
with Google removed from the scraping workflow.

Use:

  • OpenClaw = the AI operator
  • Firecrawl = fetch company websites
  • Baserow = your lead table/database
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Then check it works:

openclaw --version
openclaw status

Step 2: create a Firecrawl account

  • Go to Firecrawl
  • create an account
  • copy your API key

Step 3: connect Firecrawl to OpenClaw

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Run:

openclaw configure --section web

Choose Firecrawl when prompted, then paste your API key.

If that works, OpenClaw can use Firecrawl for search/scraping.

Step 4: create your lead table

Make a Baserow account and create a table called Leads.

Create these columns:

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  • Company Name
  • Website
  • Industry
  • Location
  • Why It Fits
  • Contact Page
  • LinkedIn
  • Score
  • Status
  • Source URL
  • Notes

Important: don’t start with personal emails.
Start with company-level leads first. It’s cleaner and lower-risk.

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Step 5: run your first lead search manually

In OpenClaw, paste something like this:

Find 20 companies in [your niche] in [country/city].
Use only public websites.
For each company, extract: Company Name, Website, Industry, Location, Why It Fits, Contact Page, LinkedIn, Score 1-10, Source URL.
Return the result as a table.

Start with 20 leads only. Small batches are easier to review.

Step 6: copy the good leads into Baserow

  • read the results
  • remove junk
  • copy the good rows into your Leads table
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This is a bit manual, but for a non-technical setup it’s the best first version.

Step 7: add a qualification pass

Once the first table works, ask OpenClaw:

Review these 20 companies and mark which ones best fit my ideal customer profile.
My ideal customer is: [describe customer].
Add a short reason for each score.

Now you’re not just scraping, you’re filtering.

Phase 2, after Phase 1 works

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Once you trust the results, automate a little more:

Step 8: make OpenClaw generate CSV

Instead of pasting a table into chat, ask:

Return the leads as CSV with the exact columns from my Baserow table.

Then import the CSV into Baserow.

That’s still simple, but cleaner.

Step 9: only later add daily automation

After the manual flow works 3 to 5 times, then automate a daily run.

But do not automate before you know:

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  • the search quality is good
  • the score logic is good
  • the output columns are right

My strong recommendation

For your first real version, do this exact setup:

OpenClaw + Firecrawl + Baserow + manual review

Not:

  • OpenClaw + Google Sheets + full automation
  • personal-email scraping
  • large bulk runs on day 1
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That’s the cheapest setup that still has decent quality.

If you want, I can do the next step and give you:

  1. the exact Baserow column template, and
  2. the exact prompt you should paste into OpenClaw for your niche.
boreal plank
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give me both, also check the latest docs as of April 17, 2026 to avoid any unnecessary mistakes

dusty kiteBOT
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I’m checking the current OpenClaw docs first so I don’t hand you stale setup steps.

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Yep, I checked the current OpenClaw docs first.

As of the docs I have locally on 2026-04-17, the important bits are:

• **openclaw configure --section web** is the recommended setup path for web providers
• choosing Firecrawl there auto-enables the bundled Firecrawl plugin
• Firecrawl can be used both for:
• web_search provider
• web_fetch fallback
• Firecrawl config is documented here:
https://docs.openclaw.ai/tools/firecrawl
https://docs.openclaw.ai/tools/web
https://docs.openclaw.ai/tools/web-fetch

So here’s the lowest-mistake, non-technical setup.

───

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  1. Exact Baserow table template

Create a table called Leads.

Use these columns:

| Column Name   | Type          | What goes here                                    |
| ------------- | ------------- | ------------------------------------------------- |
| Company Name  | Text          | The business name                                 |
| Website       | URL           | Main company website                              |
| Industry      | Text          | Short category, e.g. SaaS, agency, dental         |
| Location      | Text          | Country / city if found                           |
| Company Size  | Text          | Small / medium / enterprise, or employee estimate |
| Why It Fits   | Long text     | 1-2 sentence reason                               |
| ICP Score     | Number        | 1 to 10                                           |
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| Contact Page  | URL           | Contact or booking page                           |
| Generic Email | Email         | Only public company email, if clearly listed      |
| LinkedIn      | URL           | Company LinkedIn page                             |
| Source URL    | URL           | The exact page used as evidence                   |
| Status        | Single select | New, Review, Qualified, Rejected                  |
| Notes         | Long text     | Anything useful                                   |

Very important

For your first version, do not make personal email a required field.
That’s where quality and compliance get messy fast.

Start with:

• company
• website

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• why it fits
• contact page
• source URL

That alone is enough to build a solid lead list.

───

  1. Exact prompt to paste into OpenClaw

Use this first:

I want you to build a lead list for my business.

My ideal customer profile:
# 
[PASTE WHO YOU SELL TO HERE]

Geography:
[PASTE COUNTRY / CITY / REGION HERE]

Goal:
Find 20 companies that match this ideal customer profile.

Instructions:
- Use only public websites and public company pages
- Use web tools / Firecrawl when needed
- Do not guess or invent information
- If a field cannot be verified, leave it blank
- Only include one row per company
- Exclude directories, listicles, job boards, and duplicate companies
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- Prefer real company websites over third-party databases
- Do not scrape personal emails unless clearly published by the company
- Generic company contact emails are okay if publicly listed

For each company, extract these exact columns:
Company Name
Website
Industry
Location
Company Size
Why It Fits
ICP Score
Contact Page
Generic Email
LinkedIn
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Source URL
Status
Notes

Output format:
Return the final result as CSV.
Set Status to New for every row.
Keep Why It Fits short and specific.
Set ICP Score from 1 to 10.

───

  1. Second prompt, qualify the leads better

After you get the first list, use this:

# 
Please review the lead list you just created.

Task:
- Remove weak matches
- Keep only the best-fit companies
- Re-score every company more strictly
- Improve the "Why It Fits" field so it is short, concrete, and specific

Scoring rules:
- 9-10 = excellent fit
- 7-8 = good fit
- 5-6 = possible fit but uncertain
- below 5 = weak fit, remove unless there is a strong reason to keep it

Output:
# 
Return the cleaned list again as CSV with the same exact columns.

───

  1. Simple workflow to follow

  2. run openclaw configure --section web

  3. choose Firecrawl

  4. paste in your Firecrawl API key

  5. create the Leads table in Baserow

  6. paste the first prompt into OpenClaw

  7. paste the second prompt into OpenClaw

  8. copy the CSV into Baserow

That gives you a working first version without Google.

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───

  1. My recommendation

Start with 20 leads per run, not 200.

Small batches are:

• cheaper
• easier to review
• much less likely to fill your table with junk

If you want, send me:

• what your business sells
• who your ideal customer is
• what geography you want