How to export Scrapy items to CSV

Exporting Scrapy items to a .csv file keeps crawl output easy to review in spreadsheet tools, compare between runs, or hand off to other systems without an extra conversion step.

Scrapy writes CSV output through its feed export system while a spider runs. Using -O with scrapy crawl writes a feed file immediately, and a target name ending in .csv selects the built-in CsvItemExporter so the file is saved with a header row followed by one row per yielded item.

CSV keeps a fixed column layout, so field order should be set before long crawls and nested values still end up serialized as plain text inside a cell. The overwrite mode used below replaces any existing file with the same name, and leaving the header implicit makes the first exported item decide the initial column order instead of a deliberate schema.

1. Open a terminal in the Scrapy project directory.

   $ cd /srv/catalog_demo

   Run the command from the directory that contains scrapy.cfg so the project settings and spider names resolve correctly.

2. Set FEED_EXPORT_FIELDS and FEED_EXPORT_ENCODING in settings.py to lock the CSV header order and write UTF-8 output.

   FEED_EXPORT_FIELDS = [
       "name",
       "price",
       "url",
   ]
    
   FEED_EXPORT_ENCODING = "utf-8"

   If FEED_EXPORT_FIELDS is omitted, the CSV header is inferred from the first exported item instead.

   Use utf-8-sig instead of utf-8 when spreadsheet software on Windows opens UTF-8 text with garbled non-ASCII characters.

3. Run the spider with the CSV export target.

   $ scrapy crawl catalog -O products.csv
   ##### snipped #####
   2026-04-16 05:32:17 [scrapy.extensions.feedexport] INFO: Stored csv feed (3 items) in: products.csv

   The file extension selects the exporter, so products.csv uses the built-in CSV feed exporter automatically.

   -O overwrites any existing products.csv in place.

4. Read the saved file to confirm the header row and exported items.

   $ cat products.csv
   name,price,url
   Starter Plan,$29,https://shop.example.com/products/starter-plan.html
   Team Plan,$79,https://shop.example.com/products/team-plan.html
   Growth Plan,$129,https://shop.example.com/products/growth-plan.html

   The header should follow FEED_EXPORT_FIELDS exactly, and missing item fields are written as empty cells.

5. Compare the file line total with the exported item count when a quick verification is needed.

   $ wc -l products.csv
          4 products.csv

   The total includes the header row, so 4 lines means the file contains 3 exported items.