Apify

Apify

Web scraping and automation platform. Run pre-built Actors (scrapers) or create your own. Access thousands of ready-to-use scrapers for popular websites.

Official docs: https://docs.apify.com/api/v2

When to Use

Use this skill when you need to:

• Scrape data from websites (Amazon, Google, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc.)
• Run pre-built web scrapers without coding
• Extract structured data from any website
• Automate web tasks at scale
• Store and retrieve scraped data

Prerequisites

1. Create an account at https://apify.com/
2. Get your API token from https://console.apify.com/account#/integrations

Set environment variable:

export APIFY_API_TOKEN="apify_api_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx"

Important: When using $VAR in a command that pipes to another command, wrap the command containing $VAR in bash -c '...'. Due to a Claude Code bug, environment variables are silently cleared when pipes are used directly.

bash -c 'curl -s "https://api.example.com" -H "Authorization: Bearer $API_KEY"'

How to Use

1. Run an Actor (Async)

Start an Actor run asynchronously:

Write to /tmp/apify_request.json:

{
  "startUrls": [{"url": "https://example.com"}],
  "maxPagesPerCrawl": 10,
  "pageFunction": "async function pageFunction(context) { const { request, log, jQuery } = context; const $ = jQuery; const title = $(\"title\").text(); return { url: request.url, title }; }"
}

Then run:

bash -c 'curl -s -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/apify~web-scraper/runs" --header "Authorization: Bearer ${APIFY_API_TOKEN}" --header "Content-Type: application/json" -d @/tmp/apify_request.json'

Response contains id (run ID) and defaultDatasetId for fetching results.

2. Run Actor Synchronously

Wait for completion and get results directly (max 5 min):

Write to /tmp/apify_request.json:

{
  "startUrls": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com"}],
  "maxPagesPerCrawl": 1,
  "pageFunction": "async function pageFunction(context) { const { request, log, jQuery } = context; const $ = jQuery; const title = $(\"title\").text(); return { url: request.url, title }; }"
}

Then run:

bash -c 'curl -s -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/apify~web-scraper/run-sync-get-dataset-items" --header "Authorization: Bearer ${APIFY_API_TOKEN}" --header "Content-Type: application/json" -d @/tmp/apify_request.json'

3. Check Run Status

⚠️ Important: The {runId} below is a placeholder - replace it with the actual run ID from your async run response (found in .data.id). See the complete workflow example below.

Poll the run status:

# Replace {runId} with actual ID like "HG7ML7M8z78YcAPEB"
bash -c 'curl -s "https://api.apify.com/v2/actor-runs/{runId}" --header "Authorization: Bearer ${APIFY_API_TOKEN}"' | jq -r '.data.status'

Complete workflow example (capture run ID and check status):

Write to /tmp/apify_request.json:

{
  "startUrls": [{"url": "https://example.com"}],
  "maxPagesPerCrawl": 10
}

Then run:

# Step 1: Start an async run and capture the run ID
RUN_ID=$(bash -c 'curl -s -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/apify~web-scraper/runs" --header "Authorization: Bearer ${APIFY_API_TOKEN}" --header "Content-Type: application/json" -d @/tmp/apify_request.json' | jq -r '.data.id')

# Step 2: Check the run status
bash -c "curl -s \"https://api.apify.com/v2/actor-runs/${RUN_ID}\" --header \"Authorization: Bearer \${APIFY_API_TOKEN}\"" | jq '.data.status'

Statuses: READY, RUNNING, SUCCEEDED, FAILED, ABORTED, TIMED-OUT

4. Get Dataset Items

⚠️ Important: The {datasetId} below is a placeholder - do not use it literally! You must replace it with the actual dataset ID from your run response (found in .data.defaultDatasetId). See the complete workflow example below for how to capture and use the real ID.

Fetch results from a completed run:

# Replace {datasetId} with actual ID like "WkzbQMuFYuamGv3YF"
bash -c 'curl -s "https://api.apify.com/v2/datasets/{datasetId}/items" --header "Authorization: Bearer ${APIFY_API_TOKEN}"'

Complete workflow example (run async, wait, and fetch results):

Write to /tmp/apify_request.json:

{
  "startUrls": [{"url": "https://example.com"}],
  "maxPagesPerCrawl": 10
}

Then run:

# Step 1: Start async run and capture IDs
RESPONSE=$(bash -c 'curl -s -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/apify~web-scraper/runs" --header "Authorization: Bearer ${APIFY_API_TOKEN}" --header "Content-Type: application/json" -d @/tmp/apify_request.json')

RUN_ID=$(echo "$RESPONSE" | jq -r '.data.id')
DATASET_ID=$(echo "$RESPONSE" | jq -r '.data.defaultDatasetId')

# Step 2: Wait for completion (poll status)
while true; do
  STATUS=$(bash -c "curl -s \"https://api.apify.com/v2/actor-runs/${RUN_ID}\" --header \"Authorization: Bearer \${APIFY_API_TOKEN}\"" | jq -r '.data.status')
  echo "Status: $STATUS"
  [[ "$STATUS" == "SUCCEEDED" ]] && break
  [[ "$STATUS" == "FAILED" || "$STATUS" == "ABORTED" ]] && exit 1
  sleep 5
done

# Step 3: Fetch the dataset items
bash -c "curl -s \"https://api.apify.com/v2/datasets/${DATASET_ID}/items\" --header \"Authorization: Bearer \${APIFY_API_TOKEN}\""

With pagination:

# Replace {datasetId} with actual ID
bash -c 'curl -s "https://api.apify.com/v2/datasets/{datasetId}/items?limit=100&offset=0" --header "Authorization: Bearer ${APIFY_API_TOKEN}"'

5. Popular Actors

Google Search Scraper

Write to /tmp/apify_request.json:

{
  "queries": "web scraping tools",
  "maxPagesPerQuery": 1,
  "resultsPerPage": 10
}

Then run:

bash -c 'curl -s -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/apify~google-search-scraper/run-sync-get-dataset-items?timeout=120" --header "Authorization: Bearer ${APIFY_API_TOKEN}" --header "Content-Type: application/json" -d @/tmp/apify_request.json'

Website Content Crawler

Write to /tmp/apify_request.json:

{
  "startUrls": [{"url": "https://docs.example.com"}],
  "maxCrawlPages": 10,
  "crawlerType": "cheerio"
}

Then run:

bash -c 'curl -s -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/apify~website-content-crawler/run-sync-get-dataset-items?timeout=300" --header "Authorization: Bearer ${APIFY_API_TOKEN}" --header "Content-Type: application/json" -d @/tmp/apify_request.json'

Instagram Scraper

Write to /tmp/apify_request.json:

{
  "directUrls": ["https://www.instagram.com/apaborotnikov/"],
  "resultsType": "posts",
  "resultsLimit": 10
}

Then run:

bash -c 'curl -s -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/apify~instagram-scraper/runs" --header "Authorization: Bearer ${APIFY_API_TOKEN}" --header "Content-Type: application/json" -d @/tmp/apify_request.json'

Amazon Product Scraper

Write to /tmp/apify_request.json:

{
  "categoryOrProductUrls": [{"url": "https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BSHF7WHW"}],
  "maxItemsPerStartUrl": 1
}

Then run:

bash -c 'curl -s -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/junglee~amazon-crawler/runs" --header "Authorization: Bearer ${APIFY_API_TOKEN}" --header "Content-Type: application/json" -d @/tmp/apify_request.json'

6. List Your Runs

Get recent Actor runs:

bash -c 'curl -s "https://api.apify.com/v2/actor-runs?limit=10&desc=true" --header "Authorization: Bearer ${APIFY_API_TOKEN}"' | jq '.data.items[] | {id, actId, status, startedAt}'

7. Abort a Run

⚠️ Important: The {runId} below is a placeholder - replace it with the actual run ID. See the complete workflow example below.

Stop a running Actor:

# Replace {runId} with actual ID like "HG7ML7M8z78YcAPEB"
bash -c 'curl -s -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/actor-runs/{runId}/abort" --header "Authorization: Bearer ${APIFY_API_TOKEN}"'

Complete workflow example (start a run and abort it):

Write to /tmp/apify_request.json:

{
  "startUrls": [{"url": "https://example.com"}],
  "maxPagesPerCrawl": 100
}

Then run:

# Step 1: Start an async run and capture the run ID
RUN_ID=$(bash -c 'curl -s -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/apify~web-scraper/runs" --header "Authorization: Bearer ${APIFY_API_TOKEN}" --header "Content-Type: application/json" -d @/tmp/apify_request.json' | jq -r '.data.id')

echo "Started run: $RUN_ID"

# Step 2: Abort the run
bash -c "curl -s -X POST \"https://api.apify.com/v2/actor-runs/${RUN_ID}/abort\" --header \"Authorization: Bearer \${APIFY_API_TOKEN}\""

8. List Available Actors

Browse public Actors:

bash -c 'curl -s "https://api.apify.com/v2/store?limit=20&category=ECOMMERCE" --header "Authorization: Bearer ${APIFY_API_TOKEN}"' | jq '.data.items[] | {name, username, title}'

Popular Actors Reference

Find more at: https://apify.com/store

Run Options

Response Format

Run object:

{
  "data": {
  "id": "HG7ML7M8z78YcAPEB",
  "actId": "HDSasDasz78YcAPEB",
  "status": "SUCCEEDED",
  "startedAt": "2024-01-01T00:00:00.000Z",
  "finishedAt": "2024-01-01T00:01:00.000Z",
  "defaultDatasetId": "WkzbQMuFYuamGv3YF",
  "defaultKeyValueStoreId": "tbhFDFDh78YcAPEB"
  }
}

Guidelines

1. Sync vs Async: Use run-sync-get-dataset-items for quick tasks (<5 min), async for longer jobs
2. Rate Limits: 250,000 requests/min globally, 400/sec per resource
3. Memory: Higher memory = faster execution but more credits
4. Timeouts: Default varies by Actor; set explicit timeout for sync calls
5. Pagination: Use limit and offset for large datasets
6. Actor Input: Each Actor has different input schema - check Actor's page for details
7. Credits: Check usage at https://console.apify.com/billing