Linkedin Commenter Extractor

LinkedIn Commenter Extractor

Harvest the commenters on one or more LinkedIn posts into a warm-lead list. Comment threads are auth/JS-walled, so the primary path is an Apify post-comments actor (cookieless). The keyless degrade is the bundled Playwright scraper (li_comments_playwright.mjs) driven by a LinkedIn li_at session cookie — no paid key.

When to use

• "Who commented on this post?" / "pull the commenters from these posts."
• Build a warm-lead list from people engaging with a thought-leadership or competitor post.
• Downstream of linkedin-post-research (find high-engagement posts -> harvest commenters); upstream of linkedin-message-writer / cold-email-outreach.

How to run

Python 3 stdlib only — no install:

# Apify path if APIFY_API_TOKEN set; else keyless Playwright degrade via LI_AT cookie
# (one-time: npx playwright install chromium)
python3 ${SKILL_DIR}/scripts/extract_commenters.py \
  --post-urls "https://www.linkedin.com/posts/x_y-activity-123,https://www.linkedin.com/posts/..." \
  --max-comments 100 --dedup --output csv

Headlines are parsed heuristically into title / company on the "X at Y" / "X @ Y" pattern; ambiguous headlines keep the raw value and leave title/company blank.

Outputs

Per commenter: {name, headline, title, company, linkedin_url, comment_text, post_url, profile_image_url}, optionally deduped.

Credentials / env

• env.required: none. The script runs keyless via the bundled Playwright degrade using a LinkedIn li_at cookie. Supply either an Apify token or an LI_AT cookie to run.
• env.optional (both degrade; supply one): if APIFY_API_TOKEN is set → Apify cookieless post-comments actor (primary, higher throughput); else → bundled Playwright scraper (li_comments_playwright.mjs) with the LI_AT session cookie (the keyless default; lower volume, needs npx playwright install chromium).

Notes & edge cases

• Comment lists are paginated/lazy-loaded — the actor scrolls/expands up to max_comments.
• Headline parsing is heuristic; when "at" is ambiguous, the raw headline is kept and title/company left null rather than guessed.
• Dedup across posts matters when harvesting multiple posts from one author's audience.
• Apify path costs ~credits per ~1k comments — note before running at volume.