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

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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

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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_TOKEN="apify_api_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx"

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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:

curl -s -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/apify~web-scraper/runs" --header "Authorization: Bearer $APIFY_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:

curl -s -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/apify~web-scraper/run-sync-get-dataset-items" --header "Authorization: Bearer $APIFY_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"
curl -s "https://api.apify.com/v2/actor-runs/{runId}" --header "Authorization: Bearer $APIFY_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=$(curl -s -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/apify~web-scraper/runs" --header "Authorization: Bearer $APIFY_TOKEN" --header "Content-Type: application/json" -d @/tmp/apify_request.json | jq -r '.data.id')

# Step 2: Check the run status
curl -s "https://api.apify.com/v2/actor-runs/${RUN_ID}" --header "Authorization: Bearer $APIFY_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"
curl -s "https://api.apify.com/v2/datasets/{datasetId}/items" --header "Authorization: Bearer $APIFY_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=$(curl -s -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/apify~web-scraper/runs" --header "Authorization: Bearer $APIFY_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=$(curl -s "https://api.apify.com/v2/actor-runs/${RUN_ID}" --header "Authorization: Bearer $APIFY_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
curl -s "https://api.apify.com/v2/datasets/${DATASET_ID}/items" --header "Authorization: Bearer $APIFY_TOKEN"

With pagination:

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

5. Popular Actors

Google Search Scraper

Write to /tmp/apify_request.json:

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

Then run:

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_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:

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_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:

curl -s -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/apify~instagram-scraper/runs" --header "Authorization: Bearer $APIFY_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:

curl -s<