/Apify

name: Apify
version: 1.1.22
description: "Scrapes social platforms, business data, and e-commerce via Apify actors — Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, YouTube, Facebook, Google Maps, Amazon, and web crawls — filtering in code. USE WHEN scrape Instagram, scrape LinkedIn, scrape TikTok, scrape YouTube, scrape Facebook, Google Maps leads, Amazon reviews, business intelligence, multi-platform social listening, competitive analysis, lead generation, social monitoring, Apify actors, web crawl, extract contacts. NOT FOR X/Twitter account operations like posting, threads, or bookmarks (those need a dedicated X API client), 4-tier progressive scraping with proxy escalation (use BrightData), or real-Chrome bot bypass and computer use (use Interceptor)."

Customization

**Before executing, check for user customizations at:** `~/.claude/LIFEOS/USER/CUSTOMIZATIONS/SKILLS/Apify/`

If this directory exists, load and apply any PREFERENCES.md, configurations, or resources found there. These override default behavior. If the directory does not exist, proceed with skill defaults.

🚨 MANDATORY: Voice Notification (REQUIRED BEFORE ANY ACTION)

**You MUST send this notification BEFORE doing anything else when this skill is invoked.**

1. **Send voice notification**:

   curl -s -X POST http://localhost:31337/notify \
     -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
     -d '{"message": "Running the WORKFLOWNAME workflow in the Apify skill to ACTION"}' \
     > /dev/null 2>&1 &

2. **Output text notification**:

   Running the **WorkflowName** workflow in the **Apify** skill to ACTION...

**This is not optional. Execute this curl command immediately upon skill invocation.**

Apify - Social Media & Web Scraping

What It Does

Scrapes social platforms, business data, and e-commerce through Apify actors: Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, YouTube, Facebook, Google Maps business search, Amazon, and general-purpose web crawling. TypeScript wrappers filter and transform the data in code before any of it reaches the model, so a 100-post scrape costs roughly what 10 posts would. Runs platforms in parallel for social-listening dashboards and chains Google Maps into LinkedIn for lead enrichment.

The Problem

Scraping through a raw MCP dumps every unfiltered result straight into model context — a single Instagram profile with 100 posts burns ~52,000 tokens, most of it noise you'll throw away. You usually want the top 10 posts, the negative reviews from the last week, the qualified leads with an email. Doing that filtering after the data hits the model is too late; the tokens are already spent. Filtering in code first cuts that 52,000 down to ~500.

How It Works

This skill is a **file-based MCP** — a code-first API wrapper that replaces token-heavy MCP protocol calls. You call an actor wrapper, filter and sort the result in TypeScript, and only the filtered slice reaches model context. That code-before-context step is where the 95-99% token savings come from.

Workflow Routing

| Workflow | Trigger | File | |----------|---------|------| | Update | update Apify skill, refresh actors, actor calls failing unexpectedly, monthly capability check | `Workflows/Update.md` | | (inline) | all scrape/lead/crawl requests — scrape Instagram/LinkedIn/TikTok/YouTube/Facebook, Google Maps leads, Amazon reviews, web crawl | Actor wrappers under `actors/` (see Actor Reference below) |

📊 Available Actors

Social Media (5 platforms)

• **Instagram** (145k users, 4.60★) - Profiles, posts, hashtags, comments
• **LinkedIn** (26k users, 4.10★) - Profiles, jobs, posts
• **TikTok** (90k users, 4.61★) - Profiles, videos, hashtags, comments
• **YouTube** (40k users, 4.40★) - Channels, videos, comments, search
• **Facebook** (35k users, 4.56★) - Posts, groups, comments

Business & Lead Generation

• **Google Maps** (198k users, 4.76★) - **HIGHEST VALUE!**
• Search businesses, extract contacts, reviews, images
• Perfect for lead generation

E-commerce

• **Amazon** (8k users, 4.97★) - Products, reviews, pricing

Web Scraping

• **Web Scraper** (94k users, 4.39★) - General-purpose, works with ANY website

🚀 Quick Start

Basic Usage Pattern

import { scrapeInstagramProfile, searchGoogleMaps } from 'actors'

// 1. Call the actor wrapper
const profile = await scrapeInstagramProfile({
  username: 'target_username',
  maxPosts: 50
})

// 2. Filter in code - BEFORE data reaches model!
const viral = profile.latestPosts?.filter(p => p.likesCount > 10000)

// 3. Only filtered results reach model context
console.log(viral) // ~10 posts instead of 50

📚 Examples by Use Case

Social Media Monitoring

**Instagram - Track engagement:**

import { scrapeInstagramProfile, scrapeInstagramPosts } from 'actors'

// Get profile with recent posts
const profile = await scrapeInstagramProfile({
  username: 'competitor',
  maxPosts: 100
})

// Filter in code - only high-performing posts from last 30 days
const thirtyDaysAgo = Date.now() - (30 * 24 * 60 * 60 * 1000)
const topRecent = profile.latestPosts
  ?.filter(p =>
    new Date(p.timestamp).getTime() > thirtyDaysAgo &&
    p.likesCount > 5000
  )
  .sort((a, b) => b.likesCount - a.likesCount)
  .slice(0, 10)

// Only 10 posts reach model instead of 100!

**LinkedIn - Job search:**

import { searchLinkedInJobs } from 'actors'

const jobs = await searchLinkedInJobs({
  keywords: 'AI engineer',
  location: 'San Francisco',
  remote: true,
  maxResults: 200
})

// Filter in code - only senior roles at well-funded startups
const topJobs = jobs.filter(j =>
  j.seniority?.includes('Senior') &&
  parseInt(j.applicants || '0') > 50
)

**TikTok - Trend analysis:**

import { scrapeTikTokHashtag } from 'actors'

const videos = await scrapeTikTokHashtag({
  hashtag: 'ai',
  maxResults: 500
})

// Filter in code - only viral content
const viral = videos
  .filter(v => v.playCount > 1000000)