apple

name	apple
description	Proven scraping playbook for apple.com /shop/buy-* configurator pages (Mac, iPhone, iPad, Watch). Server-rendered HTML with all product, pricing and configuration data embedded as JS object literals on `window.PRODUCT_SELECTION_BOOTSTRAP` (and friends). Plain fetch — no anti-bot, no browser, no auth — but the blob is a JS object literal, not strict JSON, so you must brace-balance. Activate for any apple.com /shop/buy-mac, /shop/buy-iphone, /shop/buy-ipad, /shop/buy-watch URL.
metadata	{"author":"torch","version":"1.0.0"}

Apple Store buy-flow (apple.com/shop/buy-*)

Apple's online store is a thin client over a giant SSR HTML page. The configurator state — every SKU, color, chip, price, customization option — is embedded inline as JavaScript object literals. No XHRs needed: fetch the page, find the bootstrap, extract the inner JSON. Sub-second scrape, 0 anti-bot.

Detection

Signal	Value
Server	Server: Apple (custom edge, not Akamai/CF)
Status	200 to bare curl with no UA tricks
Framework	Custom AS (Apple Store) buyflow — not Next/Nuxt
Anti-bot	None on /shop/buy-* HTML
robots.txt	Allows /shop/buy-* for Googlebot etc.
Auth	None required

Architecture

The buyflow page ships ~550 KB of HTML containing several window.*_BOOTSTRAP = blocks injected by the server:

• window.PRODUCT_SELECTION_BOOTSTRAP — the one you want. Holds productSelectionData with products[], mainDisplayValues (colors, sizes, chips, prices), and configDisplayValues (memory, storage, adapter, keyboard).
• window.PURCHASE_OPTIONS_BOOTSTRAP — checkout/financing options.
• window.APPLECARE_BOOTSTRAP — AppleCare add-ons.
• window.TRADEUP_BOOTSTRAP — trade-in calculator data.
• window.LOCATION_BOOTSTRAP, window.ECHO_CONFIG, window.GLOBAL_ASSETS, window.NAMED_ASSETS, window.ACI_CONFIG_MAP, window.BUYFLOW_MESSAGES_BOOTSTRAP — UI/i18n/asset metadata.

The React-ish client just hydrates from these. There is no /api/ you need to call for the configurator — everything is server-printed.

Strategy used

• Phase 0 (curl) — curl -sL returns 200 with the full HTML. Done.
• Phase 1/2 skipped.

Stealth config

None required. Plain fetch works. One gotcha: Node's undici occasionally hangs on Apple's edge over IPv6 (ETIMEDOUT from internalConnectMultiple). Force IPv4:

import { Agent, setGlobalDispatcher } from "undici";
setGlobalDispatcher(new Agent({ connect: { family: 4 } }));

A Safari UA is enough headers-wise, but anything works.

Extraction

The bootstrap is NOT strict JSON — it's a JavaScript object literal with unquoted keys at the top level:

window.PRODUCT_SELECTION_BOOTSTRAP = { productSelectionData: { ...real JSON... } };

So JSON.parse on the whole thing fails. The trick is: the inner productSelectionData value is strict JSON (every key is quoted from there down). Slice it out with a brace-balancer.

function extractBalancedJSON(src, startIdx) {
  let depth = 0, inStr = false, esc = false, strCh = null;
  for (let i = startIdx; i < src.length; i++) {
    const c = src[i];
    if (inStr) {
      if (esc) { esc = false; continue; }
      if (c === "\\") { esc = true; continue; }
      if (c === strCh) inStr = false;
      continue;
    }
    if (c === '"' || c === "'") { inStr = true; strCh = c; continue; }
    if (c === "{") depth++;
    else if (c === "}") {
      depth--;
      if (depth === 0) return src.slice(startIdx, i + 1);
    }
  }
  throw new Error("unbalanced braces");
}

const bootIdx  = html.indexOf("window.PRODUCT_SELECTION_BOOTSTRAP");
const marker   = "productSelectionData:";
const dataStart = html.indexOf("{", html.indexOf(marker, bootIdx) + marker.length);
const data     = JSON.parse(extractBalancedJSON(html, dataStart));

Do not try a regex like /PRODUCT_SELECTION_BOOTSTRAP\s*=\s*(\{[\s\S]*?\});/ — lazy match stops at the first inner } and greedy match overshoots. Brace-balance is the only reliable way.

Useful paths inside productSelectionData

• products[] — every selectable SKU. Each has:
  • btrOrFdPartNumber — Apple part number (e.g. MDH74LL/A), null for fully-configurable variants
  • aosContainerPartNumber — internal model code (e.g. RO_MBA_M5_13_INCH_SILVER_GOO_2026)
  • type — PRECONFIGURED_BTR or CONFIGURABLE
  • priceKey — joins into mainDisplayValues.prices
  • dimensions — color / chip / size keys
  • productConfiguration — option codes (memory, storage, keyboard, …)
• mainDisplayValues.prices[priceKey] — amount (number), currentPrice.amount ("$1,099.00"), acmiPrice (financing), promo info.
• mainDisplayValues["chassis-dimensionColor"] — color swatch metadata, with variantOrder.
• mainDisplayValues["chassis-dimensionScreensize"] — size labels.
• mainDisplayValues["processor-cpuCoreCount-gpuCoreCount"] — chip variants with CPU/GPU core counts.
• configDisplayValues["memory-dimensionMemory"], ["storage-dimensionCapacity"], ["power_adapter-wattage"], ["keyboard-localizationCode"] — customization menus.

Cleaning labels

Header strings contain HTML and Apple's <as-footnote> web component that wraps <sup> markers. Strip them:

const stripTags = (s) => s
  .replace(/<as-footnote[\s\S]*?<\/as-footnote>/g, "")
  .replace(/<[^>]+>/g, "")
  .replace(/&nbsp;/g, " ")
  .replace(/\s+Footnote\s+\d+/gi, "")
  .replace(/\s+/g, " ")
  .trim();

Anti-blocking summary

Layer	Needed?	Notes
Custom UA	no	default fetch UA works
Cookies / session	no
Real Chrome connect	no
Stealth puppeteer	no
Proxy / residential	no
CAPTCHA solver	no
IPv4 forced	yes	undici sometimes hangs on Apple's IPv6

Data shape (one product)

{
  "partNumber": "MDH74LL/A",
  "containerPartNumber": "RO_MBA_M5_13_INCH_SILVER_GOO_2026",
  "type": "PRECONFIGURED_BTR",
  "screenSize": "13-inch",
  "color": "Silver",
  "cpuCores": "10",
  "gpuCores": "8",
  "price": 1099,
  "priceDisplay": "$1,099.00",
  "priceKey": "13inch-silver-10-8",
  "isComingSoon": false,
  "configuration": {
    "keyboard": "065-CKGP",
    "power_adapter": "065-CLJ7",
    "memory": "065-CK9N",
    "storage": "065-CK9T",
    "processor": "065-CK9H",
    "...": "..."
  }
}

Pagination / crawl

No pagination — one HTTP request returns the entire configurator. To cover Apple's full catalog, just enumerate buy-flow URLs:

• /shop/buy-mac/{macbook-air,macbook-pro,imac,mac-mini,mac-studio,mac-pro}
• /shop/buy-iphone/{iphone-17,iphone-17-pro,iphone-air,iphone-16,iphone-16e}
• /shop/buy-ipad/{ipad-pro,ipad-air,ipad,ipad-mini}
• /shop/buy-watch/{apple-watch-ultra,apple-watch-series-10,apple-watch-se}

Same bootstrap shape for all of them. Run them concurrently with a small pool (4–8) — Apple's edge is fine with that.

Gotchas & lessons

1. PRODUCT_SELECTION_BOOTSTRAP is a JS object literal, not JSON. The outer key productSelectionData: is unquoted. You can't JSON.parse the whole thing. Slice the inner value with a brace-balancer.
2. Lazy regex \{[\s\S]*?\} will not work — it stops at the first inner }. Greedy regex grabs too much. Use the brace-balancer above.
3. Undici + Apple + IPv6 = silent ETIMEDOUT. Force IPv4 with setGlobalDispatcher(new Agent({ connect: { family: 4 } })). curl is unaffected because it falls back faster.
4. Headers contain <as-footnote> web components. Strip them before stripping generic tags, otherwise you get "Footnote 1" leaking into labels.
5. Two SKU types exist per (color, size, chip): PRECONFIGURED_BTR (build-to-retail with a real btrOrFdPartNumber) and CONFIGURABLE (custom build, no part number until ordered). Both share the same containerPartNumber. If you only want shippable SKUs, filter to PRECONFIGURED_BTR.
6. Pricing is keyed by a flat string like 13inch-silver-10-8, not nested. Always look up via prices[product.priceKey].
7. Localization: the page is auto-localized by geo (you may see content-language: en-GB even on apple.com). To force US pricing, hit https://www.apple.com/shop/buy-mac/macbook-air from a US IP, or use https://www.apple.com/{cc}/shop/buy-mac/macbook-air for other regions (fr, de, jp, …) — same bootstrap shape, localized prices and currency.
8. Other bootstraps follow the same pattern. APPLECARE_BOOTSTRAP, TRADEUP_BOOTSTRAP, PURCHASE_OPTIONS_BOOTSTRAP all use the same key: { ...real JSON... } wrapper trick — the same brace-balancer extracts them.