apify-common-errors

name	apify-common-errors
description	Diagnose and fix common Apify Actor and API errors. Use when an Apify run fails, an API call returns 401/403/404/413/429, a proxy connection drops, an Actor build breaks, or a scrape hits an anti-bot block, and you need the cause plus a copy-paste fix. Trigger with "apify error", "fix apify", "actor failed", "apify not working", "debug apify", "apify 429".
allowed-tools	Bash(curl:*), Bash(apify:*), Bash(npm:*)
version	1.5.0
license	MIT
author	Jeremy Longshore <[e-mail]>
tags	["saas","scraping","automation","apify"]
compatibility	Designed for Claude Code

Apify Common Errors

Overview

Quick diagnostic reference for the most common Apify errors. Covers Actor run failures, API errors, proxy problems, anti-bot blocks, and platform-specific issues. The full per-error catalog — raw signature, cause, diagnosis, and copy-paste fix for all ten errors — lives in references/error-reference.md; this file is the lean triage path that points you there.

Prerequisites

• An Apify API token exported as APIFY_TOKEN (Console > Settings > Integrations).
• Access to the Apify Console for reading run and build logs.
• curl and jq on PATH for the diagnostic commands below; apify CLI optional for build inspection.

Instructions

Work the failure from signal to fix:

1. Capture the exact error. Grab the Status / StatusMessage from the run, or the ApifyApiError message and HTTP code from the API response. The raw string is the key you match on.
2. Match the signature. Find the matching entry in the table below, then open references/error-reference.md at that number for the cause, diagnosis, and fix.
3. Diagnose before changing code. For run failures, pull the log via the API or Console (see the FAILED entry). For auth/rate/payload errors, the HTTP code already tells you the class — see Error Handling.
4. Apply the fix from the reference, re-run, and confirm with the diagnostic commands.

Error signature → reference

#	Error	Signature to match
1	Actor run FAILED	Status: FAILED / exited with code 1
2	Actor run TIMED-OUT	Actor timed out after N seconds
3	Rate limited	Rate limit exceeded (429)
4	Unauthorized	Authentication required (401)
5	Build failed	Build failed: npm ERR!