apify

name	apify
description	Use when scraping websites, extracting structured data from listing sites, running prebuilt scrapers/actors, or automating stubborn web research workflows. Make sure to use this whenever apartment hunting, marketplace scraping, anti-bot-resistant extraction, or batch website data collection would benefit from a dedicated scraping platform rather than ad hoc browser clicks.
mcp	{"apify":{"command":"secrets","args":["APIFY_TOKEN","--","npx","-y","@apify/actors-mcp-server"],"env":{"SOPS_AGE_KEY":"${SOPS_AGE_KEY}"}}}

Apify

Use Apify as the heavy-duty scraping and extraction layer.

It is especially useful when:

• a site is JS-heavy or anti-bot-prone
• we need many listings, not just one page
• a community Actor already exists for the target site
• we want structured output instead of manual copy/paste from the browser

Best use cases

• Apartment / real-estate site scraping
• Airbnb / booking / marketplace extraction
• Bulk listing collection across multiple sites
• Converting messy listing pages into structured datasets

MCP usage

Call via:

skill_mcp(mcp_name="apify", tool_name="...", arguments={...})

Recommended flow

1. Search for a relevant Actor.
2. Inspect the Actor details and inputs.
3. Run the Actor.
4. Read the dataset items.
5. Normalize results into a shortlist.

Typical tools

Search for a scraper

skill_mcp(mcp_name="apify", tool_name="search-actors", arguments={"query": "airbnb scraper"})

Use the built-in web extraction path

skill_mcp(mcp_name="apify", tool_name="apify/rag-web-browser", arguments={"url": "https://example.com/listing"})

Run a chosen Actor

skill_mcp(mcp_name="apify", tool_name="call-actor", arguments={
  "actorId": "apify/example-actor",
  "input": {"startUrls": [{"url": "https://example.com"}]}
})

Read results

skill_mcp(mcp_name="apify", tool_name="get-dataset-items", arguments={"datasetId": "DATASET_ID"})

Notes

• Requires APIFY_TOKEN in the environment.
• Apify is best when we need scale, repeatability, or structured output.
• Prefer Apify over fragile one-off browser scraping when the task looks repeatable.