Universal web scraper

AI-driven data extraction from ~100 Actors across 15+ platforms via the Apify CLI.

Rule: Pass --json and redirect stderr with 2>/dev/null on data-returning commands (actors call, actors start, actors info, actors search, datasets get-items, runs info). JSON output is stable across CLI versions. stderr contains progress messages and version warnings that break JSON parsers if not redirected.

This rule does not apply to status/auth commands (apify info, apify --version, apify login). For those, use 2>&1 so authentication and version errors are visible.

Exception: if --input returns no data, re-run with 2>&1 to confirm whether the cause is a missing schema vs. a network/auth error.

Prerequisites

• Apify CLI v1.4.0+ (npm install -g apify-cli)
• Authenticated session (see below)

Authentication

If a CLI command fails with an auth error, authenticate using one of these methods: