Bluesky Keyword Monitor: Public Post Search on a Schedule

Give it keywords or phrases and it searches public Bluesky posts for each one, returning a row per post with the text, the author, the link and the like, repost and reply counts. Turn on monitoring and each scheduled run returns only the posts that appeared since the previous one.

Who it's for

A developer-relations lead for an open-source project. People ask questions about your library on Bluesky without ever tagging you. A search for the project's name and its common misspellings, run every few hours, shows you the unanswered ones while they are still fresh.

A reporter covering one narrow beat. You follow a regulation, a product recall or a court case. You want every public post that mentions it, newest first, with a link you can cite, collected in a sheet by the end of the day.

A small-brand social manager who moved audience from another network. You want to know when anyone writes your brand name, and whether the post is a reply or a fresh mention, without scrolling a feed.

Why this one

• No account, no API key. The search is anonymous and public.
• Newest first, filtered by time. Posts are requested in latest-first order inside a time window you set, from one hour to thirty days.
• Counts included. Likes, reposts, replies and quotes arrive with each post, so you can sort by reach.
• Monitoring that remembers. Each keyword's last-seen post is stored in your own Apify account, so a scheduled run does not return the same post twice.

What you get

One row per post.

Field	Meaning
keyword	The search term that matched.
postUrl	The bsky.app link to the post.
text	The post text.
authorHandle, authorDisplayName, authorDid	Who wrote it.
createdAt	When the post was written, as an ISO timestamp.
likeCount, repostCount, replyCount, quoteCount	Engagement at the time of the run.
isReply	true when the post is a reply to another.
cid, uri	Bluesky's content id and AT Protocol address, stable identifiers for the post.
isNew, firstSeenAt	Monitoring flags. They are empty when monitoring is off.

Every row also carries postCount, the number of posts the keyword produced in that run.

Why search runs on api.bsky.app

Bluesky serves the same search from two public hosts, and they do not behave alike. On 2026-10-08 we sent the identical request, a search for the word "bluesky" with a limit of one, to both:

Host	Result
public.api.bsky.app	HTTP 403
api.bsky.app	HTTP 200 with posts

This actor therefore calls https://api.bsky.app/xrpc/app.bsky.feed.searchPosts and nothing else. Two practical things follow. It needs no credentials, which is why no login field exists. And if Bluesky ever restricts that host, the symptom would be a failed-request row, which is not billed, instead of posts.

The search is requested 100 posts at a time, up to 20 pages, and stops at maxResults, which defaults to 100 per keyword and cannot exceed 1,000.

Pricing

• Bluesky post returned: $2 per 1,000 posts

Plus a $0.002 start fee per run. Each event above is billed independently, only when it actually returns data — misses (found:false) are never charged.

Empty results are not billed. A keyword that produces no posts still returns a single row with found: true and postCount: 0, but that row is not charged. A monitored run in which nothing is new is not charged either; you pay only the start fee. This was a billing bug in earlier builds (an empty keyword was charged one post, $0.002), fixed and confirmed with a local run on 2026-10-08.

How to use

1. In the Apify Console. Open the actor page and click Start — the keywords field is already pre-filled with a working example. Results land in the run's dataset as soon as each item is found.
2. Via the API. Call it directly with a POST request — no Console needed once you have an API token:

   curl "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/accountable_eel~bluesky-keyword-monitor/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=<YOUR_TOKEN>" \
     -X POST \
     -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
     -d '{"keywords":["atprotocol"]}'
   

3. On a schedule. Save this actor as an Apify Task with the input you want, then add a Schedule (hourly, daily, weekly) so it runs on its own — no server of your own required.

Input

{
  "keywords": [
    "atprotocol"
  ]
}

One keyword or search phrase per line. Accepted formats: atprotocol, "open source", apify.

Other settings:

• sinceHours is the look-back window for the first search, from 1 to 720 hours; the default is 24.
• language is a two-letter code such as en or de that limits results to that language.
• maxResults is the cap per keyword, 100 by default.
• deltaMode switches on monitoring. deltaName names the watchlist.
• includeKeywords keeps only the rows that mention one of your words, and excludeKeywords drops any row that mentions one. In a monitored run the lists are applied before the watch records a post, so a post they hide is not remembered and appears as new if you loosen the lists later.
• testRun runs only the first five keywords, and onlyFound hides rows for keywords with no result.

Sample output

query	found	status	postCount	keyword	postUrl	text	authorHandle	authorDisplayName	authorDid	createdAt	cid	uri	likeCount	repostCount	replyCount	quoteCount	isReply	isNew	firstSeenAt	scrapedAt
atprotocol	true	OK		atprotocol																1970-01-01T00:00:00.000Z

Use it from Clay, n8n, Make, or an AI agent

This actor runs synchronously over plain HTTP — call it directly from a script, a workflow tool, or an AI agent, no Apify Console needed once you have an API token.

curl "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/accountable_eel~bluesky-keyword-monitor/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=<YOUR_TOKEN>" \
  -X POST \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"keywords":["atprotocol"]}'

n8n. Add an HTTP Request node: Method POST, URL https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/accountable_eel~bluesky-keyword-monitor/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=<YOUR_TOKEN>, Body Content Type JSON, JSON Body {"keywords":["atprotocol"]} (swap in an expression from an earlier node for a real value).

Clay. Add an "HTTP API" column: Method POST, URL https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/accountable_eel~bluesky-keyword-monitor/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=<YOUR_TOKEN>, Body {"keywords":["{{keyword}}"]}, mapping the row's keyword into the keywords array.

MCP. In Claude, Cursor, or any MCP client with the Apify MCP server, ask for "Bluesky Keyword Monitor | Apify" — the agent will find and run this actor.

Tips

• Always set deltaName for a real watchlist. If you leave it empty, the monitoring record is keyed on a hash of your whole keyword list. Add or remove one keyword and the key changes, which restarts the baseline for every keyword.
• Monitoring is more than the flag. Setting deltaName alone also records posts, but every post is still returned and billed with isNew marking the new ones. Set deltaMode to return only the new ones.
• The first monitored run uses the time window. It returns posts from the last sinceHours hours. Later runs ask Bluesky only for posts after the newest one already recorded.
• Quote exact phrases. A multi-word term such as "open source" is passed to Bluesky as written; how Bluesky matches it is Bluesky's behaviour.
• Filter noise with excludeKeywords. Add words like "giveaway" to drop the posts you never want to pay for.

vs. alternatives

	What it costs	What you get	Trade-off
This actor (bluesky-keyword-monitor)	$0.002 per post returned, $0.002 per run	A dataset of posts you read or pipe wherever you like, with a remembered baseline per keyword	It does not push messages to a chat app, and a quiet run costs only the start fee
Bluesky Mentions Monitor (bluesky-mentions-monitor)	$0.002 per post, the same rate	Keyword alerts delivered to Slack, Discord or Telegram, per its own page	If you want alerts in a chat channel, use it. This actor is for a spreadsheet, a database or your own workflow.

FAQ

Can it see private or followers-only posts?

No. It searches the public index only.

Why did the first run return old posts?

The first search covers the look-back window, 24 hours by default. Lower sinceHours to narrow it.

Do likes and reposts update later?

No. The counts are a snapshot taken when the run fetched the post.

Are replies included?

Yes, and isReply tells you which rows are replies.

Related actors

• Bluesky Mentions Monitor sends new-post alerts to Slack, Discord or Telegram.