# Discourse Forum Monitor: New Topics and Replies by Keyword (`accountable_eel/discourse-forum-monitor`) Actor

Monitor any public Discourse forum for new topics, replies, and keywords with automated delta tracking. Export new discussions to Google Sheets or n8n.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/accountable_eel/discourse-forum-monitor.md
- **Developed by:** [Adriana Voss](https://apify.com/accountable_eel) (community)
- **Categories:** Automation, Developer tools
- **Features:** Limited permissions
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $0.30 / 1,000 topic returneds

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.
Since this Actor supports Apify Store discounts, the price gets lower the higher subscription plan you have.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

An Actor is a serverless cloud program that runs on the Apify platform. It has two run modes.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.

Apify vocabulary and the platform model are defined once, in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md.

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.

Do not guess an integration path. Every one of them is in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md: the Apify MCP server, Agent Skills with the Apify CLI, the JavaScript and Python clients, the REST API, and the account-free path for an agent with no human to sign in. It also carries the rule on stating cost before the first paid run.

For examples already wired to this Actor's own input schema, see the [API](#api) section below.

Each client library has reference documentation the quickstart does not restate: [JavaScript/TypeScript](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md) (`npm install apify-client`) and [Python](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md) (`pip install apify-client`).

# README

## Discourse Forum Monitor: New Topics and Replies by Keyword

**Monitor any public Discourse forum for new discussions, topics, and replies by keyword or latest feed.**

Community managers, developer relations teams, competitive intelligence researchers, and support leads use this actor to track product mentions, technical questions, and community discussions across public Discourse communities (such as Meta Discourse, Mozilla Discourse, Docker Community, and many others).

Turn on monitoring mode (`onlyNewSinceLastRun`) and run on a schedule to receive and pay only for topics that are new since your previous run. A quiet run with nothing new returns zero charged topics.

### How to use

1. **In the Apify Console.** Open the actor page and click **Start** — the `forums` 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:
   ```bash
   curl "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/accountable_eel~discourse-forum-monitor/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=<YOUR_TOKEN>" \
     -X POST \
     -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
     -d '{"forums":["https://meta.discourse.org"]}'
   ```
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

```json
{
  "forums": [
    "https://meta.discourse.org"
  ]
}
```

One Discourse forum URL or domain per line (e.g. https://meta.discourse.org or discourse.mozilla.org). Accepted formats: https://meta.discourse.org, discourse.mozilla.org.

### Output

One row per topic returned, for example:

| query | found | status | forum | topicCount | monitorStatus | topicId | title | url | sourceUrl | slug | categoryId | postsCount | replyCount | views | likeCount | authorUsername | lastPosterUsername | createdAt | lastPostedAt | bumpedAt | excerpt | isPinned | isClosed | isArchived | tags | isNew | firstSeenAt | scrapedAt |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| https://meta.discourse.org | true | OK | <discourse forum> | <topics returned> | <monitoring status> | <topic id> | <topic title> | <topic url> | <source url> | <topic slug> | <category id> | <posts count> | <reply count> | <views> | <likes> | <author username> | <last poster username> | <created at> | <last posted at> | <bumped at> | <excerpt> | <is pinned> | <is closed> | <is archived> | <tags> | \<is new topic?> | <first seen on a run> | 1970-01-01T00:00:00.000Z |

A miss comes back as a row with `"found": false` and is never charged. Missing fields use `null`, never `0` or `""`. To protect privacy, author usernames are public forum handles only; real names, emails, and private individual details are never extracted.

### Limits

- Only public Discourse forums exposing anonymous JSON feeds (`/latest.json` and `/search.json`) can be monitored.
- Private forums requiring login or single sign-on (SSO) return HTTP 403 and are recorded as an uncharged miss.
- Rate limits are strictly respected on a per-forum basis; concurrency is intentionally set to 1 request per forum.

### Pricing

- **Topic returned**: $0.6 per 1,000 topics

Plus a $0.00005 start fee per run. Each event above is billed independently, only when it actually returns data — misses (`found:false`) are never charged.

### Example runs

Paste any of these into the Input tab and press Start. All three return rows with no key, no token, and no private account.

**1. Latest topics from Meta Discourse (default feed)**

```json
{
  "forums": ["https://meta.discourse.org"],
  "maxItems": 20
}
```

**2. Keyword search on Meta Discourse (API discussions)**

```json
{
  "forums": ["https://meta.discourse.org"],
  "query": "api",
  "maxItems": 20
}
```

**3. Scheduled monitor alert for new discussions**

```json
{
  "forums": ["https://meta.discourse.org"],
  "query": "plugin",
  "onlyNewSinceLastRun": true,
  "deltaName": "meta-plugin-discussions",
  "maxItems": 20
}
```

### 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.

```bash
curl "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/accountable_eel~discourse-forum-monitor/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=<YOUR_TOKEN>" \
  -X POST \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"forums":["https://meta.discourse.org"]}'
```

**n8n.** Add an HTTP Request node: Method `POST`, URL `https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/accountable_eel~discourse-forum-monitor/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=<YOUR_TOKEN>`, Body Content Type `JSON`, JSON Body `{"forums":["https://meta.discourse.org"]}` (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~discourse-forum-monitor/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=<YOUR_TOKEN>`, Body `{"forums":["{{topic}}"]}`, mapping the row's topic into the `forums` array.

**MCP.** In Claude, Cursor, or any MCP client with the Apify MCP server, ask for "discourse forum scraper" — the agent will find and run this actor.

# Actor input Schema

## `forums` (type: `array`):

One Discourse forum URL or domain per line (e.g. https://meta.discourse.org or discourse.mozilla.org). Accepted formats: https://meta.discourse.org, discourse.mozilla.org. You're only charged for the ones we actually find — a miss costs nothing.

## `query` (type: `string`):

Optional. Search for topics and posts matching this keyword across the forum. Leave empty to monitor the latest topics and replies.

## `maxItems` (type: `integer`):

Maximum number of topics to return per forum (up to 100). Default is 20.

## `onlyNewSinceLastRun` (type: `boolean`):

When enabled, only topics and discussions new since your previous run are returned and billed. Perfect for scheduled alert runs.

## `deltaName` (type: `string`):

Optional. Name this search's monitoring memory so you can run multiple independent alert schedules on the same forum, or keep memory across settings changes.

## `testRun` (type: `boolean`):

Turn this on to test your input on a small sample before running the full list. Turn it off to process everything.

## `onlyFound` (type: `boolean`):

Only keep rows where something was actually found. Misses are always free, whether or not you show them here.

## `includeKeywords` (type: `array`):

Optional. Only keep results that mention at least one of these words (e.g. a job title, a city, a product name). Leave empty to keep everything.

## `excludeKeywords` (type: `array`):

Optional. Drop any result that mentions one of these words. Leave empty to skip nothing.

## `maxResults` (type: `integer`):

Optional. Stop the run once this many results have been found — useful for a quick, cheap sample. Leave blank for no limit.

## `columns` (type: `array`):

Choose which pieces of information to include in each result row. All are included by default.

## `expandRows` (type: `boolean`):

When on, each topic found gets its own row instead of being grouped under its topic. You're still only charged once per topic, no matter how many rows it produces.

## `maxConcurrency` (type: `integer`):

Parallel requests. Keep conservative — this target has no browser fallback, so getting blocked costs more than slow-and-steady.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "forums": [
    "https://meta.discourse.org"
  ],
  "query": "",
  "maxItems": 20,
  "onlyNewSinceLastRun": false,
  "deltaName": "",
  "testRun": false,
  "onlyFound": false,
  "includeKeywords": [],
  "excludeKeywords": [],
  "columns": [
    "forum",
    "topicCount",
    "monitorStatus",
    "topicId",
    "title",
    "url",
    "sourceUrl",
    "slug",
    "categoryId",
    "postsCount",
    "replyCount",
    "views",
    "likeCount",
    "authorUsername",
    "lastPosterUsername",
    "createdAt",
    "lastPostedAt",
    "bumpedAt",
    "excerpt",
    "isPinned",
    "isClosed",
    "isArchived",
    "tags",
    "isNew",
    "firstSeenAt"
  ],
  "expandRows": true,
  "maxConcurrency": 1
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (type: `string`):

No description

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "forums": [
        "https://meta.discourse.org"
    ],
    "includeKeywords": [],
    "excludeKeywords": []
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("accountable_eel/discourse-forum-monitor").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = {
    "forums": ["https://meta.discourse.org"],
    "includeKeywords": [],
    "excludeKeywords": [],
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("accountable_eel/discourse-forum-monitor").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "forums": [
    "https://meta.discourse.org"
  ],
  "includeKeywords": [],
  "excludeKeywords": []
}' |
apify call accountable_eel/discourse-forum-monitor --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,accountable_eel/discourse-forum-monitor"
        }
    }
}
```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/wS98VWwsGz41WPXyC/builds/S2gXhYbprA3aVGS6G/openapi.json