Bluesky Scraper — Profiles, Posts, Followers & Search via the Open AT Protocol

Scrape any public Bluesky data through the official AT Protocol API — no proxies, no anti-bot fights, no terms-of-service grey areas. One actor covers seven use cases: profile scraping, post feeds, keyword search, follower/following graphs, thread expansion, and custom feed scraping.

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Features

Feature	Detail
7 scraping modes	profile · posts · search · followers · following · thread · feed
No proxy needed	Official public API; Bluesky does not block scrapers
Auth optional	Most modes work without a Bluesky account; search & custom feeds work best with an app password
Structured output	Typed JSON records with consistent field names; covers text, media, embeds, counts
Pagination	Automatically pages through all results up to your maxItems cap
Resilient	Per-item error isolation; exponential backoff on rate limits (HTTP 429)
Pay-per-event	Only pay for what you scrape — profiles, posts, or connections
MIT-licensed API	Uses the MarshalX atproto Python SDK

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Why Bluesky scraping beats Twitter / X scraping

Aspect	Bluesky (this actor)	Twitter / X
API type	Official, documented AT Protocol	Reverse-engineered / unofficial
Anti-bot measures	None — open protocol	Heavy: CAPTCHAs, rate-limit bans, IP blocks
Proxy cost	Zero — direct connection	High — residential proxies often required
Legal standing	Public data, open protocol, no ToS conflict	Grey area; ToS explicitly prohibits scraping
Authentication	App password optional (free)	Paid API tiers ($100–$5,000/mo)
Data freshness	Real-time	Delayed or restricted on free tiers

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Use Cases

• AI training datasets — collect large-scale post corpora with text, language tags, and engagement signals.
• Social media analytics — track follower growth, post volume, engagement rates across accounts.
• Journalism & OSINT — search posts by keyword and date range, expand threads for context.
• Brand monitoring — monitor mentions of a brand, product, or topic across the network.
• AT Protocol research — study the social graph, feed algorithms, or labeling systems.

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Input

Mode

Select exactly one mode per run. Combine modes by running the actor multiple times (trivially parallelizable on the Apify platform).

Mode	What it returns	Required input fields
profile	Full profile records for one or more handles/DIDs	handles
posts	Recent posts by one or more accounts	handles, maxItems
search	Posts matching a keyword query	searchQuery, maxItems (+ auth recommended)
followers	Accounts that follow a handle	handles, maxItems
following	Accounts a handle follows	handles, maxItems
thread	Full reply tree for a post URL	postUrls
feed	Posts from a custom feed generator	feedUrls, maxItems (+ auth recommended)

All input fields

Field	Type	Default	Description
mode	enum	profile	Scraping mode (required)
handles	string[]	—	Bluesky handles or DIDs; used by profile, posts, followers, following
searchQuery	string	—	Keyword/phrase to search (search mode)
postUrls	string[]	—	Post URLs or at:// URIs (thread mode)
feedUrls	string[]	—	Feed generator at:// URIs (feed mode)
maxItems	integer	100	Max records per handle/query/feed
searchSince	string	—	ISO date lower bound for search (e.g. 2024-01-01)
searchUntil	string	—	ISO date upper bound for search
searchLanguage	string	—	BCP-47 language filter for search (e.g. en)
searchSort	enum	latest	latest or top
threadDepth	integer	6	How many reply levels to expand (max 1000)
threadParentHeight	integer	80	How many parent levels to walk up (max 1000)
blueskyHandle	string	—	Your Bluesky handle (optional auth)
blueskyAppPassword	string	—	App password — see Authentication section
proxyConfiguration	object	—	Optional Apify Proxy (rarely needed)

Example inputs

Profile scrape (no auth needed):

{
  "mode": "profile",
  "handles": ["bsky.app", "jay.bsky.team", "pfrazee.com"]
}

Keyword search:

{
  "mode": "search",
  "searchQuery": "open source AI",
  "maxItems": 200,
  "searchSort": "latest",
  "searchLanguage": "en",
  "blueskyHandle": "alice.bsky.social",
  "blueskyAppPassword": "xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx"
}

Follower list:

{
  "mode": "followers",
  "handles": ["bsky.app"],
  "maxItems": 500
}

Thread expansion:

{
  "mode": "thread",
  "postUrls": [
    "https://bsky.app/profile/bsky.app/post/3laahvvjbek2j"
  ],
  "threadDepth": 10
}

Recent posts by a user:

{
  "mode": "posts",
  "handles": ["pfrazee.com"],
  "maxItems": 100
}

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Output

Record families

The actor produces three types of records, all tagged with a mode field.

Profile record (mode: "profile")

Field	Type	Example
mode	string	"profile"
scrapedAt	ISO datetime	"2024-11-15T12:34:56.789Z"
did	string	"did:plc:z72i7hdynmk6r22z27h6tvur"
handle	string	"bsky.app"
displayName	string|null	"Bluesky"
description	string|null	"What's up?"
followersCount	integer	1234567
followsCount	integer	42
postsCount	integer	891
avatar	url|null	"https://cdn.bsky.app/img/avatar/..."
banner	url|null	"https://cdn.bsky.app/img/banner/..."
createdAt	ISO datetime|null	"2022-11-17T00:00:00.000Z"
indexedAt	ISO datetime|null	"2024-01-01T09:00:00.000Z"
labels	string[]	[]
pinnedPostUri	string|null	"at://did:plc:.../app.bsky.feed.post/..."
profileUrl	url	"https://bsky.app/profile/bsky.app"

Example:

{
  "mode": "profile",
  "scrapedAt": "2024-11-15T12:34:56.789000+00:00",
  "did": "did:plc:z72i7hdynmk6r22z27h6tvur",
  "handle": "bsky.app",
  "displayName": "Bluesky",
  "description": "What's up?",
  "followersCount": 1423891,
  "followsCount": 48,
  "postsCount": 912,
  "avatar": "https://cdn.bsky.app/img/avatar/plain/did:plc:z72i7hdynmk6r22z27h6tvur/bafkreiabcd@jpeg",
  "banner": null,
  "createdAt": "2022-11-17T00:00:00.000Z",
  "indexedAt": "2024-01-01T09:00:00.000Z",
  "labels": [],
  "pinnedPostUri": null,
  "profileUrl": "https://bsky.app/profile/bsky.app"
}

Post record (mode ∈ posts / search / thread / feed)

Field	Type	Example
mode	string	"posts"
scrapedAt	ISO datetime	"2024-11-15T12:34:56Z"
uri	string	"at://did:plc:.../app.bsky.feed.post/3la..."
cid	string	"bafyreia..."
authorDid	string	"did:plc:..."
authorHandle	string	"alice.bsky.social"
authorDisplayName	string|null	"Alice"
text	string	"Hello Bluesky!"
createdAt	ISO datetime|null	"2024-11-15T10:00:00.000Z"
indexedAt	ISO datetime|null	"2024-11-15T10:00:01.000Z"
langs	string[]	["en"]
replyCount	integer	12
repostCount	integer	34
likeCount	integer	156
quoteCount	integer	5
bookmarkCount	integer|null	null
isRepost	boolean	false
isReply	boolean	false
replyParentUri	string|null	null
replyRootUri	string|null	null
images	array	[{"fullsize": "...", "thumb": "...", "alt": "..."}]
externalLink	object|null	{"uri": "...", "title": "...", "description": "..."}
quotedPostUri	string|null	null
quotedPostText	string|null	null
video	object|null	{"playlist": "...", "thumbnail": "..."}
postUrl	url|null	"https://bsky.app/profile/alice.bsky.social/post/3la..."

Connection record (mode ∈ followers / following)

Field	Type	Example
mode	string	"followers"
scrapedAt	ISO datetime	"2024-11-15T12:34:56Z"
subjectDid	string	"did:plc:..." (the queried account)
subjectHandle	string	"bsky.app" (the queried account)
did	string	"did:plc:..." (the follower/followed)
handle	string	"bob.bsky.social"
displayName	string|null	"Bob"
avatar	url|null	"https://cdn.bsky.app/img/avatar/..."
description	string|null	"Builder."

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Pricing

This actor uses pay-per-event pricing — you only pay for records actually pushed to the dataset.

Event	Price	When charged
Profile scraped	$0.002	One full profile record (profile mode)
Post scraped	$0.0004	One post record (posts, search, thread, feed)
Connection scraped	$0.0002	One follower/following edge (followers, following)

Example costs

Task	Records	Cost
1,000 profiles	1,000 × $0.002	$2.00
10,000 posts (keyword search)	10,000 × $0.0004	$4.00
50,000 follower records	50,000 × $0.0002	$10.00
500 profiles + 5,000 posts	500 × $0.002 + 5,000 × $0.0004	$3.00

Note: Pay-per-event pricing takes 14 days to take effect after monetization is configured.

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Authentication

Most modes (profile, posts, followers, following, thread) work without a Bluesky account.

For search and feed modes, the public AppView may require authentication. Provide:

• blueskyHandle — your Bluesky handle, e.g. alice.bsky.social
• blueskyAppPassword — an app password (NOT your main account password)

Creating an app password

1. Log in to bsky.app
2. Go to Settings → App Passwords: https://bsky.app/settings/app-passwords
3. Click Add App Password, give it a name (e.g. "Apify Scraper"), and copy the generated code.
4. The format is xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx. Paste it into the blueskyAppPassword input field.

App passwords have limited scope (no DM access, no account deletion) and can be revoked individually at any time without affecting your account. Never enter your main Bluesky password.

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Rate Limits & Throughput

Bluesky's public AppView offers generous rate limits for read-only access. The actor:

• Fetches up to 100 records per API request (the maximum page size).
• Automatically retries on HTTP 429 (rate limit) and 5xx errors with exponential backoff, honouring Retry-After headers when present.
• Isolates failures per item — one failed profile/post/edge does not stop the rest of the run.

Practical throughput: expect tens of thousands of records per run without hitting limits, depending on your account's tier and the specific endpoints used. For very large runs (100k+ records), add authentication to benefit from higher per-account limits.

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FAQ

1. Will the actor slow down or get blocked at high volumes? No blocking — this is an official API. If you hit a rate limit, the actor backs off automatically and retries. For sustained high-volume runs, provide an app password to use per-account limits (higher than per-IP limits).

2. Do I need a Bluesky account? No, for most modes. Profile, posts, followers, following, and thread modes all work unauthenticated. Search and custom-feed modes may return a 401 if used without credentials — just add blueskyHandle + blueskyAppPassword in that case.

3. What data is public on Bluesky? All posts, profiles, follower graphs, and custom feeds are public by design (AT Protocol is an open, federated network). DMs and muted/blocked relationships are not accessible via the public API.

4. Why might a field be null? A few reasons: the post was deleted before scraping, the account is deactivated, the field is viewer-scoped and requires auth (e.g. bookmarkCount), or the field is simply optional in the AT Protocol schema (e.g. banner, displayName).

5. How is this better than scraping Twitter/X? No reverse-engineering, no CAPTCHA, no residential proxy costs, no ToS violation. Bluesky's AT Protocol is documented and open; this actor uses the same API Bluesky's own apps use. See the comparison table at the top of this README.

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Legal & Compliance

Bluesky is built on the open AT Protocol. All data scraped by this actor is publicly accessible on the network by design.

• Respect creators: only use scraped content in ways consistent with the rights of the people who created it.
• GDPR / CCPA: if you process personal data from EU or California residents, you are responsible for complying with applicable data-protection law (legal basis, retention limits, subject rights, etc.).
• Redistribution: do not redistribute or commercially exploit scraped content beyond what is permitted by applicable law and the relevant terms.
• Rate limits: do not intentionally bypass rate limits or attempt to extract data at a rate that degrades service for other users.