GitHub Repository & User Scraper API

Used by developer-focused recruiters building outreach lists, B2B SaaS teams identifying active open-source contributors in their stack, and AI agents answering "who are the top contributors to this Python project?"

Scrape GitHub repositories and user profiles via the official GitHub REST API. Search repos by keyword, fetch specific repos by owner/name, or retrieve user and organization profiles. Pay per result. No proxy needed — GitHub's public API requires no authentication for read-only data.

$2.00/1K repos · $3.00/1K user/org profiles (Pay Per Event). First 10 results free. No proxy needed. Official GitHub API. 5000 req/hr with free token. Full GitHub search syntax supported.

Not affiliated with GitHub, Inc. or Microsoft. GitHub is a trademark of GitHub, Inc.

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What You Can Scrape

Repositories

• Full name (owner/repo), description, homepage URL
• Stars, forks, watchers, open issues count
• Primary language, topic tags, license (SPDX identifier)
• Created / last-updated dates (ISO 8601)
• Archived and fork flags

Users & Organizations

• Login, display name, bio, company, location
• Follower and following counts, public repo count
• Account creation date, blog/website URL
• Twitter username, public email (when available)

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Rate Limits

Mode	Limit
No token (anonymous)	60 API requests/hr; 10 search requests/min
With free GitHub token	5,000 requests/hr (no scope required)

For large runs: generate a free token at github.com/settings/tokens (no scopes needed for public data) and supply it via the githubToken input field. The token never leaves your Apify account's encrypted storage.

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Modes

searchRepos (default)

Searches GitHub repositories by keyword using the GitHub Search API. Supports full GitHub search syntax:

• "machine learning language:python stars:>500"
• "react hooks"
• "apify scraper"

Returns repos sorted by stars (default), forks, update date, or help-wanted issues.

repoFullNames

Fetch one or more specific repos by exact owner/repo identifier. Returns the full repo object including topics, license, and all metrics. Useful when you have a curated list.

usernames

Look up GitHub user or organization profiles by login. Returns follower count, public repo count, bio, company, location, and account creation date.

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Output Schema

Repo record

Field	Type	Description
type	string	Always "repo"
full_name	string	"owner/repo"
owner	string	Owner login
name	string	Repo name
description	string	Repo description
homepage	string	Project homepage URL
html_url	string	GitHub page URL
language	string	Primary programming language
topics	list[str]	Topic tags
license	string	SPDX license ID (e.g. "MIT")
stars	integer	Star count
forks	integer	Fork count
watchers	integer	Watcher count
open_issues	integer	Open issues count
created_at	string	ISO 8601 creation date
updated_at	string	ISO 8601 last-updated date
is_archived	boolean	Whether repo is archived
is_fork	boolean	Whether repo is a fork
query	string	Search query that produced this result
scraped_at	string	ISO 8601 scrape timestamp
parse_confidence	float	Data quality score (1.0 = all fields present)
warnings	list[str]	Missing-field codes for low-confidence records

User record

Field	Type	Description
type	string	"user" or "organization"
login	string	GitHub login
name	string	Display name
bio	string	Bio text
company	string	Employer (@ prefix stripped)
location	string	Location string
blog	string	Blog/homepage URL
email	string	Public email (often null)
twitter_username	string	Twitter handle
followers	integer	Follower count
following	integer	Following count
public_repos	integer	Public repo count
public_gists	integer	Public gist count
created_at	string	ISO 8601 account creation date
updated_at	string	ISO 8601 profile last-updated date
html_url	string	GitHub profile URL
query	string	Username queried
scraped_at	string	ISO 8601 scrape timestamp
parse_confidence	float	Data quality score
warnings	list[str]	Missing-field codes

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Example Use Cases

• Lead generation: Find active developers in specific languages or topics
• Tech stack research: Discover most-starred repos per language
• Competitive intelligence: Track competitor repos (stars, forks, activity)
• Developer outreach: Build lists of contributors to specific projects
• Open source analytics: Monitor ecosystem health by topic tag

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vs. Competitors

Feature	This Actor	drobnikj/github-scraper	HTML web scrapers
Data source	Official GitHub REST API	Older GitHub API	HTML scraping
Proxy or anti-bot workaround needed	No	No	Sometimes
Rate limit handling	Yes (429 backoff, token boost)	Basic	Often breaks
User + org profiles	Yes (separate gh-user event)	Limited	Inconsistent
parse_confidence	Yes	No	No
Full GitHub search syntax	Yes	Partial	No
Cost	$2/1K repos · $3/1K profiles	~$1-2/1K	$1-5/1K + proxy

Use with AI agents (MCP)

An agent calls this tool to look up GitHub repos and developer profiles mid-conversation — e.g. "Find top Python ML repos with 1000+ stars", "Get the profile for linus-torvalds", or "What repos does the Apify org maintain?"

Point your MCP client at this tool:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "apify": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "mcp-remote",
        "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=bovi/github-scraper",
        "--header",
        "Authorization: Bearer <YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN>"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Minimal agent input (repo search):

{
  "mode": "searchRepos",
  "searchQueries": ["apify scraper language:python stars:>100"],
  "maxItems": 20
}

Pricing

Pay-per-result (PPE):

Event	Rate	Trigger
gh-item	$2.00/1K	Repository records (searchRepos or repoFullNames mode)
gh-user	$3.00/1K	User and organization profile records (usernames mode)

User/org profiles are priced higher because they contain contact signals (public email, Twitter handle, company) useful for developer lead-gen. You pay only for data you receive — no charge for rate-limit retries or failed lookups.

Worked examples:

• 500 repo search results = $1.00
• 1,000 repo search results = $2.00
• 200 user/org profiles = $0.60
• 500 repos + 100 user profiles = $1.30 ($1.00 repos + $0.30 profiles)

GitHub's public API is free — compute is billed to your Apify account based on actual run time.

FAQ

Do I need a GitHub token? A token is optional but strongly recommended for runs over ~50 items. Without one, the rate limit is 60 requests/hr; with a free token (no scopes needed) it's 5,000 requests/hr. Generate one at github.com/settings/tokens.

Can I search private repositories? No. The actor uses GitHub's public REST API — only public repos and public profile data are accessible.

What if my search returns empty? GitHub Search API caps results at 1,000 per query. For common keywords, narrow your search with qualifiers (language, stars, topics). Empty results are not charged.

What output formats are available? JSON, CSV, Excel — download from the Apify dataset, or pipe to n8n / Make / Zapier. Every record includes html_url linking directly to GitHub.

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Tips

• Supply a GitHub token (githubToken input) for large runs — without it you'll hit the 60 req/hr limit quickly.
• For searchRepos, GitHub caps results at 1,000 per query. Use multiple specific queries to cover more ground.
• is_fork: true repos often have low original activity — filter them out if you need organic projects.
• parse_confidence < 1.0 means some optional fields were missing from the API response — the record is still valid.

Integrations

Built for developer-focused recruiters and B2B SaaS teams identifying active contributors and repo signals in their stack — the JSON/dataset output drops into the tools you already run, no glue code:

• n8n / Make / Zapier — trigger a run or pipe every new dataset item into 500+ apps (Google Sheets, Airtable, Slack, HubSpot, your database) with no code: n8n, Make, Zapier.
• Webhooks — fire your own endpoint the moment a run finishes, to push results straight into your pipeline (docs).
• MCP server — expose this actor as a tool to Claude, Cursor, or any MCP client so an AI agent can pull this data mid-conversation (guide).
• API & SDKs — fetch the dataset as JSON, CSV, or Excel through the Apify REST API or the Python / JS SDKs.

See all Apify integrations.