# Vim Awesome Plugins Scraper (`confidential_marina/vimawesome-plugins-scraper`) Actor

Export Vim Awesome (~19,000 Vim/Neovim plugins) with name, author, GitHub stars, plugin-manager users, vim.org downloads, category, tags, and repo URL. Public JSON API, fast, no login.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/confidential_marina/vimawesome-plugins-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [Kaleb Holley](https://apify.com/confidential_marina) (community)
- **Categories:** Developer tools, Open source
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

Pay per event

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

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

## Vim Awesome Plugins Scraper

Export the **[Vim Awesome](https://vimawesome.com/)** directory (about **19,000 Vim and Neovim plugins**) as clean, structured data: name, author, **GitHub stars**, **plugin-manager user count**, vim.org downloads and rating, category, tags, short description, GitHub and Vim Awesome URLs, and created/updated timestamps.

Only one other Vim Awesome scraper exists on Apify Store, and general “vim” Store search is dominated by **Vimeo** video tools — not editor plugins. If you build Vim/Neovim configs, curate plugin lists, research the editor ecosystem, or track competing plugins, this Actor gives you the directory over the same public JSON API the site uses.

### What can it do?

- **Full directory export.** Paginated public API (`/api/plugins`, 20 per page), up to the full ~19.5k catalog.
- **Keyword search.** Free-text `query` passed through to Vim Awesome (for example `git`, `lsp`, `completion`, `colorscheme`).
- **Category filter.** Language, completion, code-display, integration, interface, command, other, uncategorized.
- **Popularity filters.** Minimum GitHub stars and/or plugin-manager users.
- **Flexible sort.** Plugin-manager users, GitHub stars, vim.org downloads, recently updated, or name.
- **Fast and cheap.** Plain JSON over HTTP. No browser, no proxy, no login. Runs on 256 MB.

### Use cases

- Neovim/Vim distribution authors tracking popular plugins and stars
- Ecosystem research: which categories and tags dominate
- Lead lists of plugin maintainers and their GitHub repos
- Scheduled snapshots to detect newly popular or updated plugins

### Source and rate limits

- **Source:** `https://vimawesome.com/api/plugins?query=&page=N` (unauthenticated JSON; same endpoints the website calls).
- **Single plugin:** `https://vimawesome.com/api/plugins/{slug}`.
- **Page size:** 20 plugins per page (~974 pages for the full catalog).
- **Robots / politeness:** The site does not publish a useful `robots.txt` for the API (the `/robots.txt` path serves the SPA shell). This Actor still behaves politely: modest concurrency (about 3–4 parallel requests), retries with backoff, and a clear User-Agent identifying the scraper. Do not hammer the API; prefer smaller `maxItems` for exploratory runs.
- **Auth:** None. Do not scrape authenticated/admin endpoints.

### Input

| Field | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| `searchQuery` | string | Optional keyword. Empty = browse full catalog (popularity order from the API). |
| `category` | string | Optional: `language`, `completion`, `code-display`, `integration`, `interface`, `command`, `other`, `uncategorized`. |
| `minGithubStars` | integer | Skip plugins below this star count. |
| `minPluginManagerUsers` | integer | Skip plugins below this Vim Awesome popularity count. |
| `sortBy` | enum | `pluginManagerUsers` (default), `githubStars`, `vimorgDownloads`, `updated`, `name`. |
| `maxItems` | integer | Max results (default 100; set ~20000 for the full catalog). |

Example: top Git integrations by plugin-manager users:

```json
{ "searchQuery": "git", "category": "integration", "sortBy": "pluginManagerUsers", "maxItems": 50 }
```

Tip: a 100-item run finishes in a few seconds. A full-catalog run (~974 pages) typically completes in a few minutes at the default concurrency.

### Output

```json
{
  "slug": "fugitive-vim",
  "name": "fugitive.vim",
  "normalizedName": "fugitive",
  "author": "Tim Pope",
  "githubOwner": "tpope",
  "githubRepo": "vim-fugitive",
  "category": "integration",
  "tags": ["git"],
  "shortDesc": "fugitive.vim: A Git wrapper so awesome, it should be illegal",
  "githubStars": 14774,
  "pluginManagerUsers": 47185,
  "githubBundles": 46852,
  "vimorgDownloads": 17813,
  "vimorgRating": 4049,
  "vimorgNumRaters": 1191,
  "vimorgType": "utility",
  "vimorgUrl": "http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=2975",
  "githubUrl": "https://github.com/tpope/vim-fugitive",
  "url": "https://vimawesome.com/plugin/fugitive-vim",
  "apiUrl": "https://vimawesome.com/api/plugins/fugitive-vim",
  "createdAt": "2009-10-09T02:29:49+00:00",
  "updatedAt": "2021-09-07T18:39:52+00:00",
  "scrapedAt": "2026-10-14T09:58:00+00:00"
}
```

Export to JSON, CSV, Excel, XML or HTML, or pull results through the Apify API, webhooks, Make, Zapier or n8n.

### Pricing

Free to use right now: you pay only the tiny Apify platform usage of your own run. Pay-per-result pricing may be added later (~$2 per 1,000 plugin results), with advance notice as Apify requires. Monetization is **not** enabled on the Store listing yet.

### FAQ

**Is it legal?** The Actor reads only the public, unauthenticated JSON API that Vim Awesome’s own frontend uses. It requests pages politely with limited concurrency and collects only public plugin metadata.

**How fresh is the data?** Fetched live on every run. `updatedAt` / `createdAt` come from Vim Awesome’s Unix timestamps.

**Something broken or a field missing?** Open an issue on the Actor’s Issues tab.

# Actor input Schema

## `searchQuery` (type: `string`):

Free-text search passed to the Vim Awesome API (e.g. git, lsp, completion, colorscheme). Leave empty to browse the full catalog.

## `category` (type: `string`):

Optional Vim Awesome category filter applied after fetch. API uses singular command and includes uncategorized.

## `minGithubStars` (type: `integer`):

Skip plugins below this GitHub star count.

## `minPluginManagerUsers` (type: `integer`):

Skip plugins below this Vim Awesome plugin-manager user count (popularity signal).

## `sortBy` (type: `string`):

Client-side sort order. The public list API returns results in popularity order; other sorts are applied after fetch.

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

Maximum plugins to output. Set 20000 for approximately the full catalog (~19.5k).

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "category": "",
  "minGithubStars": 0,
  "minPluginManagerUsers": 0,
  "sortBy": "pluginManagerUsers",
  "maxItems": 100
}
```

# 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 = {
    "searchQuery": "",
    "maxItems": 100
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("confidential_marina/vimawesome-plugins-scraper").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 = {
    "searchQuery": "",
    "maxItems": 100,
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("confidential_marina/vimawesome-plugins-scraper").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 '{
  "searchQuery": "",
  "maxItems": 100
}' |
apify call confidential_marina/vimawesome-plugins-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,confidential_marina/vimawesome-plugins-scraper"
        }
    }
}
```

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/8zOOtpb7F2mwJrpuW/builds/yciDuHiO81Z0A0Fpo/openapi.json