Dev.to Scraper

Scrape Dev.to — the popular open-source blogging platform for developers (Forem). Search by tag / username, fetch by article ID, list latest / top articles. Pulls title, body markdown, tags, reactions, comments, reading time, author, organization. HTTP-only via the public dev.to/api. No auth, no proxy.

What this actor does

• Seven modes: latest, topPastWeek, topPastMonth, topPastYear, byTag, byUsername, byArticleIds
• Filters: min reactions, min comments, tag intersection, published-after
• Optional body markdown — includeBody fetches the full article content per item
• Empty fields are omitted

Output per article

• articleId, title, description, url, canonicalUrl, slug
• publishedAt, createdAt, editedAt, lastCommentAt, readablePublishDate
• language, coverImage, socialImage
• commentsCount, publicReactions, positiveReactions, readingTimeMinutes
• tags[]
• user — {username, name, twitterUsername, githubUsername, websiteUrl, profileImage}
• username — scalar shortcut for the article author
• organization — {username, name, slug, profileImage} (when published under an org)
• bodyMarkdown, bodyHtml (when includeBody=true)
• recordType: "article", scrapedAt

Input

Field	Type	Default	Description
mode	string	topPastWeek	One of seven modes
tag	string	–	Tag slug (mode=byTag)
username	string	–	Dev.to username (mode=byUsername)
articleIds	array	–	Numeric article IDs (mode=byArticleIds)
minReactions	int	–	Drop articles below this reaction count
minComments	int	–	Drop articles below this comment count
tagAnyOf	array	[]	Tag intersection filter
publishedAfter	string	–	YYYY-MM-DD
includeBody	bool	false	Fetch full article body
maxItems	int	50	Hard cap (1–5000)

Example: top Python articles of the week

{
  "mode": "topPastWeek",
  "tagAnyOf": ["python"],
  "minReactions": 50
}

Example: all articles by a specific user

{
  "mode": "byUsername",
  "username": "ben",
  "includeBody": true,
  "maxItems": 100
}

Example: recent React articles with high engagement

{
  "mode": "byTag",
  "tag": "react",
  "minReactions": 100,
  "minComments": 20,
  "publishedAfter": "2024-01-01"
}

Use cases

• Content marketing — track articles in your domain, monitor competitor share of voice
• DevRel — find articles mentioning your tools / SDKs (filter by tag)
• Recruiting — discover tech writers / domain experts by username + reactions
• Trend analysis — bulk-export top articles per period for content gap analysis
• Newsletter automation — daily digest of topPastWeek articles by tag

FAQ

Do I need an account? No. The Dev.to public API requires no authentication for read operations.

What's Dev.to? An open-source community blogging platform run by Forem. Popular among indie devs, devrel teams, and open-source maintainers.

Why is bodyMarkdown opt-in? Listing endpoints don't include the full article body. Setting includeBody: true triggers one extra /articles/{id} request per article.

What's the difference between publicReactions and positiveReactions? Dev.to has multiple reaction types (Like, Unicorn, Bookmark, Comment, etc.). publicReactions counts visible reactions; positiveReactions is a deprecated alias still emitted by the API.

How fresh is the data? Real-time. The API serves the same data the website displays.

Are private posts included? No — the API only exposes published, public articles.

How do I find Dev.to tags? Browse dev.to/tags. Common ones: webdev, programming, python, javascript, react, node, tutorial, beginners, productivity, career.