# Craigslist Scraper (`datahamster/craigslist-scraper`) Actor

Craigslist scraper for for-sale search results by keyword: title, price, location and listing URL. No login. Monitor mode returns only new listings and price changes. Seller contact and identity fields are not collected.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/datahamster/craigslist-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [Viktor Dubnytskiy](https://apify.com/datahamster) (community)
- **Categories:** E-commerce
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $1.20 / 1,000 result items

This Actor is paid per event and usage. You are charged both the fixed price for specific events and for Apify platform usage.
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

## Craigslist Scraper

Search the public Craigslist for-sale category by keyword and return listing cards using Craigslist listing ids as monitor keys. The actor requests search result pages; detail-page requests are outside its workflow.

**Try it:** the prefilled example returns 20 rows in about 5 seconds and costs about $0.031. Results cost $1.50 per 1,000.

### What you get

Rows contain the Craigslist listing id and URL, card title, displayed price and location label, query, rank, and scrape time. The actor does not open seller profiles or collect seller names, account identifiers, or descriptions. It applies pattern-based redaction to email addresses and phone-like strings found in card title or location; unusual formats may not be recognized. Titles and location labels remain source-provided text.

The supplied New York fixture contains 325 HTML listing cards and 302 JSON-LD items. Their positional relationship breaks at card 8, so structured data is ignored. Listing-specific fields are read from one card: its URL and id from its anchor, and its title, price, and location from that card's own markup. Query and rank are added by the actor; platform, country, and scrape time are metadata.

### Input

- `area`: Craigslist area hostname slug, default `newyork`. Only lowercase letters, digits, and hyphens are accepted; the area slug is used to construct a hostname under `craigslist.org`.
- `queries`: one or more search terms.
- `maxPages`: fixed at `1`. The actor rejects larger values because pagination behavior has not been verified.
- `maxItems`: maximum number of rows to return.
- `mode`: `scrape` or `monitor`. Monitor mode compares listing ids and the displayed price/label, returning new listings or price changes.
- `monitorStateId`: optional state namespace when the run is not attached to a saved Apify task.

### Pricing

Usage is billed per result or monitor event. Platform usage is billed separately.

| Event | Price |
|---|---|
| result | $0.0015 per listing ($1.50 per 1,000) |
| monitor-check | $0.005 per monitor run |
| change | $0.0015 per new or changed listing |

The actor charges result events for rows pushed. Monitor mode also charges one monitor-check per run; a run with no changes has no change events.

### Limits

Only the first search page is fetched for each query. There is no pagination, details-page enrichment, image collection, or seller information. Search cards can change between runs. A challenge page is reported as blocked; a genuine empty search returns no rows. Craigslist can change its page markup at any time.

### Changelog

- 0.1.0: Initial first-page search and monitor support; HTML-card parsing validated against the supplied New York fixture.

# Actor input Schema

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

Maximum number of listings returned per run.

## `mode` (type: `string`):

Choose a one-time scrape or monitor for new and changed listings.

## `monitorStateId` (type: `string`):

Name of the saved monitor state used between runs.

## `area` (type: `string`):

Area slug used as a subdomain, for example newyork.

## `queries` (type: `array`):

Search terms to find listings in the selected Craigslist location.

## `maxPages` (type: `integer`):

Only the verified first page is supported.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "maxItems": 20,
  "mode": "scrape",
  "area": "newyork",
  "queries": [
    "bike"
  ],
  "maxPages": 1
}
```

# Actor output Schema

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

No description

## `resultsTable` (type: `string`):

No description

## `runSummary` (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 = {
    "maxItems": 20
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("datahamster/craigslist-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 = { "maxItems": 20 }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("datahamster/craigslist-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 '{
  "maxItems": 20
}' |
apify call datahamster/craigslist-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,datahamster/craigslist-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/hofVJCVUAAWNatSC8/builds/wpgaowyJgUA1DtPoW/openapi.json