# Reliable Sitemap URL Extractor (`ethical_acumen/reliable-sitemap-extractor`) Actor

Extract every URL from a site's sitemaps, including gzip, nested indexes and malformed XML, with a run summary that explains any failures.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/ethical_acumen/reliable-sitemap-extractor.md
- **Developed by:** [ITEC Consulting](https://apify.com/ethical_acumen) (community)
- **Categories:** Developer tools, SEO tools
- **Security:** Limited permissions
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

$0.10 / 1,000 url extracteds

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

## Reliable Sitemap URL Extractor

Extract all URLs from a website's sitemap.xml. Enter a domain or sitemap URL and get a de-duplicated list with `lastmod`, `changefreq` and `priority`. Nested indexes, `.xml.gz` and plain-text sitemaps are followed, and URLs are recovered from malformed XML (flagged per row). A broken child sitemap doesn't stop the run: `RUN_SUMMARY` lists it with the reason. $0.10 per 1,000 URLs; sites with no sitemap cost $0.

### Why this one: it finishes

Real-world sitemaps are messy. This Actor is built to keep going and tell you exactly what happened:

- Finds sitemaps automatically from `robots.txt`, then falls back to common paths (`/sitemap.xml`, `/sitemap_index.xml`, `/wp-sitemap.xml`, `.gz`, `.txt`)
- Follows nested sitemap indexes, with loop protection
- Reads gzipped sitemaps (`.xml.gz` or gzip-encoded responses) and plain-text sitemaps
- **Recovers URLs from malformed XML** (unescaped `&`, truncated files, junk before the root tag) and flags those rows
- A broken child sitemap (404, timeout, HTML page) is listed in the run summary; the rest of the site is still extracted
- An unreachable site or a site with no sitemap is reported in `RUN_SUMMARY`, and the run doesn't crash

### Output

Dataset, one row per unique page URL: `url, lastmod, changefreq, priority, sitemap, site, recovered_from_malformed_xml`.
Key-value store `RUN_SUMMARY`: per site, how sitemaps were found, sitemaps parsed and failed (with reasons), URLs, duplicates skipped, notes.

### Pricing

**$0.10 per 1,000 URLs** (pay per event "url-extracted"). No platform-usage charges. Sites with no sitemap cost nothing. Set "max charge per run" in Apify to cap spend.

### What it does not do

- It doesn't crawl pages or check each page's HTTP status; it only reads the sitemap files a site publishes for search engines. Use a crawler if a site has no sitemap.
- It doesn't bypass bot protection, logins or paywalls; such sites are reported as "no sitemap found" or as fetch errors.
- `lastmod` and the other fields are whatever the site declares.

### Input

`startUrls` (domains or sitemap URLs), `maxUrls` (default 100,000 total), `sameHostOnly`, `requestTimeoutSecs`.

The example input runs `shopify.com` first, then `github.blog`, with Max URLs set to 5,000 (about $0.50). `maxUrls` is a total for the whole run and sites run in input order, so github.blog (more than 5,000 URLs in its sitemaps) stops when the run reaches 5,000. Its `RUN_SUMMARY` entry then shows a "stopped at maxUrls=…" note. That is expected.

# Actor input Schema

## `startUrls` (type: `array`):

A domain (example.com) to auto-discover sitemaps via robots.txt and common paths, or a direct sitemap URL (.xml, .xml.gz, .txt, or a sitemap index).

## `maxUrls` (type: `integer`):

Max URLs (total)

## `sameHostOnly` (type: `boolean`):

Only URLs on the same host

## `requestTimeoutSecs` (type: `integer`):

Request timeout (seconds)

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "startUrls": [
    {
      "url": "https://shopify.com"
    },
    {
      "url": "https://github.blog"
    }
  ],
  "maxUrls": 5000,
  "sameHostOnly": false,
  "requestTimeoutSecs": 20
}
```

# Actor output Schema

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

One dataset item per result.

## `runSummary` (type: `string`):

Per-site/per-run summary JSON with counts, failures and notes.

# 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 = {
    "startUrls": [
        {
            "url": "https://shopify.com"
        },
        {
            "url": "https://github.blog"
        }
    ],
    "maxUrls": 5000
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("ethical_acumen/reliable-sitemap-extractor").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 = {
    "startUrls": [
        { "url": "https://shopify.com" },
        { "url": "https://github.blog" },
    ],
    "maxUrls": 5000,
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("ethical_acumen/reliable-sitemap-extractor").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 '{
  "startUrls": [
    {
      "url": "https://shopify.com"
    },
    {
      "url": "https://github.blog"
    }
  ],
  "maxUrls": 5000
}' |
apify call ethical_acumen/reliable-sitemap-extractor --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,ethical_acumen/reliable-sitemap-extractor"
        }
    }
}
```

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/uxb36clzcKV2SPYme/builds/giH3hIqv89aMw39GE/openapi.json