Matrix Chat Scraper — Rooms & Message History

Extract public room listings and message history from any Matrix homeserver, including matrix.org. Operates in two modes: discover public rooms without authentication, or retrieve full message history from specific rooms using an access token. Returns structured JSON with room metadata, message content, reply threads, and media references.

What does the Matrix Chat Scraper do?

• Discover mode — Lists public rooms on any Matrix homeserver without login; returns room name, topic, member count, join rules, and encryption status
• Scrape mode — Retrieves message history from one or more rooms using a Matrix access token; returns messages, replies, edits, thread IDs, and media URLs
• Supports optional search filtering to narrow public room discovery by keyword
• Works with any Matrix homeserver (matrix.org, mozilla.org, self-hosted, etc.)
• Returns two record types in the same dataset: room and message

What data does it extract?

Room records (record_type: room)

Field	Description
record_type	room
room_id	Matrix room ID (e.g. !abc123:matrix.org)
room_name	Display name of the room
room_topic	Room topic or description
room_canonical_alias	Canonical alias (e.g. #roomname:matrix.org)
room_member_count	Current member count
room_is_encrypted	Whether the room uses end-to-end encryption
room_join_rule	Join rule: public, invite, knock, etc.
room_world_readable	Whether history is visible without joining
room_guest_can_join	Whether guests can join
room_avatar_url	Room avatar MXC URL
room_type	Matrix room type if set
homeserver	Homeserver domain

Message records (record_type: message)

Field	Description
record_type	message
event_id	Unique Matrix event ID
event_type	Matrix event type (e.g. m.room.message)
event_sender	Sender MXID (e.g. @user:matrix.org)
event_sender_display_name	Display name of the sender
event_origin_server_ts	Server timestamp (milliseconds since epoch)
event_content_msgtype	Message type (m.text, m.image, m.file, etc.)
event_content_body	Plain text message body
event_content_formatted_body	HTML-formatted body where available
event_content_url	MXC URL for media messages
event_reply_to	Event ID of the message being replied to
event_thread_id	Thread root event ID if part of a thread
event_edits	Array of edit event IDs for this message
event_room_id	Room ID this message belongs to

How to use it

Choose action: discover_rooms requires only a homeserver URL. scrape_room_messages requires an access token and at least one room ID. Access tokens do not expire by default on most homeservers but can be revoked via Element settings if needed.

Field	Type	Default	Description
action	string	discover_rooms	discover_rooms or scrape_room_messages
homeserver	string	https://matrix.org	Matrix homeserver URL
accessToken	string	—	Matrix access token (required for scrape_room_messages). Secret field.
roomIds	array	—	List of room IDs to scrape (e.g. !abc123:matrix.org)
searchTerm	string	—	Keyword filter for room discovery
maxItems	integer	10	Maximum records to return
maxMessagesPerRoom	integer	100	Maximum messages to retrieve per room
messageDirection	string	b	Pagination direction: b (backwards from latest) or f (forwards from oldest)

Use cases

• Open-source community analysis — matrix.org alone hosts 100,000+ public rooms covering tech projects, gaming communities, and decentralized apps; map community size and topic distribution at scale.
• Academic linguistics research — Collect multilingual message corpora from Matrix federated servers for NLP training, sentiment analysis, or comparative linguistics studies.
• Content moderation tooling — Discover public rooms matching specific keywords and monitor message content for policy-violating material across open Matrix communities.
• Competitive intelligence — Track discussion volumes and sentiment in technology or gaming community rooms without requiring a login to join.
• Archival and research — Preserve message history from public rooms using the messageDirection: f mode to paginate from the earliest available messages forward.

FAQ

How do I get a Matrix access token? Log in to your Matrix client (e.g. Element), go to Settings > Help & About > Advanced, and copy the Access Token shown there. The token authenticates as your account on the homeserver you specify.

Does the actor decrypt end-to-end encrypted messages? No. The actor retrieves events from the Matrix Client-Server API. Encrypted rooms return encrypted event payloads — the decryption keys are not accessible via the API without a full E2E key export. Use discover_rooms to identify whether a room is encrypted (room_is_encrypted: true) before attempting to scrape it.

Can I scrape messages from a private room? Yes, provided your access token is for an account that is already a member of that room. The roomIds input accepts any room ID your account can read.

Results are available for export in JSON, CSV, and Excel formats from the Apify dataset tab.