# Website to RAG Markdown Crawler (`knotted_tussock/rag-markdown-crawler`) Actor Crawl any website or docs site and export clean Markdown plus JSONL-style chunks for RAG, LLM apps, and AI agents. - **URL**: https://apify.com/knotted\_tussock/rag-markdown-crawler.md - **Developed by:** [Ralph T](https://apify.com/knotted_tussock) (community) - **Categories:** AI, Developer tools, Automation - **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks - **User rating**: No ratings yet ## Pricing from $0.50 / 1,000 results This Actor is paid per event and usage. You are charged both the fixed price for specific events and for Apify platform usage. Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/platform/actors/running/actors-in-store#pay-per-event ## What's an Apify Actor? Actors are a software tools running on the Apify platform, for all kinds of web data extraction and automation use cases. 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. Actors are written with capital "A". ## 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. The best way to integrate Actors is as follows. In JavaScript/TypeScript projects, use official [JavaScript/TypeScript client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js.md): ```bash npm install apify-client ``` In Python projects, use official [Python client library](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python.md): ```bash pip install apify-client ``` In shell scripts, use [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): ````bash # MacOS / Linux curl -fsSL https://apify.com/install-cli.sh | bash # Windows irm https://apify.com/install-cli.ps1 | iex ```bash In AI frameworks, you might use the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/platform/integrations/mcp.md). If your project is in a different language, use the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md). For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below. For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt). # README ## Website to RAG Markdown Crawler Crawl any website, documentation site, blog, or sitemap and export clean Markdown plus JSONL-style chunks for RAG, LLM apps, AI agents, and vector database pipelines. ### What it does - Starts from one or more web pages or `sitemap.xml` URLs. - Expands sitemap indexes and sitemap URL sets into crawlable page URLs. - Follows same-domain links up to a configurable depth. - Removes navigation/footer/script/style noise. - Converts HTML to clean Markdown. - Emits both full-page records and smaller RAG chunk records. - Adds estimated token counts for pages and chunks. - Includes source URL, title, description, timestamps, character counts, token estimates, and chunk metadata. ### Best for - Preparing documentation sites for RAG. - Building AI chatbot or AI support-bot knowledge bases. - Creating clean Markdown from help centers, blogs, changelogs, and product docs. - Turning competitor docs/blogs into structured internal research data. - Feeding LangChain, LlamaIndex, Supabase, Chroma, Pinecone, Qdrant, or custom vector pipelines. ### Input example ```json { "startUrls": [{ "url": "https://docs.apify.com/sitemap.xml" }], "maxPages": 25, "maxDepth": 1, "expandSitemaps": true, "maxSitemapUrls": 5000, "includePatterns": ["^https://docs\\.apify\\.com/platform/actors"], "excludePatterns": ["/login", "/signup", "#"], "removeSelectors": ["nav", "footer", "script", "style", "noscript", "svg"], "chunkSize": 1200, "chunkOverlap": 150, "sameDomainOnly": true, "includePageRecords": true } ```` ### Output records The Actor defines Apify dataset/output schemas so the Output tab has dedicated views for RAG chunks, full pages, and metadata. The default dataset contains two record types by default. #### `page` Full-page Markdown record: ```json { "recordType": "page", "url": "https://example.com/", "requestedUrl": "https://example.com/", "title": "Example Domain", "description": "", "source": "sitemap", "sitemapUrl": "https://example.com/sitemap.xml", "markdown": "# Example Domain...", "charCount": 167, "estimatedTokenCount": 42, "tokenCountMethod": "approx_chars_per_4", "chunkCount": 1, "crawledAt": "2026-07-04T00:00:00.000Z" } ``` #### `chunk` RAG-ready chunk record: ```json { "recordType": "chunk", "url": "https://example.com/", "title": "Example Domain", "chunkIndex": 0, "chunkCount": 1, "text": "# Example Domain...", "charCount": 167, "estimatedTokenCount": 42, "tokenCountMethod": "approx_chars_per_4", "metadata": { "source": "https://example.com/", "title": "Example Domain", "crawledAt": "2026-07-04T00:00:00.000Z", "sourceType": "sitemap", "sitemapUrl": "https://example.com/sitemap.xml" } } ``` ### Sitemap support If a start URL looks like a sitemap, for example `https://example.com/sitemap.xml`, the Actor extracts URLs from `` entries and crawls the matching pages. Sitemap indexes are followed recursively. Use `includePatterns` and `excludePatterns` to focus large sitemaps before crawling. ### Token counts The Actor includes an `estimatedTokenCount` field for each page and chunk using a fast `approx_chars_per_4` method. This is useful for budgeting embedding jobs and sizing RAG chunks. Treat it as an estimate rather than an exact model-specific tokenizer count. ### Example workflow 1. Enter a website URL or sitemap URL. 2. Set `maxPages` and `maxDepth` to control crawl size. 3. Use `includePatterns` / `excludePatterns` to keep the crawl focused. 4. Run the Actor. 5. Export `chunk` records as JSON/JSONL. 6. Load those chunks into your vector database or RAG pipeline. ### Notes - This Actor is optimized for regular HTML pages, blogs, documentation sites, and help centers. - JavaScript-heavy single-page apps may need a browser-based crawler variant. - Keep `maxPages` low for first runs, inspect output, then scale up. - Disable `includePageRecords` if you only want chunk records for embedding. # Actor input Schema ## `startUrls` (type: `array`): Website pages or sitemap XML URLs to crawl. Sitemap URLs are expanded when Expand sitemaps is enabled. ## `maxPages` (type: `integer`): Maximum number of HTML pages to crawl after sitemap expansion and link discovery. ## `maxDepth` (type: `integer`): How far to follow same-domain links from non-sitemap start URLs. Sitemap-expanded URLs start at depth 0. ## `expandSitemaps` (type: `boolean`): When a start URL looks like a sitemap XML file, extract page URLs from it and crawl those pages. ## `maxSitemapUrls` (type: `integer`): Maximum number of URLs to read from sitemaps before maxPages is applied. ## `includePatterns` (type: `array`): Optional regex patterns. If set, only matching URLs are crawled. ## `excludePatterns` (type: `array`): Regex patterns for URLs to skip. ## `removeSelectors` (type: `array`): Elements to remove before markdown conversion. ## `chunkSize` (type: `integer`): Approximate markdown characters per RAG chunk. Set 0 to disable chunks. ## `chunkOverlap` (type: `integer`): Approximate overlapping characters between chunks. ## `sameDomainOnly` (type: `boolean`): Only follow links on the same hostname as the current page or sitemap. ## `includePageRecords` (type: `boolean`): Include full-page markdown records in addition to chunk records. Disable if you only want RAG chunks. ## Actor input object example ```json { "startUrls": [ { "url": "https://docs.apify.com/sitemap.xml" } ], "maxPages": 25, "maxDepth": 1, "expandSitemaps": true, "maxSitemapUrls": 5000, "includePatterns": [], "excludePatterns": [ "/login", "/signup", "#" ], "removeSelectors": [ "nav", "footer", "script", "style", "noscript", "svg" ], "chunkSize": 1200, "chunkOverlap": 150, "sameDomainOnly": true, "includePageRecords": true } ``` # Actor output Schema ## `results` (type: `string`): All page and chunk records in the default dataset. Use the dataset views to inspect RAG chunks, full pages, or metadata. ## `ragChunks` (type: `string`): Default dataset opened with the RAG chunks view selected for embedding/vector database workflows. ## `summary` (type: `string`): Summary JSON containing pages saved, chunks saved, estimated token count, and sitemap queue counts. # 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 '' with your token const client = new ApifyClient({ token: '', }); // Prepare Actor input const input = { "startUrls": [ { "url": "https://docs.apify.com/sitemap.xml" } ] }; // Run the Actor and wait for it to finish const run = await client.actor("knotted_tussock/rag-markdown-crawler").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 '' with your token. client = ApifyClient("") # Prepare the Actor input run_input = { "startUrls": [{ "url": "https://docs.apify.com/sitemap.xml" }] } # Run the Actor and wait for it to finish run = client.actor("knotted_tussock/rag-markdown-crawler").call(run_input=run_input) # Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any) print("💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/" + run["defaultDatasetId"]) for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).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://docs.apify.com/sitemap.xml" } ] }' | apify call knotted_tussock/rag-markdown-crawler --silent --output-dataset ``` ## MCP server setup ```json { "mcpServers": { "apify": { "command": "npx", "args": [ "mcp-remote", "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=knotted_tussock/rag-markdown-crawler", "--header", "Authorization: Bearer " ] } } } ``` ## OpenAPI specification ```json { "openapi": "3.0.1", "info": { "title": "Website to RAG Markdown Crawler", "description": "Crawl any website or docs site and export clean Markdown plus JSONL-style chunks for RAG, LLM apps, and AI agents.", "version": "0.1", "x-build-id": "69p623bYF3DFeMha7" }, "servers": [ { "url": "https://api.apify.com/v2" } ], "paths": { "/acts/knotted_tussock~rag-markdown-crawler/run-sync-get-dataset-items": { "post": { "operationId": "run-sync-get-dataset-items-knotted_tussock-rag-markdown-crawler", "x-openai-isConsequential": false, "summary": "Executes an Actor, waits for its completion, and returns Actor's dataset items in response.", "tags": [ "Run Actor" ], "requestBody": { "required": true, "content": { "application/json": { "schema": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema" } } } }, "parameters": [ { "name": "token", "in": "query", "required": true, "schema": { "type": "string" }, "description": "Enter your Apify token here" } ], "responses": { "200": { "description": "OK" } } } }, "/acts/knotted_tussock~rag-markdown-crawler/runs": { "post": { "operationId": "runs-sync-knotted_tussock-rag-markdown-crawler", "x-openai-isConsequential": false, "summary": "Executes an Actor and returns information about the initiated run in response.", "tags": [ "Run Actor" ], "requestBody": { "required": true, "content": { "application/json": { "schema": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema" } } } }, "parameters": [ { "name": "token", "in": "query", "required": true, "schema": { "type": "string" }, "description": "Enter your Apify token here" } ], "responses": { "200": { "description": "OK", "content": { "application/json": { "schema": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/runsResponseSchema" } } } } } } }, "/acts/knotted_tussock~rag-markdown-crawler/run-sync": { "post": { "operationId": "run-sync-knotted_tussock-rag-markdown-crawler", "x-openai-isConsequential": false, "summary": "Executes an Actor, waits for completion, and returns the OUTPUT from Key-value store in response.", "tags": [ "Run Actor" ], "requestBody": { "required": true, "content": { "application/json": { "schema": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema" } } } }, "parameters": [ { "name": "token", "in": "query", "required": true, "schema": { "type": "string" }, "description": "Enter your Apify token here" } ], "responses": { "200": { "description": "OK" } } } } }, "components": { "schemas": { "inputSchema": { "type": "object", "required": [ "startUrls" ], "properties": { "startUrls": { "title": "Start URLs or sitemap URLs", "type": "array", "description": "Website pages or sitemap XML URLs to crawl. Sitemap URLs are expanded when Expand sitemaps is enabled.", "items": { "type": "object", "required": [ "url" ], "properties": { "url": { "type": "string", "title": "URL of a web page", "format": "uri" } } } }, "maxPages": { "title": "Maximum pages", "minimum": 1, "maximum": 10000, "type": "integer", "description": "Maximum number of HTML pages to crawl after sitemap expansion and link discovery.", "default": 25 }, "maxDepth": { "title": "Maximum link depth", "minimum": 0, "maximum": 20, "type": "integer", "description": "How far to follow same-domain links from non-sitemap start URLs. Sitemap-expanded URLs start at depth 0.", "default": 1 }, "expandSitemaps": { "title": "Expand sitemaps", "type": "boolean", "description": "When a start URL looks like a sitemap XML file, extract page URLs from it and crawl those pages.", "default": true }, "maxSitemapUrls": { "title": "Maximum sitemap URLs", "minimum": 1, "maximum": 50000, "type": "integer", "description": "Maximum number of URLs to read from sitemaps before maxPages is applied.", "default": 5000 }, "includePatterns": { "title": "Include URL patterns", "type": "array", "description": "Optional regex patterns. If set, only matching URLs are crawled.", "default": [], "items": { "type": "string" } }, "excludePatterns": { "title": "Exclude URL patterns", "type": "array", "description": "Regex patterns for URLs to skip.", "default": [ "/login", "/signup", "#" ], "items": { "type": "string" } }, "removeSelectors": { "title": "Remove CSS selectors", "type": "array", "description": "Elements to remove before markdown conversion.", "default": [ "nav", "footer", "script", "style", "noscript", "svg" ], "items": { "type": "string" } }, "chunkSize": { "title": "Chunk size", "minimum": 0, "maximum": 20000, "type": "integer", "description": "Approximate markdown characters per RAG chunk. Set 0 to disable chunks.", "default": 1200 }, "chunkOverlap": { "title": "Chunk overlap", "minimum": 0, "maximum": 5000, "type": "integer", "description": "Approximate overlapping characters between chunks.", "default": 150 }, "sameDomainOnly": { "title": "Same domain only", "type": "boolean", "description": "Only follow links on the same hostname as the current page or sitemap.", "default": true }, "includePageRecords": { "title": "Include full-page records", "type": "boolean", "description": "Include full-page markdown records in addition to chunk records. Disable if you only want RAG chunks.", "default": true } } }, "runsResponseSchema": { "type": "object", "properties": { "data": { "type": "object", "properties": { "id": { "type": "string" }, "actId": { "type": "string" }, "userId": { "type": "string" }, "startedAt": { "type": "string", "format": "date-time", "example": "2025-01-08T00:00:00.000Z" }, "finishedAt": { "type": "string", "format": "date-time", "example": "2025-01-08T00:00:00.000Z" }, "status": { "type": "string", "example": "READY" }, "meta": { "type": "object", "properties": { "origin": { "type": "string", "example": "API" }, "userAgent": { "type": "string" } } }, "stats": { "type": "object", "properties": { "inputBodyLen": { "type": "integer", "example": 2000 }, "rebootCount": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "restartCount": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "resurrectCount": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "computeUnits": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 } } }, "options": { "type": "object", "properties": { "build": { "type": "string", "example": "latest" }, "timeoutSecs": { "type": "integer", "example": 300 }, "memoryMbytes": { "type": "integer", "example": 1024 }, "diskMbytes": { "type": "integer", "example": 2048 } } }, "buildId": { "type": "string" }, "defaultKeyValueStoreId": { "type": "string" }, "defaultDatasetId": { "type": "string" }, "defaultRequestQueueId": { "type": "string" }, "buildNumber": { "type": "string", "example": "1.0.0" }, "containerUrl": { "type": "string" }, "usage": { "type": "object", "properties": { "ACTOR_COMPUTE_UNITS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATASET_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATASET_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 1 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_LISTS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "REQUEST_QUEUE_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "REQUEST_QUEUE_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATA_TRANSFER_INTERNAL_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATA_TRANSFER_EXTERNAL_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "PROXY_RESIDENTIAL_TRANSFER_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "PROXY_SERPS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 } } }, "usageTotalUsd": { "type": "number", "example": 0.00005 }, "usageUsd": { "type": "object", "properties": { "ACTOR_COMPUTE_UNITS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATASET_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATASET_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_WRITES": { "type": "number", "example": 0.00005 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_LISTS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "REQUEST_QUEUE_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "REQUEST_QUEUE_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATA_TRANSFER_INTERNAL_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATA_TRANSFER_EXTERNAL_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "PROXY_RESIDENTIAL_TRANSFER_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "PROXY_SERPS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 } } } } } } } } } } ```