Flarum Forum Scraper - Discussions, Replies & Tags

Scrape any Flarum community in bulk. Extract discussion title, URL, author, tags, comment count, participant count, creation and last-post dates, plus sticky, locked and best-answer flags to CSV/JSON. No API key, no login.

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What does the Flarum Scraper do?

This Actor turns Flarum data into a structured dataset. You point it at a whole forum or a search, most commented first, it walks the result pages one after another, and it writes one clean row per discussion into your dataset — ready to export as JSON, CSV or Excel, or to pull straight from the Apify API.

Flarum ships a JSON:API that its own front end reads, so every community running it answers /api/discussions without authentication. Authors and tags arrive as bare ids with the real records in a sibling included array, and the Actor joins the two so each row names the person and the topics rather than leaving numbers behind. Pagination is followed automatically until it runs out of results, hits your page limit or hits your Max items cap, whichever comes first. Every row is de-duplicated across the whole run, so you are never billed twice for the same discussion.

There is no API key, no login and no browser involved. That keeps runs fast and cheap, and it means you can schedule the Actor without worrying about credentials expiring.

Who is it for?

• Product and support teams mining their own community for recurring issues.
• Competitive-intelligence analysts watching a rival's user forum.
• Community managers measuring engagement over time.
• Researchers studying how niche communities discuss a subject.
• Content teams finding real questions worth answering publicly.

Use cases

• Export a forum's discussions and rank them by comment count.
• Find unanswered threads by filtering on best-answer and reply counts.
• Track which tags attract the most activity.
• Build a dataset of real user questions for support planning.
• Compare activity across several communities in one run.

Why use this Flarum Scraper?

• 🔑 Keyless — no account, no API token, no cookies to paste.
• 📦 23 fields per discussion — everything the source exposes, already typed.
• 📄 Real pagination — it walks page after page instead of returning the first screen.
• 🎯 Precise caps — Max items stops the run exactly where you want it, so the bill is predictable.
• 📊 Export anywhere — JSON, CSV, Excel or HTML, plus the Apify API and integrations.
• 💸 Pay per result — you pay for rows you actually receive, with no platform fees to calculate.

What data can you extract?

Every run produces one row per discussion, with these fields:

Field	Type	Description
forumDomain	string	Domain of the Flarum forum this row came from
discussionId	string	Flarum discussion ID
title	string	Discussion title
slug	string	URL slug of the discussion
discussionUrl	string	Direct link to the discussion
authorUsername	string	Username of the member who started it
authorDisplayName	string	Display name of the author when published
tags	string	Tag names, separated by a pipe
commentCount	number	Number of posts in the discussion
participantCount	number	Distinct members taking part
lastPostNumber	number	Position of the most recent post
createdAt	string	ISO timestamp the discussion was created
lastPostedAt	string	ISO timestamp of the most recent post
lastPostedBy	string	Username of the most recent poster
hasBestAnswer	boolean	Whether a reply is marked as the answer
bestAnswerSetAt	string	ISO timestamp the best answer was chosen
isSticky	boolean	Whether the discussion is pinned
isLocked	boolean	Whether it is closed to replies
isApproved	boolean	Whether it passed moderation
hasPoll	boolean	Whether the discussion carries a poll
query	string	Search term this row came from, or the whole forum
page	number	Listing page the discussion appeared on
scrapedAt	string	ISO timestamp of extraction

Output example

{
  "forumDomain": "discuss.flarum.org",
  "discussionId": "39779",
  "title": "\ud83c\udf0d Language Detection \u2013 Auto Switching by IP & System",
  "slug": "39779-language-detection-auto-switching-by-ip-system",
  "discussionUrl": "https://discuss.flarum.org/d/39779-language-detection-auto-switching-by-ip-system",
  "authorUsername": "huseyinfiliz",
  "authorDisplayName": "huseyinfiliz",
  "tags": "Extensions | 1.x",
  "commentCount": 77,
  "participantCount": 9,
  "lastPostNumber": 79,
  "createdAt": "2026-08-31T10:23:22+00:00",
  "lastPostedAt": "2026-09-17T18:50:25+00:00",
  "lastPostedBy": "ClaudiusH",
  "hasBestAnswer": false,
  "bestAnswerSetAt": null,
  "isSticky": false,
  "isLocked": false,
  "isApproved": true,
  "hasPoll": false,
  "query": "whole forum",
  "page": 2,
  "scrapedAt": "2026-09-20T12:41:55.203Z"
}

How to use

Option A — a whole forum

{
  "maxItems": 1000,
  "maxPagesPerForum": 20,
  "sortBy": "newest",
  "forumUrls": [
    "https://discuss.flarum.org"
  ]
}

1. Open the Actor and fill in the first field.
2. Set the page limit and Max items to bound the run.
3. Click Start, then export from the Output tab.

Option B — a search, most commented first

{
  "maxItems": 500,
  "maxPagesPerForum": 10,
  "searchQuery": "extension",
  "sortBy": "commented",
  "forumUrls": [
    "https://discuss.flarum.org"
  ]
}

Everything in the first field is processed independently, so you can batch several targets into one run and split them apart afterwards.

Input parameters

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
forumUrls	array	–	Home pages of the Flarum forums to scrape, e.
searchQuery	string	–	Use the forum's own search instead of walking every discussion.
sortBy	string	newest	Which order to walk the discussion list in.
maxPagesPerForum	integer	8	How many result pages to walk for each forum.
maxItems	integer	500	Stop after this many discussions.
maxConcurrency	integer	2	Parallel requests.
proxyConfiguration	object	{"useApifyProxy": true}	Proxy used to fetch pages.

Tips for best results

• Paste the forum's home page, e.g. https://discuss.flarum.org — the Actor appends the API path.
• Leave the search term empty to walk the whole forum newest-first.
• Sort switches between newest, latest activity and most commented.
• Each page returns up to 50 discussions, so plan page counts accordingly.
• commentCount and participantCount together are the clearest engagement signal.
• hasBestAnswer false with a high commentCount finds unresolved discussions.
• Tags are only filled on forums that enabled the tags extension.
• Private discussions never appear — the Actor reads only what a logged-out visitor sees.
• Some Flarum installs publish a next-page link that points at the wrong host; the Actor paginates by offset instead, so that does not break a run.
• Keep concurrency low — most Flarum forums are small community servers.

Integrations

Send results straight into the tools you already use: Google Sheets, Slack, Zapier, Make, Airtable or any Webhook. You can also schedule the Actor to run hourly, daily or weekly and have each run append to the same dataset, which is how you build a price or availability history rather than a one-off snapshot.

API usage

Run the Actor and collect results from any language. Replace <YOUR_TOKEN> with your Apify API token.

cURL

curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/logiover~flarum-forum-scraper/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=<YOUR_TOKEN>" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"maxItems": 1000, "maxPagesPerForum": 20, "sortBy": "newest", "forumUrls": ["https://discuss.flarum.org"]}'

Node.js

import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

const client = new ApifyClient({ token: '<YOUR_TOKEN>' });
const run = await client.actor('logiover/flarum-forum-scraper').call({"maxItems": 1000, "maxPagesPerForum": 20, "sortBy": "newest", "forumUrls": ["https://discuss.flarum.org"]});
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
console.log(items);

Python

from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient('<YOUR_TOKEN>')
run = client.actor('logiover/flarum-forum-scraper').call(run_input={"maxItems": 1000, "maxPagesPerForum": 20, "sortBy": "newest", "forumUrls": ["https://discuss.flarum.org"]})
for item in client.dataset(run['defaultDatasetId']).iterate_items():
    print(item)

Use with AI agents (MCP)

This Actor is available through the Apify MCP server, so an AI agent can call it as a tool. Point your agent at https://mcp.apify.com and it can run the Flarum Scraper on demand — for example: "Pull the first 500 discussions from Flarum and summarise what you find." The agent receives the same structured rows you would get from the UI.

FAQ

Do I need a Flarum account or API key?

No. The Actor reads publicly available data only. There is nothing to authenticate and no credentials to rotate.

How many discussions can I get in one run?

As many as the source exposes. Raise the page limit and Max items together; the run stops at whichever limit it reaches first.

Why did I get fewer rows than I asked for?

The source ran out of discussions. That is normal for narrow searches — broaden the query or add more targets to one run.

Are results de-duplicated?

Yes. Each discussion is emitted once per run, even when it appears on several pages, so you are never billed twice for the same record.

Why are some fields empty?

Flarum does not publish every attribute for every discussion. Empty means the source did not supply it, not that extraction failed.

What export formats are supported?

JSON, CSV, Excel, HTML and RSS from the Output tab, plus the Apify API and any integration you connect.

How fast is it?

It is pure HTTP with no browser, so a page of results typically takes a second or two. Raise Max concurrency carefully — the source rate-limits aggressive crawling.

Can I schedule it?

Yes. Use the Apify scheduler to run it on any interval and append each run to the same dataset for time-series analysis.

Does it work behind a proxy?

It uses Apify Proxy automatically. You can switch groups or supply your own proxies in Proxy configuration.

How often does the data change?

Flarum updates continuously. Re-run whenever you need current data; the Actor always reads the live source, never a cache.

Is the output schema stable?

Yes. Field names and types are fixed, so downstream pipelines will not break between runs.

What if the source changes its format?

Open an issue on the Issues tab and it gets fixed. The Actor is actively maintained.

Is it legal?

This Actor reads only publicly available data from Flarum — the same content any visitor or client sees without logging in. It does not bypass authentication, does not collect private data and does not attempt to defeat access controls. You are responsible for how you use the output: respect the source's terms of service, applicable copyright, and data-protection law such as GDPR where personal data is involved. Scraping public data is generally lawful in the EU and the US, but the responsibility for the downstream use of that data sits with you.

Related scrapers

• Discourse Forum Scraper — The other major forum platform
• Reddit Search Scraper — Broader community source
• Stack Exchange Scraper — Technical Q&A
• Lemmy Scraper — Federated communities