Open VSX Scraper - VS Code Extensions & Downloads

Scrape the Open VSX registry in bulk. Extract extension ID, namespace, display name, description, version, download count, average rating, review count, verification and deprecation status to CSV/JSON. No API key, no login.

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What does the Open VSX Scraper do?

This Actor turns Open VSX data into a structured dataset. You point it at the whole registry by downloads or by keyword, best rated, it walks the result pages one after another, and it writes one clean row per extension into your dataset — ready to export as JSON, CSV or Excel, or to pull straight from the Apify API.

Open VSX is the vendor-neutral registry that VS Code forks such as VSCodium, Gitpod, Cursor and Theia install extensions from, and unlike Microsoft's marketplace it answers a plain keyless REST API. Download counts and ratings come back on the search response itself, so an export is market data rather than a directory listing. 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 extension.

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?

• Extension developers sizing a category before building.
• Tooling teams vetting extensions before rolling them out.
• Developer-relations teams tracking adoption of an editor ecosystem.
• Market researchers measuring the VS Code extension market.
• Security teams auditing which extensions a fleet installs.

Use cases

• Export the registry and rank extensions by download count.
• Find deprecated extensions that are still widely installed.
• Compare ratings and review counts across competing extensions.
• Measure how crowded an extension category already is.
• Track which publishers ship the most extensions.

Why use this Open VSX Scraper?

• 🔑 Keyless — no account, no API token, no cookies to paste.
• 📦 18 fields per extension — 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 extension, with these fields:

Field	Type	Description
extensionId	string	Fully qualified ID, namespace.name
namespace	string	Publisher namespace
name	string	Extension name
displayName	string	Human-readable name shown in the editor
description	string	Extension description
version	string	Latest published version
downloadCount	number	Total downloads reported by the registry
averageRating	number	Average user rating out of five
reviewCount	number	Number of reviews
isVerified	boolean	Whether the namespace owner is verified
isDeprecated	boolean	Whether the extension is marked deprecated
publishedAt	string	ISO timestamp of the latest publication
extensionUrl	string	Open VSX page for the extension
downloadUrl	string	Direct VSIX download URL when published
iconUrl	string	Extension icon URL
query	string	Search term this row came from
page	number	Result page the extension appeared on
scrapedAt	string	ISO timestamp of extraction

Output example

{
  "extensionId": "meta.pyrefly",
  "namespace": "meta",
  "name": "pyrefly",
  "displayName": "Pyrefly - Python Language Tooling",
  "description": "Python autocomplete, typechecking, code navigation and more! Powered by Pyrefly, an open-source language server",
  "version": "1.3.9001",
  "downloadCount": 85828739,
  "averageRating": 4.428571428571429,
  "reviewCount": 7,
  "isVerified": true,
  "isDeprecated": false,
  "publishedAt": "2026-09-19T00:38:11.514611Z",
  "extensionUrl": "https://open-vsx.org/api/meta/pyrefly",
  "downloadUrl": "https://open-vsx.org/api/meta/pyrefly/alpine-arm64/1.3.9001/file/meta.pyrefly-1.3.9001@alpine-arm64.vsix",
  "iconUrl": "https://open-vsx.org/api/meta/pyrefly/alpine-arm64/1.3.9001/file/pyrefly-symbol.png",
  "query": "whole registry",
  "page": 1,
  "scrapedAt": "2026-09-21T10:18:44.902Z"
}

How to use

Option A — the whole registry by downloads

{
  "maxItems": 2000,
  "maxPagesPerSearch": 4,
  "searchTerms": [],
  "sortBy": "downloadCount"
}

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 — by keyword, best rated

{
  "maxItems": 500,
  "maxPagesPerSearch": 2,
  "searchTerms": [
    "python",
    "theme"
  ],
  "sortBy": "averageRating"
}

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
searchTerms	array	[]	Terms to search Open VSX for, e.
sortBy	string	downloadCount	Which order to walk the registry in.
maxPagesPerSearch	integer	4	How many result pages to walk for each search.
maxItems	integer	500	Stop after this many extensions.
maxConcurrency	integer	2	Parallel requests.
proxyConfiguration	object	{"useApifyProxy": true}	Proxy used to fetch pages.

Tips for best results

• Leave the search term empty to walk the whole registry — roughly 18,000 extensions.
• Sort by download count to get the market leaders first, or timestamp for the newest.
• The API returns up to 500 extensions per request, so a full sweep takes very few calls.
• downloadCount here covers VS Code forks, not Microsoft's marketplace — the two are separate markets.
• isDeprecated true with a high downloadCount is worth flagging in any rollout review.
• averageRating is empty until an extension has been reviewed at all.
• extensionId is the string you pass to an editor's install command.
• downloadUrl points straight at the VSIX, ready for an offline install pipeline.
• Schedule a monthly run and append to one dataset to build a download history.
• Pair with the Firefox Add-ons and WordPress Plugin scrapers to compare extension markets.

Run outcomes: an empty result is not the same as a blocked run

A crawl that was refused and a query that genuinely has no matches both produce an empty dataset. Treating them as the same thing makes the output unusable for monitoring, so every run is classified and an unverified emptiness is never reported as success.

Outcome	Run status	Meaning
COMPLETED	Succeeded	Everything requested was fetched and rows were saved.
PARTIAL	Succeeded	Rows were saved, but some pages were unreachable.
EMPTY_RESULT	Succeeded	Pages were fetched and parsed and this query really has no extensions.
BLOCKED	Failed	Every request was refused with HTTP 403/429/503.
NOT_FOUND	Failed	The source answered 404; check the address or filters.
FETCH_FAILED	Failed	Nothing could be fetched for transport reasons.
INCOMPLETE_NO_ROWS	Failed	Pages were skipped and nothing was saved, so an empty result cannot be trusted.

The rule behind the table: a run that fetched nothing can never finish as Succeeded. Each run also writes a SUMMARY record to the key-value store with pages requested, pages fetched, pages skipped, HTTP request and retry counts, a per-status breakdown, transport errors and the termination reason — so the row count is always reconcilable with what the run actually did.

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~open-vsx-extension-scraper/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=<YOUR_TOKEN>" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"maxItems": 2000, "maxPagesPerSearch": 4, "searchTerms": [], "sortBy": "downloadCount"}'

Node.js

import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

const client = new ApifyClient({ token: '<YOUR_TOKEN>' });
const run = await client.actor('logiover/open-vsx-extension-scraper').call({"maxItems": 2000, "maxPagesPerSearch": 4, "searchTerms": [], "sortBy": "downloadCount"});
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/open-vsx-extension-scraper').call(run_input={"maxItems": 2000, "maxPagesPerSearch": 4, "searchTerms": [], "sortBy": "downloadCount"})
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 Open VSX Scraper on demand — for example: "Pull the first 500 extensions from Open VSX and summarise what you find." The agent receives the same structured rows you would get from the UI.

FAQ

Do I need a Open VSX account or API key?

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

How many extensions 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 extensions. That is normal for narrow searches — broaden the query or add more targets to one run.

Are results de-duplicated?

Yes. Each extension 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?

Open VSX does not publish every attribute for every extension. 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?

Open VSX 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 Open VSX — 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

• Firefox Add-ons Scraper — Browser extensions
• WordPress Plugin Scraper — CMS plugins
• Flathub Scraper — Linux desktop apps
• npm Package Intelligence — JavaScript packages