# Medium Scraper - Posts by Author, Tag & New-Post Monitor (`neverempty/medium-posts-monitor`) Actor

Latest Medium posts by author, publication or tag from the public RSS feeds: title, author, date, URL, tags, summary and text length. Turn monitoring on and later runs return only the posts that are new since the last run.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/neverempty/medium-posts-monitor.md
- **Developed by:** [NeverEmpty](https://apify.com/neverempty) (community)
- **Categories:** Social media, News
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $2.80 / 1,000 post returneds

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.
Since this Actor supports Apify Store discounts, the price gets lower the higher subscription plan you have.

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

## Medium Scraper - Posts by Author, Tag & New-Post Monitor

Get the latest Medium posts of any author, publication or tag as clean rows, and let the Actor remember what it already gave you: with monitoring on, a scheduled run returns **only the posts that are new since the last run**. No login, no API key, no browser.

Use it to follow competitors' engineering blogs, the writers in your industry or a topic tag every day, and send only the new posts to a newsletter, a research sheet, a Slack channel or a sales team.

### What you get

One row per post:

| Field | What it is |
| --- | --- |
| `sourceType`, `sourceName` | What the feed says it is: `author` (`@ev`), `publication` (`netflixtechblog.com`, `the-ascent`) or `tag` (`programming`) |
| `title`, `author` | Post title and the author name shown by Medium |
| `publishedAt`, `updatedAt` | ISO 8601, UTC |
| `postUrl` | Link to the post, without Medium's `?source=rss...` tracking value |
| `tags` | The post's tags (up to five) |
| `summary`, `summaryFrom` | Medium's own short summary when the feed has one (`feed-snippet`), otherwise the first 300 characters of the text (`content-start`) |
| `contentInFeed`, `contentLength`, `wordCount` | Whether the feed carries the full text, and its length in characters and words |
| `contentText` / `contentHtml` | The text itself - only when you ask for it (`includeContent`) and only when the feed carries it |
| `imageUrl` | First image of the post, when there is one |
| `postId` | Medium's post ID (the same post has the same ID in every feed) |
| `change`, `isFirstCheck`, `previousCheckedAt` | Monitoring mode: `first-check` or `new-post`, and when the source was last checked |
| `feedTitle`, `feedUrl`, `input`, `scrapedAt` | Which feed the row came from and which input line asked for it |

Claps, responses and reading time are **not** in Medium's feeds, so they are not in the rows. Nothing is estimated.

### Input

```json
{
    "authors": ["@ev"],
    "publications": ["https://netflixtechblog.com", "better-programming"],
    "tags": ["programming", "machine learning"],
    "monitoringMode": true
}
```

- `authors` - `@name`, `name`, or a profile link.
- `publications` - the name in `medium.com/<name>`, a link, or the publication's own domain.
- `tags` - a word or phrase (`machine learning` is read as `machine-learning`), or a tag link.
- `maxPostsPerSource` - newest first, default 10.
- `postedAfter` - optional date; older posts are left out.
- `includeContent` - `none` (default), `text` or `html`.
- `monitoringMode`, `resetMonitoringState` - see below. `resetMonitoringState` forgets everything remembered for this Actor on your account, so the next run starts over (and charges for the starting posts again).

### Monitoring mode: only new posts

1. The first run for a source returns its latest posts once and remembers them (`change: "first-check"`).
2. Every later run returns only posts that were not there before (`change: "new-post"`).
3. A source with nothing new returns no row and is charged one small check. If nothing is new anywhere, the run ends with a single `no-new-posts` row that is not charged.

Sources are remembered one by one, so you can add or remove lines without the others starting over. An author given once as `@ev` and once as `https://ev.medium.com` is the same source. A post that shows up in two of your sources in the same run (an author you follow, writing under a tag you follow) is returned once.

Schedule the Actor (for example hourly or daily) and connect the dataset to your tool of choice; each run's dataset then holds just the new posts.

### Limits you should know

- **A Medium feed holds only the latest 10 posts and has no second page.** This Actor returns up to 10 posts per author, publication or tag per run. It cannot go back in time.
- **In monitoring mode, a source that publishes more than 10 posts between two runs loses the ones in between.** Authors and most publications are fine with a daily run. Popular tags publish 10 posts within minutes: a tag monitor is a sample of the tag, not a complete record. When every post in a feed is new, the run adds a `possible-gap` row (not charged) so that you can see it.
- **Text is included only when Medium puts it in the feed.** Tag feeds carry a short summary only. Author and publication feeds often carry the full text, but not for every post. The Actor never opens the post page, does not log in and does not go around the member paywall, so a post whose text is not in the feed has `contentInFeed: false` and no text. The feed does not say whether a post is member-only, so there is no such field.
- **A tag that does not exist looks like a tag with no posts.** Medium answers both with an empty feed; you get a `no-posts` row that is not charged.
- Tag feeds list posts by publication time; a post that gets a tag added later may not show up.
- Runs are polite: one request at a time, two seconds apart. If Medium refuses a request or shows a verification page, the run stops and tells you which lines were not read; it does not retry through other connections.

### Rows that are not posts (never charged)

| `status` | Meaning |
| --- | --- |
| `no-such-source` | Medium has no author or publication under this name (HTTP 404) |
| `not-a-medium-feed` | The address is not a Medium publication |
| `feed-mismatch` | The feed that came back names a different author or tag than the one you asked for |
| `no-posts` | The feed was read and has nothing to return |
| `no-new-posts` | Monitoring: nothing new in any source |
| `possible-gap` | Monitoring: all 10 posts in a feed were new, so some may have been missed |
| `duplicate-input` | The same source was given twice |
| `invalid-input` | A line that is not an author, publication or tag |
| `robots-disallowed`, `blocked`, `unreadable` | The feed was not requested or could not be read, with the reason |
| `budget-reached`, `not-read` | The run's maximum charge was reached; lists what was left out |

### Pricing

Pay per event, no start fee and no monthly fee:

- **`post-returned`** - one per post row.
- **`source-checked`** - monitoring mode only: one per source that was read on a later run and had no new post.

Rows that are not posts are free. A run never charges more than the maximum total charge you set for it.

### How it works

For each line the Actor reads the host's `robots.txt` (the rules for all crawlers) and then one public RSS feed: `medium.com/feed/@name`, `medium.com/feed/<publication>`, `medium.com/feed/tag/<tag>`, or `<own domain>/feed`. It checks that the feed says it is generated by Medium and that it names the author or tag you asked for. It does not use Medium search, trending pages, post pages or any private API.

This Actor is not affiliated with Medium. It reads public feeds only. The posts belong to their authors: use the rows to find and link to posts, and respect each author's rights before republishing text.

### Related

- [Substack Posts Monitor](https://apify.com/neverempty/substack-posts-monitor) - the same idea for Substack publications: post list with likes and comments, and only-new-posts monitoring.

### Thanks for using this Actor

We build these tools for people who run them every day, and we improve them from what users tell us.

- **Missing a field, or need another filter?** Tell us in the **Issues** tab. If the data is there, we add it.
- **Found a bug or a wrong value?** Post the run ID in the **Issues** tab. Wrong data is the thing we fix first.

If this Actor saved you time, a short review helps other people find it.

# Actor input Schema

## `authors` (type: `array`):

Medium usernames, one per line: @ev, ev, or a profile link (https://medium.com/@ev). For each one the Actor reads the author's public RSS feed (medium.com/feed/@name), which holds the author's latest 10 posts. A name Medium does not know comes back as a "no-such-source" row that is not charged.

## `publications` (type: `array`):

Publications, one per line: the name as in medium.com/<name> (better-programming), a link to the publication, or the publication's own domain (https://netflixtechblog.com). The Actor reads the publication's public RSS feed, which holds its latest 10 posts. A site that is not on Medium comes back as a "not-a-medium-feed" row that is not charged.

## `tags` (type: `array`):

Tags, one per line: programming, machine learning (spaces become hyphens), or a tag link (https://medium.com/tag/startup). The Actor reads the tag's public RSS feed: the 10 most recently published posts with that tag. Tag feeds carry a short summary of each post, not its text. Medium answers with an empty feed for a tag that does not exist, so a misspelled tag comes back as a "no-posts" row that is not charged.

## `maxPostsPerSource` (type: `integer`):

Newest posts first. A Medium feed holds at most 10 posts, so 10 returns everything the feed has. In monitoring mode this limits only the first run for a source (how many of its newest posts are returned and remembered); on later runs every new post is returned.

## `postedAfter` (type: `string`):

Optional date (YYYY-MM-DD, UTC). Posts published before it are not returned.

## `includeContent` (type: `string`):

Many author and publication feeds carry the full text of a post; tag feeds and some posts carry only a short summary. Every row says whether the text is in the feed (contentInFeed) and how long it is (contentLength, wordCount). Choose text or HTML to also get the text itself when the feed has it. The Actor never opens the post page, so a post whose text is not in the feed has no text here.

## `monitoringMode` (type: `boolean`):

Off = return the latest posts of every author, publication and tag you listed, charged per post row. On = the posts returned for each source are remembered, and later runs return only posts that were not there before. The first monitoring run for a source returns its latest posts once (the starting point). On a later run, a source with new posts is charged per new post row (post-returned); a source with no new post is charged one small check (source-checked) and returns no row. A feed holds only the latest 10 posts: schedule runs often enough that a source does not publish more than 10 posts between two runs (busy tags publish 10 posts within minutes).

## `resetMonitoringState` (type: `boolean`):

Clears everything remembered for this Actor on your account before this run reads anything, so this run (with monitoring on) returns the latest posts of each source once again and charges for them. Use it for one run and turn it off again: left on in a schedule, every run returns and charges the same posts. This affects all your monitoring runs, because sources are remembered one by one rather than per list.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "authors": [
    "@ev"
  ],
  "publications": [
    "https://netflixtechblog.com"
  ],
  "tags": [
    "programming"
  ],
  "maxPostsPerSource": 10,
  "includeContent": "none",
  "monitoringMode": false,
  "resetMonitoringState": false
}
```

# Actor output Schema

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

One row per Medium post found in the public RSS feed of an author, publication or tag: title, author, publish date, URL, tags, summary, whether the feed carries the full text and how long it is and, in monitoring mode, whether it is a first check or a new post. The text itself is included only when asked for and only when the feed carries it. Names Medium does not know, addresses that are not Medium feeds, feeds that could not be read or are disallowed by robots.txt, and runs with no new post come back as their own rows and are not charged.

# 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 = {
    "authors": [
        "@ev"
    ],
    "publications": [
        "https://netflixtechblog.com"
    ],
    "tags": [
        "programming"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("neverempty/medium-posts-monitor").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 = {
    "authors": ["@ev"],
    "publications": ["https://netflixtechblog.com"],
    "tags": ["programming"],
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("neverempty/medium-posts-monitor").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 '{
  "authors": [
    "@ev"
  ],
  "publications": [
    "https://netflixtechblog.com"
  ],
  "tags": [
    "programming"
  ]
}' |
apify call neverempty/medium-posts-monitor --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,neverempty/medium-posts-monitor"
        }
    }
}
```

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/6l2uoIUx6iDEzfY0Z/builds/o2GTdxPiUiIpkTDO2/openapi.json