# DANDI Neuroscience Datasets Scraper (`ninhothedev/dandi-datasets-scraper`) Actor

$0.5/1K 🔥 DANDI Neuro Data! Browse neuroscience datasets with assets & contributors. No key. JSON, CSV, Excel or API in seconds. Discover open neurophysiology datasets ⚡

- **URL**: https://apify.com/ninhothedev/dandi-datasets-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [ninhothedev](https://apify.com/ninhothedev) (community)
- **Categories:** Developer tools, Other
- **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. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

Actors are web data automations that power AI and operations. They run on the Apify platform to scrape websites, process data, connect APIs, and automate workflows.
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.

- **AI agents and MCP clients** — the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/mcp.md) at `https://mcp.apify.com` (remote, streamable HTTP, OAuth on first use).
- **Agentic workflows and local Actor development** — [Agent Skills](https://apify.com/.well-known/agent-skills/index.json) with the [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): `npm install -g apify-cli`, then `apify login`.
- **JavaScript/TypeScript projects** — the official [JS/TS client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md): `npm install apify-client`.
- **Python projects** — the official [Python client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md): `pip install apify-client`.
- **Any other language** — 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

## DANDI Neuroscience Datasets Scraper

Harvest the full **DANDI Archive** catalog of neuroscience datasets (**Dandisets**) in
structured JSON — with **species, experimental approaches, measurement techniques,
data standards (NWB / BIDS), dataset size, subject counts and contributors**. No API
key, no login, no scraping fragile HTML: this actor talks directly to the public
[DANDI REST API](https://api.dandiarchive.org/api).

DANDI (Distributed Archives for Neurophysiology Data Integration) is the NIH BRAIN
Initiative archive for cellular neurophysiology data. Its datasets are openly licensed
(**CC0 / CC-BY**), making them ideal for meta-research, reproducibility work and
building neuroscience data indexes.

### What you get

Each output record (`type: "dandiset"`) includes:

| Field | Description |
|-------|-------------|
| `identifier`, `name`, `description` | Dandiset ID, title, abstract |
| `version`, `is_published` | Published version string (or `"draft"`) |
| `embargo_status`, `star_count` | Access + popularity signals |
| `asset_count`, `size_bytes`, `file_count`, `subject_count` | Scale of the dataset |
| `species` | e.g. `Mus musculus`, `Homo sapiens` (from `assetsSummary`) |
| `approaches`, `measurement_techniques` | e.g. microscopy / electrophysiology, surgical technique |
| `data_standards` | e.g. **NWB**, **BIDS** |
| `keywords`, `license`, `about` | Tags, license, anatomy/disease foci |
| `contributors` (`[{name, roles}]`, cap 20), `contributor_count`, `contact_person` | Authorship |
| `created`, `modified`, `url`, `source`, `scraped_at` | Provenance |

### Input

| Property | Type | Default | Description |
|----------|------|---------|-------------|
| `mode` | select | `dandisets` | What to scrape (dandiset catalog). |
| `searchQuery` | string | — | Substring filter on name / description / keywords. |
| `speciesFilter` | string | — | Substring on species, e.g. `Mus musculus`. |
| `publishedOnly` | boolean | `false` | Keep only Dandisets with a published version. |
| `enrichDetails` | boolean | `true` | Fetch each version's full `assetsSummary` metadata. |
| `maxItems` | integer | `200` | Max records to output (1–3000). |

#### Example

```json
{
  "mode": "dandisets",
  "speciesFilter": "Mus musculus",
  "publishedOnly": true,
  "enrichDetails": true,
  "maxItems": 500
}
```

### Use cases

- **Neuroscience data discovery** — find datasets by species, technique or brain region.
- **Meta-research** — quantify what's being recorded, from whom, at what scale.
- **NWB / BIDS dataset harvesting** — build an index of standards-compliant data.
- **Reproducibility** — snapshot dataset metadata, contributors and versions over time.

### Pricing

Roughly **~$0.50 per 1,000 dandisets** on the Apify platform (pay-per-result). The DANDI
API is free; you only pay for compute/results.

### Related actors

- [Dryad Scraper](https://apify.com/ninhothedev/dryad-scraper)
- [OSF Scraper](https://apify.com/ninhothedev/osf-scraper)
- [Figshare Scraper](https://apify.com/ninhothedev/figshare-scraper)
- [Zenodo Scraper](https://apify.com/ninhothedev/zenodo-scraper)

### License & attribution

This actor only retrieves publicly available metadata from the DANDI Archive. Dandisets
are licensed CC0 / CC-BY by their depositors — check each record's `license` field and
cite the DANDI Archive and the original authors when reusing data.

# Actor input Schema

## `mode` (type: `string`):

What to scrape. 'dandisets' crawls the DANDI Archive catalog of Dandisets (neuroscience datasets) with full per-version metadata enrichment.

## `searchQuery` (type: `string`):

Optional case-insensitive substring filter applied to each dandiset's name, description and keywords. Leave empty to keep all.

## `speciesFilter` (type: `string`):

Optional case-insensitive substring matched against the dataset's species (from assetsSummary), e.g. 'Mus musculus' or 'Homo sapiens'. Leave empty to keep all species.

## `publishedOnly` (type: `boolean`):

If enabled, only Dandisets that have a published version are kept (draft-only datasets are skipped).

## `enrichDetails` (type: `boolean`):

Fetch each dandiset version's full metadata (assetsSummary: species, approaches, measurement techniques, data standards, subjects, contributors, about). Disable for a faster, shallow crawl.

## `maxItems` (type: `integer`):

Maximum number of dandiset records to output (after filtering). Range 1-3000.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "mode": "dandisets",
  "searchQuery": "calcium imaging",
  "speciesFilter": "Mus musculus",
  "publishedOnly": false,
  "enrichDetails": true,
  "maxItems": 200
}
```

# Actor output Schema

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

No description

# 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 = {};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("ninhothedev/dandi-datasets-scraper").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 = {}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("ninhothedev/dandi-datasets-scraper").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 '{}' |
apify call ninhothedev/dandi-datasets-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,ninhothedev/dandi-datasets-scraper"
        }
    }
}

```

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/HzCZFsdawBIkOghNN/builds/U1WCgG09jhCf2lxpm/openapi.json