# Flathub Scraper – Linux Flatpak Apps, Categories & Licenses (`ninhothedev/flathub-scraper`) Actor

$1/1K 🔥 Fast Flathub scraper! Linux apps — name, summary, developer, categories & license. No key. JSON, CSV, Excel or API in seconds. Search, browse popular or list IDs & pull thousands for app market research ⚡

- **URL**: https://apify.com/ninhothedev/flathub-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [ninhothedev](https://apify.com/ninhothedev) (community)
- **Categories:** Developer tools, Automation
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $1.00 / 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

## Flathub Linux Apps Scraper 🐧📦

Scrape structured metadata for **Linux apps on [Flathub](https://flathub.org)** — the largest Flatpak app store. Get each app's name, summary, full description, developer, categories, license and homepage as clean JSON. No API key, no login, datacenter-proxy friendly.

Use it to build Linux software catalogs, run app-market research, monitor the Flatpak ecosystem, or feed a recommendation/analytics pipeline.

***

### What it does

Give the actor a list of app ids, ask for the most **popular** apps, or run a **search query** — it resolves everything to full app detail records from the official Flathub API.

#### Modes

| Mode | Input | Result |
|------|-------|--------|
| `apps` | `appIds` list (e.g. `org.mozilla.firefox`) | Full detail for each id |
| `popular` | `maxItems` | Top / most-installed apps on Flathub |
| `search` | `query` (e.g. `video editor`) | Detail for every matching app |

***

### Output

One dataset item per app. Every field is nullable.

```json
{
  "id": "org.mozilla.firefox",
  "name": "Firefox",
  "summary": "Fast, Private & Safe Web Browser",
  "description": "When it comes to your life online, you have a choice...",
  "developer": "Mozilla",
  "categories": ["Network", "WebBrowser"],
  "license": "MPL-2.0",
  "homepage": "https://www.mozilla.org/firefox/",
  "url": "https://flathub.org/apps/org.mozilla.firefox",
  "scraped_at": "2026-07-18T10:00:00+00:00"
}
```

| Field | Description |
|-------|-------------|
| `id` | Flathub application id (reverse-DNS, e.g. `org.gimp.GIMP`) |
| `name` | Display name |
| `summary` | Short one-line summary |
| `description` | Full description, HTML stripped, capped at 3000 chars |
| `developer` | Developer / publisher name |
| `categories` | List of category tags |
| `license` | SPDX project license |
| `homepage` | Project homepage URL |
| `url` | Flathub app page URL |
| `scraped_at` | ISO-8601 UTC scrape timestamp |

***

### Input example

```json
{
  "mode": "apps",
  "appIds": ["org.mozilla.firefox", "com.spotify.Client"],
  "maxItems": 100
}
```

Popular apps:

```json
{ "mode": "popular", "maxItems": 50 }
```

Search:

```json
{ "mode": "search", "query": "video editor", "maxItems": 50 }
```

***

### Pricing

Pay-per-result: roughly **~$1 per 1,000 apps** scraped, plus standard Apify platform usage. Runs on 512 MB and finishes fast because it hits a clean JSON API.

***

### Use cases

- **Linux app market research** — track categories, developers and licenses across the Flatpak ecosystem.
- **Developer & catalog tooling** — build software directories, package browsers or internal app catalogs.
- **Analytics** — snapshot popular apps over time to spot trends and new releases.
- **License / compliance audits** — collect project licenses across a set of apps.

***

### How it compares

Instead of hand-parsing the Flathub website or wrangling the Appstream API and its nested XML/JSON, this actor gives you flat, ready-to-use records with HTML already stripped and a stable schema you can push straight into a sheet, database or dashboard.

***

### Related actors

- [Firefox Add-ons Scraper](https://apify.com/ninhothedev/firefox-addons-scraper)
- [Google Play Scraper](https://apify.com/ninhothedev/google-play-scraper)
- [App Store Scraper](https://apify.com/ninhothedev/app-store-scraper)
- [AUR Scraper](https://apify.com/ninhothedev/aur-scraper)

***

**Keywords:** flathub scraper, flatpak scraper, linux apps scraper, linux software catalog, appstream api, open source apps, flathub api, linux app store data, developer tools scraper, app metadata.

# Actor input Schema

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

How to select apps. 'apps' = scrape the exact Flathub app ids you list. 'popular' = scrape the most popular apps on Flathub. 'search' = scrape results for a search query.

## `appIds` (type: `array`):

Flathub application ids to scrape (used when mode = 'apps'). Find the id in a Flathub URL, e.g. flathub.org/apps/org.mozilla.firefox.

## `query` (type: `string`):

Search term used when mode = 'search', e.g. 'video editor'. Matching apps are resolved to full detail records.

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

Maximum number of apps to scrape. Applies to every mode.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "mode": "apps",
  "appIds": [
    "org.mozilla.firefox",
    "com.spotify.Client"
  ],
  "query": "video editor",
  "maxItems": 100
}
```

# 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 = {
    "appIds": [
        "org.mozilla.firefox",
        "com.spotify.Client"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("ninhothedev/flathub-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 = { "appIds": [
        "org.mozilla.firefox",
        "com.spotify.Client",
    ] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("ninhothedev/flathub-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 '{
  "appIds": [
    "org.mozilla.firefox",
    "com.spotify.Client"
  ]
}' |
apify call ninhothedev/flathub-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,ninhothedev/flathub-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/ggRxf363cdPKA11M0/builds/LBOoxnfx68LYCQHRY/openapi.json