Bluesky Scraper — Posts, Profiles & Followers

Extract Bluesky data in one Actor: search posts by keyword or hashtag, pull any account's post feed, fetch profile details, or list followers and following — all through the official AT Protocol public API. No login, no cookies, no proxies.

What Bluesky data does this scraper extract?

Post records (search and authorFeed modes) — one flat JSON record per post:

Field	Meaning
uri / cid	Stable AT Protocol identifiers of the post
url	Direct bsky.app link to the post
authorHandle / authorDid / authorDisplayName	Who posted it
text	Full post text
createdAt / indexedAt	When it was posted / indexed
likeCount / repostCount / replyCount / quoteCount	Engagement counts
langs	Declared post languages
isRepost / feedOf	Repost flag and source handle (authorFeed mode)
mode	Which mode produced the record

Profile records (profile, followers, following modes): did, handle, url, displayName, description, avatar, createdAt, plus followersCount / followsCount / postsCount in profile mode and subjectHandle in follower/following modes.

Modes

Mode	What it returns	Key inputs
search	Posts matching a keyword/hashtag, with date, author, mention, language and engagement filters	query, since, until, fromAuthor, mentionsAuthor, language, sort, minLikes, minReposts
authorFeed	Posts by one or more accounts	handles, includeReplies, minLikes, minReposts
profile	Profile details (bio, counts) per account	handles
followers	Accounts following the given handles	handles
following	Accounts the given handles follow	handles

Search supports Bluesky query operators typed straight into query — #hashtag, "exact phrase", from:user.bsky.social, mentions:user.bsky.social, lang:en, and more. The most common ones also have dedicated inputs so you don't have to remember the operator syntax:

• fromAuthor — only posts written by this handle (same as from:). Uses searchPosts' own author filter param, not just a query-string trick.
• mentionsAuthor — only posts that mention this handle (same as mentions:). Uses the mentions filter param.
• language — only posts declared in this ISO 639-1 language code (same as lang:). Uses the lang filter param.

These compose safely with query, since, until and sort in the same request. The searchPosts endpoint also has dedicated domain/url/tag filter params — not yet exposed as Actor inputs, planned for a future update.

Bluesky's unauthenticated search API does not allow cursor paging, so the Actor transparently paginates latest searches by walking the time window backwards — you still just set maxItems. top sort is not time-ordered and returns up to 100 posts per run.

minLikes / minReposts filter posts client-side, after they're fetched from the API — set either to skip low-engagement noise in search and authorFeed results. Filtered-out posts are never pushed to the dataset, so you aren't billed for them.

How to scrape Bluesky with this Actor

1. Click Try for free / Run — no Bluesky account needed, only public data is read.
2. Pick a mode, set a query or handles, adjust maxItems or keep the defaults.
3. Run it and export the dataset as JSON, CSV or Excel, or read it over the API.

Run it from your own code:

from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN>")
run = client.actor("nomad-jobs/bluesky-scraper").call(run_input={
    "mode": "search",
    "query": "#ai",
    "since": "2026-06-01T00:00:00Z",
    "maxItems": 200,
})
for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(item["authorHandle"], "—", item["text"][:80], item["url"])

Or a single HTTP call that runs the Actor and returns items in one response:

curl -X POST \
  "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/nomad-jobs~bluesky-scraper/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=<YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN>" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"mode": "authorFeed", "handles": ["bsky.app"], "maxItems": 50}'

Input

General fields (apply across modes):

Field	Type	Default	Notes
mode	string	search	One of search, authorFeed, profile, followers, following.
handles	array	—	Handles or DIDs for authorFeed/profile/followers/following. Leading @ optional.
includeReplies	boolean	false	Include the author's replies in authorFeed mode.
maxItems	integer	100	Maximum records for the whole run. Set 0 for no limit.

Search fields (search mode; minLikes/minReposts also apply to authorFeed):

Field	Type	Default	Notes
query	string	—	Keyword/hashtag for search mode. Supports Bluesky search operators.
since	string	—	Only posts created at or after this date/time. Datepicker (YYYY-MM-DD) or a precise ISO 8601 timestamp.
until	string	—	Only posts created before this date/time. Datepicker (YYYY-MM-DD) or a precise ISO 8601 timestamp.
fromAuthor	string	—	Only posts written by this handle (from: operator / author param).
mentionsAuthor	string	—	Only posts that mention this handle (mentions: operator / mentions param).
language	string	—	Only posts in this ISO 639-1 language code (lang: operator / lang param).
sort	string	latest	latest (newest first) or top (by relevance) for search mode.
minLikes	integer	0	Drop posts with fewer likes than this (compares likeCount). 0 = no filter.
minReposts	integer	0	Drop posts with fewer reposts than this (compares repostCount). 0 = no filter.

Output example

{
  "mode": "search",
  "uri": "at://did:plc:z72i7hdynmk6r22z27h6tvur/app.bsky.feed.post/3lb2abcxyz",
  "cid": "bafyreib2rxk3rw6...",
  "url": "https://bsky.app/profile/bsky.app/post/3lb2abcxyz",
  "authorHandle": "bsky.app",
  "authorDid": "did:plc:z72i7hdynmk6r22z27h6tvur",
  "authorDisplayName": "Bluesky",
  "text": "Introducing new moderation tools...",
  "createdAt": "2026-06-15T18:02:11.000Z",
  "indexedAt": "2026-06-15T18:02:12.345Z",
  "langs": ["en"],
  "replyCount": 412,
  "repostCount": 1287,
  "likeCount": 9034,
  "quoteCount": 187
}

Pricing

Pay per event: $0.05 per Actor start and $0.004 per record returned. 100 records ≈ $0.45. No subscription, no rental — you pay only for what you fetch. minLikes/minReposts are applied before records are pushed, so filtered-out posts are never billed.

Integrations

Export the dataset as JSON, CSV, Excel or HTML, pull it over the Apify API (including run-sync-get-dataset-items for a single blocking call), wire it into Make, Zapier or n8n, or call it as a tool from an AI agent via the Apify MCP server.

Use cases

• Brand, keyword and hashtag monitoring on Bluesky
• Social listening and sentiment datasets for AI/LLM pipelines
• Influencer discovery via follower/following graphs and engagement counts
• Archiving an account's full posting history
• Trend and virality analysis with like/repost/reply counts

FAQ

Is it legal to scrape Bluesky? This Actor reads only publicly available data through Bluesky's own public AT Protocol API (public.api.bsky.app) — the same data any logged-out visitor can see. No authentication is used and no private data is touched. Review Bluesky's terms and your local regulations for your specific use case.

Do I need a Bluesky account? No. All five modes use unauthenticated public endpoints.

How fresh is the data? Every run hits the live API. search with sort: latest returns posts within seconds of being indexed.

How many records can I get? maxItems caps the run; set 0 to paginate until the source is exhausted (full author feeds and follower lists). The Actor follows API cursors and respects Bluesky's rate limits automatically.

What about deleted or blocked accounts? Handles that cannot be resolved (typos, deactivated accounts) are logged and skipped — one bad handle never fails the whole run.

Which search operators are supported as dedicated inputs? fromAuthor, mentionsAuthor and language map to searchPosts' own author, mentions and lang filter params (verified against the live API) — equivalent to from:, mentions: and lang: in query, but composable with it via a proper param instead of string-building. The underlying API also has domain/url/tag filter params; they're not wired up as Actor inputs yet.

Something broken or missing? Open an issue on the Actor's Issues tab — it is monitored and reliability fixes ship fast.

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Credits

Independent implementation on the official AT Protocol public API. Design informed by the MIT-licensed deepfates/bsky-scraper firehose archiver — see LICENSE for the attribution note.