Stack Overflow Search — Questions to JSON

Search Stack Overflow questions by keyword and get title, score, answers, tags, views and URL as JSON — $0.002 per question.

What developers struggle with on Stack Overflow is a map of where a technology is confusing, broken, or trending. This actor turns a keyword into the matching questions with their scores and answer status, so developer-support, documentation, and dev-tool agents can mine real pain points as structured data.

What this actor does

• Search all Stack Overflow questions by keyword, library, or error
• Each result: title, score, answer count, answered flag, tags, view count, question URL
• Sorted by votes; filter by postedAfter for trend monitoring
• Batch many terms per run; cap spend with maxResults
• Agent-ready: flat JSON with the question URL + scrapedAt for citation

You only pay for successful results — failed or empty lookups cost nothing.

Why pick this Actor

• Score, answer count, accepted-answer flag, tags, and view counts on every question — credibility ranking without a second call
• Per-result pricing ($0.002/result) with a hard maxResults spend cap — empty lookups cost $0
• Flat, stable JSON schema with sourceUrl + scrapedAt on every item — citation-ready for RAG and grounding
• Batch many queries in one run; overlapping results are deduplicated and charged once
• MCP server, OpenAPI schema, and LangChain/CrewAI tool support out of the box — no glue code

Sample output

Each dataset item is flat, typed JSON with a sourceUrl and scrapedAt for citation/grounding:

{
  "query": "rust async",
  "source": "stackoverflow",
  "title": "How does async/await work in Rust?",
  "score": 145,
  "answers": 3,
  "tags": [
    "rust",
    "async-await",
    "rust-tokio"
  ],
  "url": "https://stackoverflow.com/questions/...",
  "sourceUrl": "https://api.stackexchange.com/2.3/search/advanced?q=rust+async",
  "scrapedAt": "2026-06-11T09:00:00.000Z"
}

Input

{"queries":["rust async"]}

Field	Type	Description
queries / query	array / string	Keyword or technology. One or many.
maxResults	integer	Hard spend cap (billed per result).
keywords / postedAfter	filters	Narrow results; enable delta/scheduled runs.

How much does it cost

Pay-per-result: $0.002 per successful result. No subscription, no compute-unit guesswork, no charge for empty results. An orchestrator can cap spend with maxResults.

How to use it with AI agents (MCP), Claude, and the API

Claude Desktop / Claude Code via Apify MCP

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "apify": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@apify/actors-mcp-server", "--actors", "oblanceolate_mandola/stackoverflow-search"],
      "env": { "APIFY_TOKEN": "<YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN>" }
    }
  }
}

Python (Apify API)

from apify_client import ApifyClient
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN>")
run = client.actor("oblanceolate_mandola/stackoverflow-search").call(run_input={"queries":["rust async"]})
for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(item)

TypeScript (Apify API)

import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';
const client = new ApifyClient({ token: '<YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN>' });
const run = await client.actor('oblanceolate_mandola/stackoverflow-search').call({"queries":["rust async"]});
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
console.log(items);

LangChain / CrewAI tool

from langchain_apify import ApifyActorsTool
tool = ApifyActorsTool("oblanceolate_mandola/stackoverflow-search")  # agent calls it autonomously

OpenAPI schema for self-integrating GPT agents is auto-exposed at the Actor's API tab.

Data & compliance

Reads only publicly accessible endpoints. No login, no credential harvesting, no CAPTCHA bypass. Every result carries its sourceUrl so downstream agents can cite and re-verify.

FAQ

Are question titles clean text?

Yes — HTML entities in titles are decoded so you get readable text.

Can I monitor a tag or library over time?

Yes — search the term and use postedAfter on a schedule to catch new questions.

What is the source?

The official Stack Exchange API for the Stack Overflow site.

Can AI agents call this Actor directly?

Yes — via the Apify MCP server (snippet above), the OpenAPI schema on the Actor's API tab, or the LangChain/CrewAI tool wrapper. Results are flat JSON with sourceUrl and scrapedAt on every item, so downstream agents can cite and re-verify.

What happens when there are no results?

You pay nothing. Billing is per dataset item delivered, so an empty lookup costs $0, and the run log states why (no match, source rate limit) instead of failing silently.

Changelog

• 1.0 — Initial release: stackoverflow.