Lemmy Scraper · Communities, Posts, Comments & Instances

Scrape Lemmy communities, posts, discussion comments, and server instance metadata across the decentralized Fediverse. Extract structured JSON records indexed by instance domain host, community name, and listing sort types without requiring authentication or platform tokens.

Maintained by reapX. Every row cites the Apify run that produced it — nothing is inferred, modelled or filled in, and a field absent from the source is absent from the row. The extracted archive for this source is browsable at reapx.dev/data/lemmy-scraper/ and mirrored as an open dataset on Hugging Face and Kaggle. Questions: reapxdev@proton.me

---

⬇️ Input

The actor accepts structured JSON input options configuring the Lemmy extraction target, Fediverse instance host, listing scope, ranking sort order, and item volume limits.

Input Parameter	Type	Required	Default / Prefill	Description
mode	String	Yes	"posts"	Extraction target mode: posts (post feeds), communities (community directory), comments (comment threads), or instance (server metadata).
instanceHost	String	Yes	"lemmy.world"	Primary Lemmy instance hostname (e.g. lemmy.world, sh.itjust.works, beehaw.org, feddit.de, programming.dev).
instances	Array	No	[]	List of target Lemmy instance hostnames for multi-instance batch extraction.
type_	String	Yes	"All"	Scope filter for feeds: All (federated cross-instance content), Local (instance-native only), or Subscribed.
sort	String	Yes	"Active"	Sorting algorithm: Active, Hot, New, Old, TopDay, TopWeek, TopMonth, TopYear, TopAll, MostComments, or NewComments.
communityName	String	No	""	Filter posts or comments by community technical name (e.g. technology, asklemmy, linux, news).
maxItems	Integer	Yes	100	Maximum total records to extract during the run.
maxPages	Integer	No	5	Maximum paginated API requests per instance or community query.
requestsPerSecond	Number	No	2	Maximum HTTP requests per second to avoid rate-limiting on volunteer nodes.

Worked Input Example: Posts Feed

{
  "mode": "posts",
  "instanceHost": "lemmy.world",
  "type_": "All",
  "sort": "Hot",
  "communityName": "technology",
  "maxItems": 100
}

Worked Input Example: Multi-Instance Batch Scrape

{
  "mode": "posts",
  "instanceHost": "lemmy.world",
  "instances": [
    "lemmy.world",
    "sh.itjust.works",
    "beehaw.org",
    "programming.dev",
    "feddit.de"
  ],
  "type_": "All",
  "sort": "Active",
  "maxItems": 250
}

Worked Input Example: Community Directory

{
  "mode": "communities",
  "instanceHost": "sh.itjust.works",
  "type_": "All",
  "sort": "Hot",
  "maxItems": 100
}

---

⬆️ Output

Every record is pushed directly to the run's default dataset. Each row contains standard camelCase fields with total coverage on the primary domain entity identifier.

Dataset Schema Fields

Field Name	Type	Description	Example Value
domain	String	Lemmy server instance domain host serving as primary entity key.	"lemmy.world"
communityName	String	Short technical name of the community.	"technology"
communityTitle	String	Human-readable title of the community.	"Technology & Computing"
postTitle	String	Headline title of the post.	"Open Source AI Models in 2026"
postId	Integer	Numeric post ID on originating instance.	50206401
postUrl	String	External target link or ActivityPub URL.	"https://lemmy.world/post/50206401"
apId	String	Canonical ActivityPub URI.	"https://lemmy.world/post/50206401"
body	String	Markdown post body text.	"Discussion on modern software..."
creatorUsername	String	Username of post or comment author.	"viking_hippie"
creatorActorId	String	Canonical ActivityPub URI of creator.	"https://lemmy.world/u/viking_hippie"
publishedAt	String	ISO 8601 UTC timestamp of publication.	"2026-08-02T13:17:47Z"
updatedAt	String	ISO 8601 UTC timestamp of last update.	"2026-08-03T10:15:00Z"
score	Integer	Net vote score (upvotes minus downvotes).	831
commentsCount	Integer	Total comments count.	98
upvotes	Integer	Total upvotes count.	855
downvotes	Integer	Total downvotes count.	24
subscribersCount	Integer	Total community subscribers count.	45200
postsCount	Integer	Total posts count in community/instance.	12500
usersActiveDay	Integer	Active users in the past 24 hours.	1420
usersActiveWeek	Integer	Active users in past 7 days.	6800
usersActiveMonth	Integer	Active users in past 30 days.	24500
commentContent	String	Text content of comment.	"Great analysis on Fediverse protocols."
commentId	Integer	Numeric comment ID.	1849201
instanceName	String	Server instance title.	"Lemmy.world"
instanceDescription	String	Server description and rules summary.	"Flagship Lemmy instance."
version	String	Lemmy server backend version.	"0.19.5"
nsfw	Boolean	Not Safe For Work flag.	false
isLocal	Boolean	True if item originated on target instance.	true
itemType	String	Entity type (post, community, comment, instance).	"post"

Sample Output Record (Post)

{
  "domain": "lemmy.world",
  "communityName": "politicalmemes",
  "communityTitle": "Political Memes",
  "postTitle": "Discussion on open infrastructure",
  "postId": 50206401,
  "postUrl": "https://lemmy.world/post/50206401",
  "apId": "https://lemmy.world/post/50206401",
  "body": "Detailed discussion on open protocols...",
  "creatorUsername": "viking_hippie",
  "creatorActorId": "https://lemmy.world/u/viking_hippie",
  "publishedAt": "2026-08-02T13:17:47Z",
  "updatedAt": "2026-08-03T10:15:00Z",
  "score": 831,
  "commentsCount": 98,
  "upvotes": 855,
  "downvotes": 24,
  "nsfw": false,
  "isLocal": true,
  "itemType": "post"
}

---

How it works

1. Direct HTTP API Scraping: Communicates directly with Lemmy's official open v3 REST API endpoints (/api/v3/post/list, /api/v3/community/list, /api/v3/comment/list, /api/v3/site). No headless browsers or browser automation required.
2. Fediverse Domain Aggregation: Extracts canonical ActivityPub domain hosts (domain) for every post, community, comment, and instance record, aggregating cross-federated data onto entity pages.
3. Pay-Per-Event Billing: Bills strictly per item returned (lemmy-item-returned at $0.002 per item) using Actor.charge() before pushing to the dataset. Empty or blocked runs cost nothing beyond the platform start fee.
4. Adaptive Rate Limiting & Backoff: Automatically handles rate limiting (HTTP 429) and server errors (HTTP 5xx) with exponential backoff delays, respecting volunteer-run Fediverse server capacity.
5. Streaming Dataset Push: Pushes items to the default dataset as they arrive rather than buffering, protecting data against network interruptions.

---

❓ FAQ

Does this scraper require a Lemmy account or API token?

No. All Lemmy v3 API endpoints queried by this actor are public read-only endpoints accessible over plain HTTP without authentication.

Which Lemmy instances are supported?

Any public Lemmy instance across the Fediverse is supported, including lemmy.world, sh.itjust.works, beehaw.org, feddit.de, programming.dev, lemmy.ml, sopuli.xyz, lemmy.ca, lemmy.zip, and reddthat.com.

How does domain aggregation work for federated posts?

Because Lemmy is federated, a post published on lemmy.dbzer0.com may appear in the feed of lemmy.world. This scraper parses the canonical ActivityPub host URL so that domain accurately reflects the originating instance node.

How are costs controlled?

You can set ACTOR_MAX_TOTAL_CHARGE_USD to cap the maximum cost of any run. If the limit is reached, the scraper gracefully halts and delivers all items collected up to that point.

---

💬 Your feedback

Have suggestions for new Lemmy features, schema enhancements, or bugs to report? Contact the maintainers directly at reapxdev@proton.me or submit feedback via Apify Console.

---

Unofficial - not affiliated with Lemmy or any Lemmy instance. Collects public data only. reapx. Contact reapxdev@proton.me.

🧪 Example input

A real, runnable configuration — this is an actual input this Actor has run with.

{
  "instanceHost": "lemmy.world",
  "mode": "posts",
  "type_": "All",
  "sort": "Hot",
  "maxItems": 100
}

📄 Sample output

One real row from a real run of this Actor, unedited.

{
  "domain": "lemmy.dbzer0.com",
  "communityName": "nottheonion",
  "communityTitle": "Not The Onion",
  "postTitle": "Walmart self-checkout mistake destroys Olympic athlete's career",
  "postId": 50258953,
  "postUrl": "https://boingboing.net/2024/09/25/walmart-self-checkout-mistake-destroys-olympic-athletes-career.html",
  "apId": "https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/73364946",
  "body": "",
  "creatorUsername": "irelephant",
  "creatorActorId": "https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/u/irelephant",
  "publishedAt": "2026-08-03T17:34:42.299311Z",
  "updatedAt": "",
  "score": 36,
  "commentsCount": 13,
  "upvotes": 36,
  "downvotes": 0,
  "nsfw": false,
  "isLocal": false,
  "thumbnailUrl": "https://boingboing.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/pettipeice.jpg",
  "itemType": "post"
}

⚠️ Run outcomes and error handling

This Actor reports what happened in the run's status message, and it always keeps whatever it collected. These are the outcomes you can get and what each one means.

Outcome	What it means
Success	Rows were returned and you were charged lemmy-item-returned at $0.002 per row.
No matches	The source returned nothing for your filters. Nothing is charged. Widen the date window or drop a filter.

What is guaranteed either way

• Every row is pushed as it is built, not buffered to the end of the run. Anything that buffers output loses everything to a timeout, a block or a migration; this does not.
• A field absent from the source is absent from the row. Nothing is inferred, modelled or filled in to make a row look complete.