# Website Content Crawler — AI & RAG Ready (`santamaria-automations/website-content-crawler`) Actor Crawl any website and extract clean Markdown and plain text optimized for AI ingestion, RAG pipelines, and LLM context. Readability-style main content extraction removes ads, navs, and footers. Configurable depth, concurrency, and page limits. Pay-per-page. - **URL**: https://apify.com/santamaria-automations/website-content-crawler.md - **Developed by:** [Ale](https://apify.com/santamaria-automations) (community) - **Categories:** AI, Lead generation - **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, NaN bookmarks - **User rating**: No ratings yet ## Pricing Pay per event 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/platform/actors/running/actors-in-store#pay-per-event ## What's an Apify Actor? Actors are a software tools running on the Apify platform, for all kinds of web data extraction and automation use cases. 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. In JavaScript/TypeScript projects, use official [JavaScript/TypeScript client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js.md): ```bash npm install apify-client ``` In Python projects, use official [Python client library](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python.md): ```bash pip install apify-client ``` In shell scripts, use [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): ````bash # MacOS / Linux curl -fsSL https://apify.com/install-cli.sh | bash # Windows irm https://apify.com/install-cli.ps1 | iex ```bash In AI frameworks, you might use the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/platform/integrations/mcp.md). If your project is in a different language, use 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 ## Website Content Crawler — AI & RAG Ready Extract clean Markdown and plain text from any website, optimized for AI ingestion, RAG pipelines, and LLM context windows. Readability-style main content extraction strips navigation, footers, sidebars, and ads so your AI gets only the content that matters. ### Why This Actor? - **AI-optimized output** — Markdown + plain text per page, with content type detection - **Main content extraction** — Readability-style selectors remove noise (nav, footer, ads, sidebars) - **Flexible crawl modes** — Fetch a list of URLs directly (depth=0) or crawl entire sites (depth=1-5) - **Concurrent processing** — Up to 20 parallel workers for high-throughput extraction - **Pay-per-page pricing** — Only pay for pages successfully crawled ### Use Cases - Build RAG knowledge bases from company documentation sites - Feed LLMs with up-to-date content from blog posts and news articles - Extract article text for AI summarization pipelines - Crawl competitor sites for content analysis - Bulk-convert web pages to Markdown for offline use ### Input | Parameter | Type | Default | Description | |-----------|------|---------|-------------| | `startUrls` | array | required | URLs to crawl. Use `maxDepth=0` for flat fetch, `maxDepth>0` to follow links | | `maxDepth` | integer | `0` | Crawl depth. 0 = start pages only, 1 = start pages + their links, 2 = two levels, etc. | | `maxPagesPerCrawl` | integer | `100` | Maximum total pages to process across all start URLs | | `maxPagesPerDomain` | integer | `50` | Maximum pages per unique domain | | `maxConcurrency` | integer | `5` | Number of parallel workers (1–20) | | `extractMainContent` | boolean | `true` | Strip nav/footer/ads using readability-style selectors | | `proxyConfiguration` | object | Apify proxy | Proxy settings | ### Output One record per crawled page: | Field | Type | Description | |-------|------|-------------| | `url` | string | URL of the crawled page | | `title` | string | Page title (og:title or HTML title tag) | | `description` | string | Meta description (description or og:description) | | `markdown` | string | Clean Markdown output, up to 50,000 characters | | `text` | string | Plain text with all HTML removed, up to 10,000 characters | | `word_count` | integer | Number of words in the extracted plain text | | `content_type` | string | Detected type: `article`, `blog`, `documentation`, or `generic` | | `depth` | integer | Crawl depth (0 = start URL) | | `start_url` | string | Start URL that led to this page | | `links_found` | integer | New internal links discovered and added to crawl queue | | `status_code` | integer | HTTP status code | | `scraped_at` | string | ISO 8601 UTC timestamp | ### Example Input Fetch a list of documentation pages (no crawling): ```json { "startUrls": [ "https://docs.example.com/api/overview", "https://docs.example.com/api/authentication" ], "maxDepth": 0, "extractMainContent": true } ```` Crawl an entire blog up to 2 levels deep: ```json { "startUrls": ["https://blog.example.com"], "maxDepth": 2, "maxPagesPerCrawl": 200, "maxConcurrency": 10, "extractMainContent": true } ``` ### Pricing | Event | Price | |-------|-------| | Actor start | $0.25 (flat) | | Per 1,000 pages crawled | $1.00 | ### MCP Integration Use this actor directly from Claude or any MCP-compatible AI tool: ``` Use apify/santamaria-automations/website-content-crawler to crawl https://docs.example.com with maxDepth=1 and extractMainContent=true, then summarize the documentation ``` Actor URL: `apify/santamaria-automations/website-content-crawler` ### Notes - Challenge pages (Cloudflare, DataDome, PerimeterX) are detected and skipped automatically - Deduplication prevents the same URL from being crawled twice in the same run - Content type detection identifies articles, blog posts, and documentation pages - Main content extraction uses CSS selector priority: article-specific classes → semantic tags → body fallback # Actor input Schema ## `startUrls` (type: `array`): List of URLs to crawl. Set Max Depth to 0 to fetch only these pages (no link-following). Set to 1+ to also crawl linked pages. ## `maxDepth` (type: `integer`): How many link levels deep to crawl from each start URL. 0 = start pages only (no crawling), 1 = start pages + their links, 2 = two levels deep, etc. ## `maxPagesPerCrawl` (type: `integer`): Maximum total pages to process across all start URLs combined. Controls your budget. ## `maxPagesPerDomain` (type: `integer`): Maximum pages to crawl per unique domain. Prevents one large site from consuming the entire budget. ## `maxConcurrency` (type: `integer`): Number of parallel workers fetching pages simultaneously. Higher values increase throughput. ## `extractMainContent` (type: `boolean`): When enabled (default), strips navigation, footers, sidebars, and ads using readability-style selectors. Produces cleaner AI/RAG content. Disable to get full page HTML converted to Markdown. ## `proxyConfiguration` (type: `object`): Optional Apify proxy. Most documentation/blog/marketing sites do not need a proxy; enable only at high volume or for sites that block direct traffic. ## Actor input object example ```json { "startUrls": [ "https://example.com" ], "maxDepth": 0, "maxPagesPerCrawl": 100, "maxPagesPerDomain": 50, "maxConcurrency": 5, "extractMainContent": true, "proxyConfiguration": { "useApifyProxy": false } } ``` # Actor output Schema ## `defaultDataset` (type: `string`): One record per crawled page containing clean Markdown, plain text, title, description, content type, and crawl metadata # 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 '' with your token const client = new ApifyClient({ token: '', }); // Prepare Actor input const input = { "startUrls": [ "https://example.com" ] }; // Run the Actor and wait for it to finish const run = await client.actor("santamaria-automations/website-content-crawler").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 '' with your token. client = ApifyClient("") # Prepare the Actor input run_input = { "startUrls": ["https://example.com"] } # Run the Actor and wait for it to finish run = client.actor("santamaria-automations/website-content-crawler").call(run_input=run_input) # Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any) print("💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/" + run["defaultDatasetId"]) for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items(): print(item) # 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start ``` ## CLI example ```bash echo '{ "startUrls": [ "https://example.com" ] }' | apify call santamaria-automations/website-content-crawler --silent --output-dataset ``` ## MCP server setup ```json { "mcpServers": { "apify": { "command": "npx", "args": [ "mcp-remote", "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=santamaria-automations/website-content-crawler", "--header", "Authorization: Bearer " ] } } } ``` ## OpenAPI specification ```json { "openapi": "3.0.1", "info": { "title": "Website Content Crawler — AI & RAG Ready", "description": "Crawl any website and extract clean Markdown and plain text optimized for AI ingestion, RAG pipelines, and LLM context. Readability-style main content extraction removes ads, navs, and footers. Configurable depth, concurrency, and page limits. Pay-per-page.", "version": "1.0", "x-build-id": "HegbnPcWAbTDGWQLv" }, "servers": [ { "url": "https://api.apify.com/v2" } ], "paths": { "/acts/santamaria-automations~website-content-crawler/run-sync-get-dataset-items": { "post": { "operationId": "run-sync-get-dataset-items-santamaria-automations-website-content-crawler", "x-openai-isConsequential": false, "summary": "Executes an Actor, waits for its completion, and returns Actor's dataset items in response.", "tags": [ "Run Actor" ], "requestBody": { "required": true, "content": { "application/json": { "schema": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema" } } } }, "parameters": [ { "name": "token", "in": "query", "required": true, "schema": { "type": "string" }, "description": "Enter your Apify token here" } ], "responses": { "200": { "description": "OK" } } } }, "/acts/santamaria-automations~website-content-crawler/runs": { "post": { "operationId": "runs-sync-santamaria-automations-website-content-crawler", "x-openai-isConsequential": false, "summary": "Executes an Actor and returns information about the initiated run in response.", "tags": [ "Run Actor" ], "requestBody": { "required": true, "content": { "application/json": { "schema": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema" } } } }, "parameters": [ { "name": "token", "in": "query", "required": true, "schema": { "type": "string" }, "description": "Enter your Apify token here" } ], "responses": { "200": { "description": "OK", "content": { "application/json": { "schema": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/runsResponseSchema" } } } } } } }, "/acts/santamaria-automations~website-content-crawler/run-sync": { "post": { "operationId": "run-sync-santamaria-automations-website-content-crawler", "x-openai-isConsequential": false, "summary": "Executes an Actor, waits for completion, and returns the OUTPUT from Key-value store in response.", "tags": [ "Run Actor" ], "requestBody": { "required": true, "content": { "application/json": { "schema": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema" } } } }, "parameters": [ { "name": "token", "in": "query", "required": true, "schema": { "type": "string" }, "description": "Enter your Apify token here" } ], "responses": { "200": { "description": "OK" } } } } }, "components": { "schemas": { "inputSchema": { "type": "object", "required": [ "startUrls" ], "properties": { "startUrls": { "title": "Start URLs", "type": "array", "description": "List of URLs to crawl. Set Max Depth to 0 to fetch only these pages (no link-following). Set to 1+ to also crawl linked pages.", "items": { "type": "string" } }, "maxDepth": { "title": "Max Crawl Depth", "minimum": 0, "maximum": 5, "type": "integer", "description": "How many link levels deep to crawl from each start URL. 0 = start pages only (no crawling), 1 = start pages + their links, 2 = two levels deep, etc.", "default": 0 }, "maxPagesPerCrawl": { "title": "Max Pages Per Crawl", "minimum": 1, "maximum": 1000, "type": "integer", "description": "Maximum total pages to process across all start URLs combined. Controls your budget.", "default": 100 }, "maxPagesPerDomain": { "title": "Max Pages Per Domain", "minimum": 1, "maximum": 500, "type": "integer", "description": "Maximum pages to crawl per unique domain. Prevents one large site from consuming the entire budget.", "default": 50 }, "maxConcurrency": { "title": "Max Concurrency", "minimum": 1, "maximum": 20, "type": "integer", "description": "Number of parallel workers fetching pages simultaneously. Higher values increase throughput.", "default": 5 }, "extractMainContent": { "title": "Extract Main Content Only", "type": "boolean", "description": "When enabled (default), strips navigation, footers, sidebars, and ads using readability-style selectors. Produces cleaner AI/RAG content. Disable to get full page HTML converted to Markdown.", "default": true }, "proxyConfiguration": { "title": "Proxy Configuration", "type": "object", "description": "Optional Apify proxy. Most documentation/blog/marketing sites do not need a proxy; enable only at high volume or for sites that block direct traffic.", "default": { "useApifyProxy": false } } } }, "runsResponseSchema": { "type": "object", "properties": { "data": { "type": "object", "properties": { "id": { "type": "string" }, "actId": { "type": "string" }, "userId": { "type": "string" }, "startedAt": { "type": "string", "format": "date-time", "example": "2025-01-08T00:00:00.000Z" }, "finishedAt": { "type": "string", "format": "date-time", "example": "2025-01-08T00:00:00.000Z" }, "status": { "type": "string", "example": "READY" }, "meta": { "type": "object", "properties": { "origin": { "type": "string", "example": "API" }, "userAgent": { "type": "string" } } }, "stats": { "type": "object", "properties": { "inputBodyLen": { "type": "integer", "example": 2000 }, "rebootCount": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "restartCount": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "resurrectCount": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "computeUnits": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 } } }, "options": { "type": "object", "properties": { "build": { "type": "string", "example": "latest" }, "timeoutSecs": { "type": "integer", "example": 300 }, "memoryMbytes": { "type": "integer", "example": 1024 }, "diskMbytes": { "type": "integer", "example": 2048 } } }, "buildId": { "type": "string" }, "defaultKeyValueStoreId": { "type": "string" }, "defaultDatasetId": { "type": "string" }, "defaultRequestQueueId": { "type": "string" }, "buildNumber": { "type": "string", "example": "1.0.0" }, "containerUrl": { "type": "string" }, "usage": { "type": "object", "properties": { "ACTOR_COMPUTE_UNITS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATASET_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATASET_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 1 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_LISTS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "REQUEST_QUEUE_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "REQUEST_QUEUE_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATA_TRANSFER_INTERNAL_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATA_TRANSFER_EXTERNAL_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "PROXY_RESIDENTIAL_TRANSFER_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "PROXY_SERPS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 } } }, "usageTotalUsd": { "type": "number", "example": 0.00005 }, "usageUsd": { "type": "object", "properties": { "ACTOR_COMPUTE_UNITS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATASET_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATASET_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_WRITES": { "type": "number", "example": 0.00005 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_LISTS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "REQUEST_QUEUE_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "REQUEST_QUEUE_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATA_TRANSFER_INTERNAL_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATA_TRANSFER_EXTERNAL_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "PROXY_RESIDENTIAL_TRANSFER_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "PROXY_SERPS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 } } } } } } } } } } ```