GitHub Scraper: Track Issues and Pull Requests by Keyword

Scrape GitHub for new issues and pull requests that match your keywords, repos, labels, state, and star floor. Export title, body, author, labels, reactions, repo metadata, and timestamps to JSON, CSV, or Excel. Deduped across runs. Uses the official GitHub REST API. Pay per item.

Searches this actor is built for: GitHub scraper, scrape GitHub issues, GitHub issue tracker, GitHub PR monitor, GitHub API alternative, GitHub keyword alert, track GitHub issues, competitor GitHub monitor, GitHub lead generation.

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How it works in 30 seconds

flowchart LR
    A[Your keywords<br/>or repo list] --> B[GitHub REST API]
    B --> C[Filter: keyword,<br/>state, label, stars, age]
    C --> D[Deduped JSON feed<br/>of new items only]
    D --> E[Webhook to Slack,<br/>CRM, Notion]

Paste a keyword or a owner/repo slug. Pick filters. Get a clean JSON feed of new GitHub issues and pull requests every run. That is the whole product.

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Who this GitHub scraper is for

You are a...	You use this to...
Devtool founder	Catch every issue in your category mentioning your library or a competitor. Turn it into warm outbound.
DevRel engineer	Build a live queue of mentions ready for a helpful reply or bug fix.
Open source maintainer	Watch downstream repos for bug reports filed against a library you publish.
Product manager	Mine real user language from issue bodies to inform your next sprint.
Competitive intel	Track every issue filed in a competitor's repo, spot pain before their changelog does.

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How to scrape GitHub issues step by step

flowchart TD
    A[1. Pick queries or repos] --> B[2. GitHub REST API v3]
    B --> C[3. Paginate 100 per page]
    C --> D[4. Filter by keyword,<br/>state, label, stars, age]
    D --> E[5. Push to Apify dataset]
    E --> F[6. Store ID in<br/>SEEN_IDS key value store]
    F -.->|Next run| G[7. Skip seen IDs]

1. Pass search queries, owner/repo slugs, or both.
2. The actor calls the official GitHub REST API v3: /search/issues for keyword search, /repos/{owner}/{repo}/issues for direct repo watching.
3. Results pass through keyword, state, label, star, and age filters.
4. Matches land in your Apify dataset.
5. Item IDs go into a named key value store so future runs skip duplicates.

Schedule every 10 minutes on Apify Scheduler and you get a live stream of new issues. Add a free personal access token and your rate limit jumps from 60 to 5000 core requests per hour.

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Quick start

Monitor mentions of your library across all of GitHub:

{
  "searchQueries": ["\"langchain\" in:title,body"],
  "itemType": "issues",
  "state": "open",
  "maxAgeHours": 168,
  "githubToken": "YOUR_GITHUB_TOKEN"
}

Watch 3 competitor repos for new bugs:

{
  "repos": ["pinecone-io/pinecone-python-client", "weaviate/weaviate", "qdrant/qdrant"],
  "keywords": ["slow", "timeout", "crash"],
  "state": "open",
  "labels": ["bug"]
}

Lead gen on Postgres pain, high signal repos only:

{
  "searchQueries": ["postgres slow query in:title,body"],
  "minRepoStars": 100,
  "state": "open",
  "maxAgeHours": 72
}

Or run it from the command line:

curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/scrapemint~github-issue-monitor/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=YOUR_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"searchQueries":["langchain vector"],"state":"open","maxAgeHours":168}'

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GitHub scraper vs the alternatives

flowchart LR
    M[Manual repo checking] --> X[Browse each repo,<br/>miss the first wave]
    S[GitHub alert SaaS] --> Y[$20 to $99 per month,<br/>email only]
    A[This Apify actor] --> Z[Pay per item,<br/>raw JSON, your webhook]

Feature	Manual	Alert SaaS	This actor
Pricing	Free, costs time	$20 to $99 per month	Pay per item, first 50 free
Keyword cap	Unlimited if you click	5 to 50 per tier	Unlimited
Repo targeting	Tab hopping	Fixed repo list	Any repo or global search
Label filter	Click on GitHub	Premium tier	Built in
Reactions data	Hover on GitHub	Not included	Full count per emoji
Scheduling	You	Hourly	Every 1 minute
Dedup across runs	Your memory	Vendor owned	Yours, in key value store
Output	Browser tab	Email	JSON, CSV, Excel, webhook

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Sample output

One issue record:

{
  "issueId": "2387491023",
  "number": 1842,
  "itemType": "issue",
  "title": "Vector search returns empty result for multi lingual input",
  "body": "I'm trying to build a RAG pipeline with LangChain and Pinecone...",
  "state": "open",
  "url": "https://github.com/langchain-ai/langchain/issues/1842",
  "repo": {
    "slug": "langchain-ai/langchain",
    "owner": "langchain-ai",
    "name": "langchain",
    "stars": 98421,
    "language": "Python"
  },
  "author": {
    "login": "devfounder99",
    "url": "https://github.com/devfounder99"
  },
  "labels": [
    { "name": "bug", "color": "d73a4a" },
    { "name": "area: vectorstores", "color": "0075ca" }
  ],
  "commentsCount": 7,
  "reactions": { "total": 12, "plusOne": 8, "heart": 2, "rocket": 1 },
  "createdAt": "2026-04-18T11:14:00Z",
  "updatedAt": "2026-04-19T09:02:00Z",
  "matchedKeywords": ["vector"],
  "sourceKind": "search",
  "sourceValue": "langchain vector"
}

Every field is ready to drop into a CRM, a Slack channel, or a Notion database.

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Pricing

First 50 items per run are free. After that you pay per extracted item. No seats. No tier gating. A 500 item run lands under $1 on the Apify free plan.

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FAQ

How do I scrape GitHub issues without an API key? Run the actor with no token. GitHub caps anonymous requests at 60 core and 10 search per minute. Fine for small keyword batches or one repo. For a scheduled fleet, generate a free token at github.com/settings/tokens and paste it into githubToken. Your cap jumps to 5000 core and 30 search per minute. Public data only, no scopes needed.

Can I monitor pull requests too? Yes. Set itemType to prs for pull requests only, issues for issues only, or all for both. GitHub returns both from the same endpoint because a pull request is technically an issue with a pull_request field attached.

How do I track one keyword across all of GitHub? Use searchQueries with GitHub's search syntax. Examples: "vector database" in:title,body, stars:>100 language:python label:bug, org:openai type:issue. The actor passes your query straight to /search/issues.

How do I filter out low star repos? Set minRepoStars. The actor fetches repo metadata once per repo, caches it, and drops issues from repos under the floor. Useful when you only want signal from production grade users.

Does it support private repos? Yes, if the token you provide has repo scope and access. By default the actor uses public data only.

Does it dedupe across runs? Yes. Issue IDs are stored under SEEN_IDS in a named key value store. Every run skips seen IDs. Set dedupe: false to disable.

Can I schedule it? Yes. Apify Scheduler goes down to 1 minute. Pair with a webhook to push new issues to Slack, Discord, Notion, or your CRM.

What about GitHub Discussions? Discussions are GraphQL only on GitHub's API. This actor covers issues and pull requests via REST for speed. A separate discussions actor is on the roadmap.

Is scraping GitHub allowed? Yes. This actor uses the official GitHub REST API v3, which is rate limited and public by design. No HTML scraping.

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