# CV-Library Jobs Scraper (`scrapyx/cv-library-jobs-scraper`) Actor

Scrapes job listings from CV-Library, one of the UK's largest job boards. Search any keyword and location; returns title, company, salary range, category, contract type and full description from a single search call.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/scrapyx/cv-library-jobs-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [Ibnu Adzim](https://apify.com/scrapyx) (community)
- **Categories:** Jobs, Automation
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $0.35 / 1,000 results

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.
Since this Actor supports Apify Store discounts, the price gets lower the higher subscription plan you have.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

An Actor is a serverless cloud program that runs on the Apify platform. It has two run modes.
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.

Apify vocabulary and the platform model are defined once, in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md.

## 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.

Do not guess an integration path. Every one of them is in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md: the Apify MCP server, Agent Skills with the Apify CLI, the JavaScript and Python clients, the REST API, and the account-free path for an agent with no human to sign in. It also carries the rule on stating cost before the first paid run.

For examples already wired to this Actor's own input schema, see the [API](#api) section below.

Each client library has reference documentation the quickstart does not restate: [JavaScript/TypeScript](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md) (`npm install apify-client`) and [Python](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md) (`pip install apify-client`).

# README

## CV-Library Jobs Scraper (UK)

Scrapes job listings from **[CV-Library](https://www.cv-library.co.uk)** —
one of the UK's largest job boards. A second UK job-search actor in this
portfolio alongside `reed-jobs-scraper` (general listings) and
`efinancialcareers-jobs-scraper` (finance-only) — distinct platform,
distinct customer base.

Public data only. No login, no cookies, no browser.

### The one thing you need to know before using this

CV-Library's `robots.txt` disallows every query string except two
explicit carve-outs (`?jobId=` and `?page_number=`) — the site's own
human-facing search URL (`?q=...&geo=...`) is not robots-permitted for a
generic client. This actor uses the equivalent **path-based** search URL
instead (`/{keyword}-jobs-in-{location}`), which the site itself also
serves and which carries no matching disallow rule. See
[`CRAWLING_METHOD.md`](CRAWLING_METHOD.md) §3 for the full policy
reasoning.

Separately, 3 of 7 TLS profiles tried in recon get a plain HTTP 403 (not a
disguised-200 challenge) — this actor's client pool keeps only the 4
confirmed-clean profiles.

### What you get

Three record types share one dataset, told apart by `recordType`.

#### `JOB` — one row per listing

Search rows (`listing`) already carry title, employer, salary range,
location, category, contract type and a highlighted description snippet.
Turn on **Fetch job detail pages** (on by default) to also attach
`jobDetail`, the Schema.org `JobPosting` block with the full, untruncated
description.

#### `SEARCH_SUMMARY` — one row per (keyword, location) query

CV-Library's own real match count (`totalMatches` — a genuine structured
field, not a heuristic), pages fetched, and `locationApplied` — whether
the requested location actually narrowed the search upstream.

#### `ERROR` — one row per input that failed

So every entry in **Searches** maps to at least one output row.

### Input

| Field | What it does |
| --- | --- |
| **Searches** | list of `{keyword, location}` — `location` is optional |
| **Fetch job detail pages** | adds the full untruncated description (on by default) |
| **Max jobs / max pages per search** | pagination caps — this actor computes the exact page count from CV-Library's own total, these are extra safety valves |
| **Max concurrent requests / Min seconds between requests** | standard pacing controls |

#### Example

```json
{
  "queries": [
    {"keyword": "developer", "location": "manchester"},
    {"keyword": "nurse"}
  ],
  "includeJobDetails": true,
  "maxItems": 100
}
```

### Notes on reliability

- **Location can silently widen upstream, keyword cannot.** An
  unrecognised `location` does not error — CV-Library quietly falls back
  to the keyword-only national result set. This actor detects that (the
  location metadata upstream would otherwise return is simply absent) and
  reports `locationApplied: false` with zero rows rather than shipping
  mislabeled data. An unrecognised `keyword`, in contrast, answers a clean
  HTTP 404 and is reported as a `not_found` error — the two behave
  oppositely, so both are handled explicitly.
- **`totalMatches` is a real structured field**, not a page-copy estimate
  — confirmed live to change correctly per keyword and per location.
- **A de-listed/expired job answers a clean HTTP 404** — the search row is
  still emitted, with `jobDetail: null`.

### Output envelope

Every record carries `_input`, `_source` and `_scrapedAt`. Upstream field
names pass through **verbatim** under `listing` (and `jobDetail` when
requested) — no renaming, and the `<mark>` highlight tags CV-Library wraps
around matched keywords in the search snippet are left intact rather than
stripped.

See [`CRAWLING_METHOD.md`](CRAWLING_METHOD.md) for the full
reverse-engineering trail, including the robots.txt policy reasoning and
what was NOT verified this session (category/salary/contract-type
filtering).

# Actor input Schema

## `queries` (type: `array`):

One search per entry, each with its own SEARCH\_SUMMARY row. 'keyword' is required (e.g. 'developer', 'nurse', 'accountant'); 'location' is optional (e.g. 'manchester', 'london'). An unrecognised location does not error upstream -- CV-Library silently widens to the keyword-only national result set -- so this actor detects that and reports locationApplied=false rather than emitting mislabeled rows. Example: \[{"keyword": "developer", "location": "manchester"}, {"keyword": "nurse"}]

## `includeJobDetails` (type: `boolean`):

Also fetch each job's detail page for the full, untruncated description (Schema.org JobPosting). The search result already carries a description SNIPPET with matched keywords highlighted -- this adds the complete text. Costs one extra request per job. On by default.

## `maxItems` (type: `integer`):

Stop paginating a search after this many jobs. Set to 0 for unlimited (still bounded by Max pages and CV-Library's own reported total match count).

## `maxPages` (type: `integer`):

Hard cap on pagination depth, independent of maxItems. CV-Library reports its own total match count per query, and this actor computes the exact number of pages needed from it -- this is purely an additional safety valve for very large searches (20 jobs/page).

## `maxConcurrency` (type: `integer`):

Upper bound on requests in flight at once, across searches and detail fetches. Only bites once Minimum seconds between request starts is loosened -- with the default 0.25s pacing, going from 5 to 10 took a 100-job run from 68s to 54s on a residential exit; at 1s pacing it made no difference at all.

## `minRequestInterval` (type: `number`):

Paces request starts (not held inside a concurrency slot) rather than raw concurrency. This, not Max concurrency, is what governs throughput: the pacer is global, so at 1 second a 100-job run takes ~105 seconds no matter how many requests are allowed in flight. The default 0.25s (4 requests/second) halves that with no measured increase in blocks. Fractions are allowed; 0 disables pacing entirely.

## `proxyConfiguration` (type: `object`):

CV-Library refuses some TLS fingerprints outright with an HTTP 403 block page; this actor rotates through a pool of the profiles re-measured clean from Apify egress on 2026-09-21. Residential pinned to the UK is the default because it is the only egress on which that pool scored 100% (a US datacenter exit was intermittently blocked even on a good profile). Set it to an empty object to run without a proxy.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "queries": [
    {
      "keyword": "developer",
      "location": "manchester"
    }
  ],
  "includeJobDetails": true,
  "maxItems": 100,
  "maxPages": 30,
  "maxConcurrency": 10,
  "minRequestInterval": 0.25,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true,
    "apifyProxyGroups": [
      "RESIDENTIAL"
    ],
    "apifyProxyCountry": "GB"
  }
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `items` (type: `string`):

One row per scraped record. See the dataset's default view for field definitions.

# 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 '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "queries": [
        {
            "keyword": "developer",
            "location": "manchester"
        }
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("scrapyx/cv-library-jobs-scraper").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 '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = { "queries": [{
            "keyword": "developer",
            "location": "manchester",
        }] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("scrapyx/cv-library-jobs-scraper").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "queries": [
    {
      "keyword": "developer",
      "location": "manchester"
    }
  ]
}' |
apify call scrapyx/cv-library-jobs-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,scrapyx/cv-library-jobs-scraper"
        }
    }
}
```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/1ZO323r4mCxgfvV90/builds/3feAi94TPhdpEKvjE/openapi.json