# 📦 Back-in-Stock Monitor - Instant Restock Alerts (`that_red_bird/restock-monitor`) Actor

⚡ ~$0.002/check. Get a webhook the moment a sold-out product is available again. ✅ Works on almost any shop with zero setup. ✅ Reads structured availability first, falls back to on-page wording, and supports your own phrases in any language.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/that\_red\_bird/restock-monitor.md
- **Developed by:** [mohamed alaya](https://apify.com/that_red_bird) (community)
- **Categories:** E-commerce, Automation, Business
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 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 web data automations that power AI and operations. They run on the Apify platform to scrape websites, process data, connect APIs, and automate workflows.
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.

- **AI agents and MCP clients** — the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/mcp.md) at `https://mcp.apify.com` (remote, streamable HTTP, OAuth on first use).
- **Agentic workflows and local Actor development** — [Agent Skills](https://apify.com/.well-known/agent-skills/index.json) with the [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): `npm install -g apify-cli`, then `apify login`.
- **JavaScript/TypeScript projects** — the official [JS/TS client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md): `npm install apify-client`.
- **Python projects** — the official [Python client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md): `pip install apify-client`.
- **Any other language** — 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

## Back-in-Stock Monitor

Fires the moment a sold-out product becomes available again. Works on almost any shop without
configuration.

### How availability is detected

1. **JSON-LD** `offers.availability` → `InStock` / `OutOfStock` / `PreOrder` / `BackOrder`
2. **Meta tags** — `product:availability`, `itemprop="availability"`
3. **On-page wording** — "add to cart", "in stock", "sold out", "currently unavailable",
   "notify me when available"

"Out of stock" deliberately **beats** "add to cart", because shops leave disabled buttons in the
page. If nothing can be determined the row is reported as `NO_VALUE` rather than guessed — set
`stockSelector` + `inStockText` for those shops.

### Alerting

| Setting | Fires when |
|---|---|
| `alertOn: "restock"` | `OUT_OF_STOCK` → `IN_STOCK` (default) |
| `alertOn: "soldout"` | `IN_STOCK` → `OUT_OF_STOCK` |
| `alertOn: "any"` | any availability change |

The first run only records a baseline — you will not get a wall of alerts when you add 200 products.

### Input

```json
{
  "products": [
    "https://shop.example/ps5",
    { "url": "https://shop.example/gpu", "label": "5090", "stockSelector": ".stock", "inStockText": "in stock" }
  ],
  "alertOn": "restock",
  "webhookUrl": "https://discord.com/api/webhooks/XXX"
}
```

### Output

`availability`, `previousAvailability`, `restocked`, `soldOut`, `title`, `price`, `currency`, `alert`.

### Who uses it

Resellers and flippers · people hunting consoles, GPUs, sneakers, concert tickets · procurement
teams waiting on a part · shops watching a supplier's stock.

### Tip

Schedule it every 5–15 minutes for hot items and point the webhook at Discord. The speed of the
alert is the product.

# Actor input Schema

## `products` (type: `array`):

Product pages to watch. Plain URLs, or objects like {"url":"https://…","label":"ps5","stockSelector":".stock","inStockText":"in stock"}.

## `stockSelector` (type: `string`):

Leave empty to auto-detect from JSON-LD availability, meta tags, or on-page wording.

## `inStockText` (type: `string`):

Used with the selector above: if that element contains this text the item counts as in stock.

## `inStockKeywords` (type: `array`):

Shop-specific phrases that mean available, e.g. 'ship it today', 'disponible'. Checked before the built-in rules, so this is how you support any language or template.

## `outOfStockKeywords` (type: `array`):

Shop-specific phrases that mean unavailable, e.g. 'agotado', 'ausverkauft', 'join waitlist'. These win over in-stock wording.

## `alertOn` (type: `string`):

Which availability flip should raise an alert.

## `onlyAlerts` (type: `boolean`):

Push only rows that triggered an alert (plus repeatedly broken pages). Recommended when watching a long list.

## `alertOnErrorAfter` (type: `integer`):

Flags a product whose page keeps failing — delisted, blocked, or restructured. 0 disables it.

## `resetBaseline` (type: `boolean`):

Forget stored availability and start fresh. Use after changing the stock selector or keywords.

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

Hard cap on dataset rows per run. 0 = no cap.

## `renderJs` (type: `boolean`):

Only needed for shops that render stock status in the browser. Slower and more expensive.

## `waitForSelector` (type: `string`):

With Render JavaScript on: wait until this element appears before reading availability.

## `customHeaders` (type: `object`):

Extra request headers, e.g. a Cookie header to pin a store location or currency.

## `concurrency` (type: `integer`):

How many product pages to check in parallel.

## `webhookUrl` (type: `string`):

POSTed the moment an item comes back in stock. Slack/Discord/Zapier compatible.

## `stateStoreName` (type: `string`):

Named key-value store holding the last seen availability. Use different names to keep separate watch lists.

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

Optional Apify proxy configuration for shops that block datacenter traffic.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "products": [
    "https://books.toscrape.com/catalogue/a-light-in-the-attic_1000/index.html"
  ],
  "alertOn": "restock",
  "onlyAlerts": false,
  "alertOnErrorAfter": 3,
  "resetBaseline": false,
  "maxItems": 0,
  "renderJs": false,
  "concurrency": 5,
  "stateStoreName": "restock-monitor-state"
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `stock` (type: `string`):

No description

## `downloadCsv` (type: `string`):

No description

## `summary` (type: `string`):

No description

## `productsChecked` (type: `string`):

No description

# 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 = {
    "products": [
        "https://books.toscrape.com/catalogue/a-light-in-the-attic_1000/index.html"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("that_red_bird/restock-monitor").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 = { "products": ["https://books.toscrape.com/catalogue/a-light-in-the-attic_1000/index.html"] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("that_red_bird/restock-monitor").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 '{
  "products": [
    "https://books.toscrape.com/catalogue/a-light-in-the-attic_1000/index.html"
  ]
}' |
apify call that_red_bird/restock-monitor --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,that_red_bird/restock-monitor"
        }
    }
}

```

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/0RFmr7utUR2u0FuXd/builds/KdNzx4VhQ37i6xSQf/openapi.json