# GitHub Repositories Scraper - Search & Intelligence (`thirdwatch/github-repositories-scraper`) Actor

Search public GitHub repositories with advanced qualifiers and export stars, forks, issues, topics, license, language, owner, timestamps, archive status, and canonical URLs. Built for research, benchmarking, and data pipelines.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/thirdwatch/github-repositories-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [Thirdwatch](https://apify.com/thirdwatch) (community)
- **Categories:** Developer tools, Lead generation
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 0.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $2.00 / 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

## GitHub Repositories Scraper

Search public GitHub repositories with GitHub's documented REST API and export decision-ready repository metadata as JSON, CSV, or Excel. Advanced GitHub qualifiers work directly, while an optional token raises the upstream request allowance without changing the output contract.

### What you get

- Repository and owner identity, canonical URLs, description, homepage, and default branch
- Stars, forks, issues, watchers, size, language, topics, license, and visibility
- Fork, archived, and disabled status plus creation, update, and push timestamps
- Query provenance and API rate-limit logging in a 256 MB HTTP Actor

### Output fields

Common fields are `repositoryId`, `nodeId`, `name`, `fullName`, `description`, `url`, `apiUrl`, `homepage`, `owner`, `ownerType`, `ownerUrl`, `language`, `topics`, `licenseSpdx`, `defaultBranch`, `stars`, `forks`, `openIssues`, `watchers`, `sizeKb`, `isFork`, `isArchived`, `isDisabled`, `visibility`, `createdAt`, `updatedAt`, `pushedAt`, `searchQuery`, and `source`.

### Example output

```json
{"fullName":"huggingface/transformers","language":"Python","stars":150000,"forks":30000,"licenseSpdx":"Apache-2.0","topics":["machine-learning","nlp"],"url":"https://github.com/huggingface/transformers"}
```

### Input parameters

| Parameter | Description |
|---|---|
| `queries` | GitHub repository search expressions, including advanced qualifiers. |
| `sort` | Best match, stars, forks, help-wanted issues, or recent updates. |
| `order` | Ascending or descending order. |
| `maxResultsPerQuery` | Maximum repositories saved for each query. |
| `maxResults` | Maximum unique repositories saved across all queries. |
| `apiToken` | Optional secret GitHub token for higher request limits. |

### Use cases

Open-source landscape analysis, developer-tool lead generation, dependency research, acquisition sourcing, ecosystem maps, maintainer discovery, competitive benchmarking, technology adoption research, and repository monitoring.

### Limitations

GitHub exposes at most 1,000 search results for a single query. Split broad research into precise qualifiers. Without a token, GitHub applies a smaller search quota. This Actor exports public repository metadata only; it does not clone code, access private repositories, or infer security quality from popularity.

### Compared to alternatives

Thirdwatch uses the official API, supports native advanced qualifiers, preserves query provenance, and charges $0.002 per result at the base tier—well below the $0.01-$0.02 observed on leading alternatives. Start with the [GitHub Repositories Scraper](https://apify.com/thirdwatch/github-repositories-scraper), browse [all Thirdwatch Actors](https://apify.com/thirdwatch), or read the [GitHub repository-data guide](https://thirdwatch.dev/actors/github-repositories-scraper).

### FAQ

**Do I need a GitHub token?** No for small public searches. Add one when running many queries or scheduled monitoring.

**What is charged?** One `result` event for each unique public repository saved. Overlap between queries is not charged twice.

Open the [input form](https://apify.com/thirdwatch/github-repositories-scraper?tab=input) or review [recent runs](https://apify.com/thirdwatch/github-repositories-scraper?tab=runs) after launch.

Last verified: 2026-07

# Actor input Schema

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

GitHub repository search expressions. Advanced qualifiers such as language:python, stars:>1000, topic:ai, and org:openai are supported.

## `sort` (type: `string`):

GitHub search sort field.

## `order` (type: `string`):

Ascending or descending result order.

## `maxResultsPerQuery` (type: `integer`):

Maximum unique repositories saved for each query. GitHub search exposes at most 1,000 results per query.

## `maxResults` (type: `integer`):

Maximum unique repositories saved across all queries.

## `apiToken` (type: `string`):

Optional fine-grained token for a higher API request allowance. Public repository read access is sufficient.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "queries": [
    "topic:artificial-intelligence stars:>1000"
  ],
  "sort": "stars",
  "order": "desc",
  "maxResultsPerQuery": 25,
  "maxResults": 100
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (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 = {};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("thirdwatch/github-repositories-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 = {}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("thirdwatch/github-repositories-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 '{}' |
apify call thirdwatch/github-repositories-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,thirdwatch/github-repositories-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/JZsrwEwAe675pbIDM/builds/NtesaZmvugfR9DfUu/openapi.json