# Lemmy Scraper (`opendata-labs/lemmy-scraper`) Actor

Scrape posts, comments, communities and search results from any Lemmy instance via the official API. Clean structured
data (JSON/CSV), no login required.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/opendata-labs/lemmy-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [Joao Paulo](https://apify.com/opendata-labs) (community)
- **Categories:** Social media, News
- **Stats:** 3 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $1.00 / 1,000 results

This Actor is paid per event and usage. You are charged both the fixed price for specific events and for Apify platform usage.

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

## Lemmy Scraper

**Scrape posts, comments, communities, and search results from any Lemmy instance — fast, structured, and auth-free.** Built on the official public **Lemmy API v3** (ActivityPub / fediverse), so it works on `lemmy.world` or any other decentralized server.

### What it does

Lemmy Scraper turns the public Lemmy REST API into clean, flat dataset rows you can export to JSON, CSV, or Excel. Point it at any instance, pick a mode, and collect data from the fediverse without logging in.

Four modes:

- **Community posts** — every post in a community, sorted by Hot / Active / New / Top.
- **Search** — keyword search across the instance.
- **Community info** — metadata for a single community (subscribers, post count, description).
- **Post comments** — all comments under a specific post.

### Features

- Works on **any Lemmy instance** — just change the `instance` input.
- No authentication, no cookies, no tokens — pure public API reads.
- **Flattened output** — clean columns, not raw nested JSON blobs.
- Automatic pagination with a `maxItems` cap.
- Polite request pacing plus automatic retries on transient HTTP errors.
- Pay-per-result pricing friendly (PPE `item-scraped` events).

### Input

| Field | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| `mode` | enum | `community_posts`, `search`, `community_info`, or `post_comments`. |
| `instance` | string | Lemmy host, e.g. `lemmy.world` (default). |
| `communityName` | string | Community to scrape — `name` or `name@instance.tld`. Required for community modes. |
| `query` | string | Search keywords. Required for `search` mode. |
| `postId` | integer | Post ID. Required for `post_comments` mode. |
| `sort` | enum | `Hot`, `Active`, `New`, `TopDay`, `TopWeek` (community posts). |
| `maxItems` | integer | Max rows to collect (default `1000`). |

#### Example input

```json
{
  "mode": "community_posts",
  "instance": "lemmy.world",
  "communityName": "technology",
  "sort": "Hot",
  "maxItems": 500
}
```

### Output example

Each post becomes one flat row:

```json
{
  "id": 12345678,
  "title": "Open-source project hits 1.0",
  "body": "Release notes inside...",
  "url": "https://example.com/release",
  "creatorName": "dev_user",
  "creatorActorId": "https://lemmy.world/u/dev_user",
  "communityName": "technology",
  "score": 842,
  "upvotes": 870,
  "downvotes": 28,
  "commentsCount": 134,
  "published": "2026-06-20T14:03:11.000Z",
  "postUrl": "https://lemmy.world/post/12345678"
}
```

Comments and community-info modes produce their own flat schemas (content, creator, score, subscribers, etc.).

### Use cases

- **OSINT & research** — monitor communities and discussions across the fediverse.
- **Journalism** — track emerging stories and public sentiment on decentralized platforms.
- **Brand monitoring** — find mentions of your product or company via search mode.
- **AI / ML training data** — collect open social text and threaded discussions at scale.

### Why this actor

Lemmy exposes a **stable, official public REST API** backed by ActivityPub. This scraper talks to that API directly instead of fragile HTML parsing, so it keeps working through UI changes and runs against **any Lemmy server** in the fediverse. No login, no rate-limit gymnastics, no brittle selectors — just structured decentralized social data.

***

*Keywords: Lemmy scraper, Lemmy API, scrape Lemmy, ActivityPub, fediverse data, decentralized social, Lemmy posts, Lemmy comments, federated Reddit alternative.*

# Actor input Schema

## `mode` (type: `string`):

What to scrape. 'community\_posts' lists posts of a community, 'search' runs a keyword search, 'community\_info' fetches community metadata, 'post\_comments' lists comments of a single post.

## `instance` (type: `string`):

Hostname of the Lemmy instance to target (without https://). Works with any Lemmy server in the fediverse.

## `communityName` (type: `string`):

Community to scrape. Use 'name' for a local community or 'name@instance.tld' for a remote one. Required for 'community\_posts' and 'community\_info' modes.

## `query` (type: `string`):

Keyword(s) to search for. Required for 'search' mode.

## `postId` (type: `integer`):

Numeric ID of the post whose comments you want. Required for 'post\_comments' mode.

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

Sort order for community posts.

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

Maximum number of rows to push to the dataset. Scraping stops once this is reached.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "mode": "community_posts",
  "instance": "lemmy.world",
  "communityName": "technology",
  "sort": "Hot",
  "maxItems": 1000
}
```

# 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 = {
    "instance": "lemmy.world",
    "communityName": "technology"
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("opendata-labs/lemmy-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 = {
    "instance": "lemmy.world",
    "communityName": "technology",
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("opendata-labs/lemmy-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 '{
  "instance": "lemmy.world",
  "communityName": "technology"
}' |
apify call opendata-labs/lemmy-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,opendata-labs/lemmy-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/O8IQcYtfHhHiB1XSR/builds/9OI1cfY6cDayYULSS/openapi.json