RubyGems Scraper - Ruby Gems & Downloads

Disclaimer: This Actor is an independent tool and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Ruby Central or any of its subsidiaries. All trademarks mentioned are the property of their respective owners. "RubyGems" is referenced only to describe the publicly available website this Actor collects data from.

Search RubyGems or look up Ruby gems by name and get clean rows: description, total and version downloads, latest version, licenses, authors, homepage, source code and documentation links. Built on the official RubyGems API - no API key, no browser, no proxy. Run one search or import a file of gem names.

What you get per gem

Field	Meaning
name / version	Gem name and latest version
downloads / versionDownloads	All-time downloads and downloads of the latest version
info / authors / licenses	Description, authors and license list
homepage / sourceCode / documentation	Homepage, source repo and docs URLs
bugTracker / changelog / funding	Author-declared extra links
versionCreatedAt / yanked / runtimeDependencies	Latest-version date, yanked flag and dependency count (on exact gemNames lookups)
platform / gemUrl	Platform and the gem's RubyGems page

Input

{ "searchQueries": ["authentication", "testing"], "maxItemsPerQuery": 50 }

• Search terms - one per line (e.g. rails, authentication, json).
• Gem names - fetch exact gems (e.g. rails, devise); these carry the version date, yanked flag and dependency count.
• Import from a file - paste a list, or link a public .txt/.csv, a Google Sheet/Drive link, or an Apify key-value-store record.
• Output fields - trim every record to exactly the columns you need.

Leave everything empty and the run returns a small free sample so you can see the shape first.

Reliability

Reads the official RubyGems API - no key, no proxy, no anti-bot. A search that returns nothing, an unknown gem name, or an import that cannot be read bills $0 and says why.

Honest limits

• versionCreatedAt, yanked and runtimeDependencies are detail-only. RubyGems returns them on the per-gem endpoint, not in search results, so they populate for gemNames exact lookups and are null for searchQueries results (probed 2026-08-15) - the API's shape, not a scraping gap.
• sourceCode / documentation / bugTracker / changelog / funding are author-optional - present only when the gem author declared them; an honest null otherwise.

Pricing

$0.001 per gem on the FREE tier (tiered pricing lowers it with volume). Only gems actually saved are billed; empty searches, unknown names and unreadable imports cost nothing.

Output views

• Gems - name, version, description, downloads, licenses and source link.

Use with AI assistants (MCP)

Available through the Apify MCP server - an agent can find the top Ruby gems for a task, compare download counts, or enrich a list of gem names with versions and licenses in one call.

Agent-ready: autonomous payments (x402 & Skyfire)

This actor is agent-ready - AI agents can discover it, run it, and pay for it autonomously, with no Apify account and no human in the loop. It uses pay-per-event pricing and limited permissions, so it qualifies for Apify's agentic-payment standards:

• x402 - an open, HTTP-native payment protocol. Agents pay per run in USDC on the Base network directly through the Apify MCP server - no account, no API key.
• Skyfire - agent-to-service payments for fully autonomous AI-agent workflows.

Building an AI agent, MCP tool, or autonomous data pipeline? This scraper is ready to plug in and pay as it goes.

Automate & schedule

Run this Actor on autopilot and pull results into your own stack:

• Apify API - start runs, fetch datasets and manage schedules over REST.
• apify-client for JavaScript and apify-client for Python - official SDKs.
• Schedules - run it hourly, daily or weekly and keep your dataset current.
• Webhooks - trigger downstream actions (CRM import, Slack alert, email sequence) the moment a run finishes.

import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

const client = new ApifyClient({ token: 'MY_APIFY_TOKEN' });

const run = await client.actor('scrapesage/rubygems-scraper').call({
    "searchQueries": [
        "rails"
    ],
    "maxItemsPerQuery": 10
});

const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
console.log(`Got ${items.length} records`);

Integrate with any app

Connect the dataset to thousands of apps - no code required:

• Make - multi-step automation scenarios.
• Zapier - push new records straight into your CRM or spreadsheet.
• Slack - get notified when a scheduled run finds something new.
• Google Drive / Sheets - auto-export every run to a spreadsheet.
• Airbyte - pipe results into your data warehouse.
• GitHub - trigger runs from commits or releases.

FAQ

How is this Actor billed? Pay-per-event: you pay only for the results it delivers, with no monthly rental and no start fee. The per-event price is shown on the Pricing tab.

Can I schedule it and get results automatically? Yes - create a Schedule and add a webhook or an integration (Google Sheets, Slack, Make, Zapier) to push each run's dataset wherever you need it.

Which export formats are available? Every run's dataset can be downloaded as JSON, CSV, Excel (XLSX), XML, HTML or RSS from the Apify Console or the API.

Can I run it from code or an AI agent? Yes - through the Apify API and client libraries, or from Claude, ChatGPT and other assistants via the Apify MCP server.

Is it legal to scrape RubyGems? This Actor collects publicly available data only. You are responsible for using the output in compliance with applicable laws (including data-protection law where personal data is involved) and the source's terms. See the Disclaimer below.

Is this an official RubyGems tool? No. It is an independent, third-party Actor with no affiliation to, endorsement by or sponsorship from Ruby Central. See the Disclaimer below.

Disclaimer

This Actor is an independent tool and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Ruby Central or any of its subsidiaries. All trademarks mentioned are the property of their respective owners.

"RubyGems" and any related marks are the property of their respective owners and are used here only in a descriptive, nominative sense - to identify the publicly accessible website from which this Actor collects data. This Actor is not an official RubyGems product, is not authorised or certified by Ruby Central, and does not distribute RubyGems software. It collects only publicly available information; you are responsible for ensuring your use of that data complies with applicable laws, regulations and the terms of the source website.

Need help?

Open an issue on the Actor's Issues tab, or visit the Apify help center. Feature requests are welcome - this Actor is actively maintained.