Apify Actors

What are Apify Actors?

Apify Actors are serverless cloud programs that can perform anything from a simple action, like filling out a web form, to a complex operation, like crawling an entire website. They are programs packaged as Docker images, which accept a well-defined JSON input, perform an action, and optionally produce a well-defined JSON output.

Key Features

Serverless Execution: No infrastructure management required - just deploy and run
Stateful Operations: Actors can maintain state across executions, enabling runs from seconds to hours, or even indefinitely
Flexible I/O: Accept JSON input and produce JSON output with well-defined schemas
Built-in Storage: Access to datasets, key-value stores, and request queues
Composable: Actors can call and interact with each other to build complex systems

Actor Structure

Each Apify Actor consists of:

Dockerfile - Manages code location, build process, and execution instructions
Source Code - Your application logic (Python, Node.js, or other languages)
Input/Output Schemas - Define required inputs and produced results
README Documentation - Explains functionality for users
Metadata - Actor name, description, author, and version

Actors can be run via the web console, API, CLI, or scheduled triggers. They can be private for personal use or published to the Apify Store for monetization. Learn more: Apify Actors Development

Getting Started

Add Agnost analytics to your Apify Actor in four simple steps:

1. Get Your Organization ID

Get your organization ID from app.agnost.ai

2. Install Agnost

Python
Node.js

pip install agnost

npm install agnost

3. Add One Line of Code

Python
Node.js

from apify import Actor
from agnost import track
from modelcontextprotocol.server import Server

async def main():
    async with Actor:
        # Create MCP server
        server = Server("your-mcp-server")

        # Enable analytics
        track(server, "your-org-id")

        # Your actor logic here
        actor_input = await Actor.get_input() or {}
        # ... rest of your code

import { Actor } from 'apify';
import { Server } from '@modelcontextprotocol/sdk/server/index.js';
import { trackMCP } from 'agnost';

await Actor.main(async () => {
    // Create MCP server
    const server = new Server({ name: 'your-mcp-server', version: '1.0.0' },
                               { capabilities: { tools: {} } });

    // Enable analytics
    trackMCP(server, "your-org-id");

    // Your actor logic here
    const input = await Actor.getInput();
    // ... rest of your code
});

That’s it! Your Apify Actor is now tracked with default settings.

4. View Metrics

Visit app.agnost.ai to view your analytics:

Monitor Actor runs in real-time
Track performance and latency
Analyze success and failure rates
Identify optimization opportunities

Configuration

Customize tracking behavior with configuration options:

Python
Node.js

from agnost import track, config
from modelcontextprotocol.server import Server

server = Server("your-mcp-server")

track(server, "your-org-id", config(
    endpoint="https://api.agnost.ai",
    disable_input=False,
    disable_output=False
))

import { Server } from '@modelcontextprotocol/sdk/server/index.js';
import { trackMCP, createConfig } from 'agnost';

const server = new Server({ name: 'your-mcp-server', version: '1.0.0' },
                           { capabilities: { tools: {} } });

trackMCP(server, "your-org-id", createConfig({
  endpoint: "https://api.agnost.ai",
  disableInput: false,
  disableOutput: false
}));

Configuration Options

Option	Type	Default	Description
`endpoint`	string	`"https://api.agnost.ai"`	API endpoint URL
`disable_input` / `disableInput`	boolean	`false`	Disable tracking of input parameters
`disable_output` / `disableOutput`	boolean	`false`	Disable tracking of output responses
`identify`	function	`None` / `undefined`	Function to identify users from request context

User Identification

Track analytics per user to understand usage patterns across different customers or organizations running your Actor.

Python
Node.js

from agnost import track
from modelcontextprotocol.server import Server

async def main():
    async with Actor:
        server = Server("your-mcp-server")

        # With user identification
        track(server, "your-org-id", {
            'identify': lambda req, env: {
                'userId': env.get('APIFY_USER_ID') or 'anonymous',
                'actorId': env.get('APIFY_ACT_ID'),
                'runId': env.get('APIFY_ACT_RUN_ID')
            }
        })

        # Your actor logic here

Using Actor input for identification:

from agnost import track
from modelcontextprotocol.server import Server

async def main():
    async with Actor:
        actor_input = await Actor.get_input() or {}
        server = Server("your-mcp-server")

        track(server, "your-org-id", {
            'identify': lambda req, env: {
                'userId': actor_input.get('customer_id', 'anonymous'),
                'email': actor_input.get('customer_email'),
                'organization': actor_input.get('organization_name')
            }
        })

        # Your actor logic here

import { Actor } from 'apify';
import { Server } from '@modelcontextprotocol/sdk/server/index.js';
import { trackMCP } from 'agnost';

await Actor.main(async () => {
    const server = new Server({ name: 'your-mcp-server', version: '1.0.0' },
                               { capabilities: { tools: {} } });

    // With user identification
    trackMCP(server, "your-org-id", {
        identify: (req, env) => ({
            userId: env.APIFY_USER_ID || 'anonymous',
            actorId: env.APIFY_ACT_ID,
            runId: env.APIFY_ACT_RUN_ID
        })
    });

    // Your actor logic here
});

Using Actor input for identification:

import { Actor } from 'apify';
import { Server } from '@modelcontextprotocol/sdk/server/index.js';
import { trackMCP } from 'agnost';

await Actor.main(async () => {
    const input = await Actor.getInput();
    const server = new Server({ name: 'your-mcp-server', version: '1.0.0' },
                               { capabilities: { tools: {} } });

    trackMCP(server, "your-org-id", {
        identify: (req, env) => ({
            userId: input.customer_id || 'anonymous',
            email: input.customer_email,
            organization: input.organization_name
        })
    });

    // Your actor logic here
});

Common Use Cases

Multi-tenant Actors: Track which customer or organization is using the Actor
Subscription Tiers: Segment analytics by free, pro, or enterprise users
Cost Attribution: Understand usage and costs per customer
Customer Success: Monitor individual customer health and engagement

See the full Configuration guide for more advanced identification patterns.

Complete Example

Python
Node.js

from apify import Actor
from agnost import track
from modelcontextprotocol.server import Server

async def main():
    async with Actor:
        actor_input = await Actor.get_input() or {}

        # Create MCP server
        server = Server("your-mcp-server")

        # Enable analytics with user identification
        track(server, "your-org-id", {
            'identify': lambda req, env: {
                'userId': actor_input.get('customer_id', 'anonymous'),
                'organization': actor_input.get('org_name'),
                'subscriptionTier': actor_input.get('tier', 'free')
            }
        })

        # Your actor logic
        url = actor_input.get('url')
        Actor.log.info(f'Scraping URL: {url}')

        # Scraping logic
        data = []  # ... scrape data

        # Save results
        await Actor.push_data(data)

        Actor.log.info(f'Successfully scraped {len(data)} items')

import { Actor } from 'apify';
import { Server } from '@modelcontextprotocol/sdk/server/index.js';
import { trackMCP } from 'agnost';

await Actor.main(async () => {
    const input = await Actor.getInput();

    // Create MCP server
    const server = new Server({ name: 'your-mcp-server', version: '1.0.0' },
                               { capabilities: { tools: {} } });

    // Enable analytics with user identification
    trackMCP(server, "your-org-id", {
        identify: (req, env) => ({
            userId: input.customer_id || 'anonymous',
            organization: input.org_name,
            subscriptionTier: input.tier || 'free'
        })
    });

    // Your actor logic
    const { url } = input;
    console.log(`Scraping URL: ${url}`);

    // Scraping logic
    const data = [];  // ... scrape data

    // Save results
    await Actor.pushData(data);

    console.log(`Successfully scraped ${data.length} items`);
});

Why Add Analytics to Your Actor?

Performance Optimization

Identify slow operations and bottlenecks
Track execution time trends over versions
Optimize resource usage and costs

Usage Insights

Monitor how customers use your Actor
Understand which features are most popular
Identify usage patterns and trends

Error Tracking

Track failure rates and error patterns
Debug issues faster with detailed context
Monitor service reliability

Business Intelligence

Segment users by subscription tier
Track adoption and retention
Make data-driven decisions for features and pricing

Resources

Configuration Guide - Advanced configuration options
API Reference - Detailed API documentation
Apify Actors Documentation - Learn about Apify Actors
Apify Actors Development - Development guide

Getting Started

Custom Integration

Step-by-Step Guides

Reference

Internal

What are Apify Actors?

Key Features

Actor Structure

Getting Started

1. Get Your Organization ID

2. Install Agnost

3. Add One Line of Code

4. View Metrics

Configuration

Configuration Options

User Identification

Common Use Cases

Complete Example

Why Add Analytics to Your Actor?

Performance Optimization

Usage Insights

Error Tracking

Business Intelligence

Resources

Need Help?

Getting Started

Custom Integration

Step-by-Step Guides

Reference

Internal

​What are Apify Actors?

​Key Features

​Actor Structure

​Getting Started

​1. Get Your Organization ID

​2. Install Agnost

​3. Add One Line of Code

​4. View Metrics

​Configuration

​Configuration Options

​User Identification

​Common Use Cases

​Complete Example

​Why Add Analytics to Your Actor?

​Performance Optimization

​Usage Insights

​Error Tracking

​Business Intelligence

​Resources

​Need Help?

What are Apify Actors?

Key Features

Actor Structure

Getting Started

1. Get Your Organization ID

2. Install Agnost

3. Add One Line of Code

4. View Metrics

Configuration

Configuration Options

User Identification

Common Use Cases

Complete Example

Why Add Analytics to Your Actor?

Performance Optimization

Usage Insights

Error Tracking

Business Intelligence

Resources

Need Help?