https://github.com/apify/actor-templates
This project is the :house: home of Apify Actor templates to help users quickly get started. Contributions welcome!
https://github.com/apify/actor-templates
Last synced: 8 months ago
JSON representation
This project is the :house: home of Apify Actor templates to help users quickly get started. Contributions welcome!
- Host: GitHub
- URL: https://github.com/apify/actor-templates
- Owner: apify
- Created: 2020-02-26T15:09:02.000Z (over 6 years ago)
- Default Branch: master
- Last Pushed: 2025-04-02T09:03:49.000Z (about 1 year ago)
- Last Synced: 2025-04-03T01:14:10.775Z (about 1 year ago)
- Language: Python
- Homepage: https://apify.com/templates
- Size: 12.8 MB
- Stars: 27
- Watchers: 9
- Forks: 29
- Open Issues: 25
-
Metadata Files:
- Readme: README.md
- Contributing: CONTRIBUTING.md
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README
# Apify Actor templates
> This repository stores boilerplate templates and code examples for [Apify Actor](https://apify.com/actors).
> The purpose of these templates is to help developers get started with Actor development on the Apify platform.
## How to use the templates
You can start using the Actor templates right away with the [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli):
```Bash
npx apify-cli create my-crawler
```
or
```Bash
npm -g install apify-cli
apify create my-actor
```
After running the command you will be prompted to select one of the templates from the list displayed in your terminal. The available templates are:
### Getting started templates
Basic templates to start developing Actors on the Apify platform using Node.js (JavaScript/Typescript), or Python.
Just install the CLI and watch your Actor run.
- [Node.js + JavaScript](./templates/js-start/)
- [Node.js + TypeScript](./templates/ts-start/)
- [Python](./templates/python-start/)
You can find more code examples in the
[Apify SDK documentation](https://sdk.apify.com/docs/examples/puppeteer-crawler/).
### Project boilerplate
If you're already familiar with Actors, you can use the following templates to bootstrap new projects using an empty project templates or Crawlee templates:
#### Empty projects
Start a new web scraping project quickly and easily in JavaScript/TypeScript (Node.js) or Python with our empty project template. It provides a basic structure for the Actor with [Apify JavaScript SDK](https://docs.apify.com/sdk/js/) or [Apify Python SDK](https://docs.apify.com/sdk/python/) and allows you to easily add your own functionality.
- [Empty JavaScript project](./templates/js-empty/)
- [Empty TypeScript project](./templates/ts-empty/)
- [Empty Python project](./templates/python-empty/)
#### Crawlee projects
- [CheerioCrawler](./templates/js-crawlee-cheerio/) ([TypeScript version](./templates/ts-crawlee-cheerio/)) - Standard and up to date template for developing with Crawlee's CheerioCrawler.
- [PlaywrightCrawler](./templates/js-crawlee-playwright-chrome/) ([TypeScript version](./templates/ts-crawlee-playwright-chrome/)) - Standard and up to date template for developing with Crawlee's PlaywrightCrawler.
- [PuppeteerCrawler](./templates/js-crawlee-puppeteer-chrome/) ([TypeScript version](./templates/ts-crawlee-puppeteer-chrome/)) - Standard and up to date template for developing with Crawlee's PuppeteerCrawler.
To run the template:
```Bash
cd my-actor
apify run
```
## Templates API
The [template manifest](./templates/manifest.json) can be fetched programmatically.
Apify CLI uses this to always fetch the most up to date templates.
```Bash
npm i @apify/actor-templates
```
```JavaScript
import { fetchManifest } from '@apify/actor-templates';
const manifest = await fetchManifest();
```
## Publish updated/new template
All templates are stores in `./templates` directory.
For each template needs to create an archive of whole source code into the `./dist/templates` directory.
The archive is used to create a boilerplate template in `apify CLI` or other places in the Apify system.
### Update and add templates
If you want to change a template, you will have to update the template files and the [`manifest.json`](./templates/manifest.json) file before pushing the changes to the `master` branch. After pushing to `master`, the archive will be automatically built using Github actions.
### Update the AGENTS.md file
The AGENTS.md file is provided in templates. Each file has a prefix in the name, which matches the prefix of the template in the templates directory.
For example, for all `js` templates (so `js-start`, `js-empty`, `js-crawlee-cheerio`, etc.), the AGENTS.md file is located in the `./agent-bases/js.AGENTS.md` file.
To update the AGENTS.md file, you will have to update the file in the `./agent-bases` directory. Once merged, the GitHub workflow will automatically update the
templates with the new content.
## How to propagate templates into Apify CLI?
Templates are propagated to Apify CLI templates. You can then find your newly added template when using the `apify create` command.
The propagation happens after committing a new version of the template into the `master` branch. After tests succeeded the Github action
builds `archives` of each template and pushes these `archives` into the repository. The CLI command then uses those archives
to bootstrap your project folder. We did it this way because we can update template structure/code without publishing
any package to npm. It makes templates changes agile.
## How to propagate templates into Apify web?
Templates on the Apify Web are statically generated with each `apify-web` deployment.
The web is typically deployed multiple times per week.
## Template icons
Icons are derived from the [`manifest.json`](./templates/manifest.json) file by specifying them in the technologies array.
If there is a new icon, it has to be added to the [apify-web/public/img/template-icons](https://github.com/apify/apify-web/tree/develop/public/img/template-icons) directory first.
## Reference
- [Apify Actor documentation](https://docs.apify.com/actor)
- [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli)
- [Apify SDK](https://sdk.apify.com/)
## Contributing
If you have any ideas for improvements, either submit an issue or create a pull request.
For contribution guidelines and the code of conduct, see [CONTRIBUTING.md](CONTRIBUTING.md).