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Quick start

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Learn how to create and run Actors using the Apify SDK for JavaScript.

Step 1: Create Actors

To create and run Actors in Apify Console, refer to the Console documentation.

To create an Actor on your computer, use the Apify CLI:

apify create my-first-actor

The CLI will prompt you to select a template. After you choose a template, the CLI creates a new folder called my-first-actor, downloads and extracts the selected template, and installs dependencies using npm.

Step 2: Run Actors

To run the Actor, you can use the apify run command:

cd my-first-actor
apify run

This command:

  • Starts the Actor with the appropriate environment variables for local running
  • Configures it to use local storages from the storage folder

The Actor input, for example, will be in storage/key_value_stores/default/INPUT.json.

Step 3: Understand Actor structure

All JavaScript Actor templates follow the same structure.

The .actor directory contains the Actor configuration, such as the Actor's definition and input schema, and the Dockerfile necessary to run the Actor on the Apify platform.

The Actor's runtime dependencies are specified in the package.json file.

The Actor's source code is typically in the src folder (or root for simple Actors). The main entry point is usually src/main.js or src/main.ts:

import { Actor, log } from 'apify';

// Initialize the Actor
await Actor.init();

// Get input from the Actor
const input = await Actor.getInput();
log.info('Actor input:', input);

// Your Actor logic goes here
await Actor.pushData({ message: 'Hello, world!' });

// Gracefully exit the Actor
await Actor.exit();

Key methods

  • Actor.init() - Initializes the Actor runtime, sets up storage, and prepares the environment
  • Actor.getInput() - Retrieves input data passed to the Actor
  • Actor.pushData() - Stores data in the default dataset
  • Actor.exit() - Gracefully shuts down the Actor and saves its state

Next steps

Guides

To see how you can integrate the Apify SDK with some of the most popular web scraping libraries, check out our guides for working with:

Concepts

To learn more about the features of the Apify SDK and how to use them, check out the Concepts section in the sidebar, especially: