# Open VSX Registry Scraper (`mangudai/open-vsx-scraper`) Actor

Scrape the Open VSX registry: the vendor-neutral extension marketplace behind VSCodium, Gitpod, Cursor and Windsurf. Get downloads, ratings, versions, categories, licenses, repositories and publisher info. Search, pull whole namespaces, or fetch specific extensions. No key, no login.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/mangudai/open-vsx-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [Mangudäi](https://apify.com/mangudai) (community)
- **Categories:** Developer tools, Automation, Open source
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $0.01 / 1,000 results

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

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

## Open VSX Registry Scraper

Extract public extension data from the [Open VSX registry](https://open-vsx.org): downloads, ratings, versions, categories, publishers, licenses and repository links. Search by keyword, pull a whole publisher namespace, or fetch specific extensions by id or URL. No API key, no login, no captcha.

Open VSX is the vendor-neutral extension marketplace run by the Eclipse Foundation. It is where VSCodium, Gitpod, Eclipse Theia, code-server and the AI editors Cursor and Windsurf get their extensions, because Microsoft's own Visual Studio Marketplace is restricted to Microsoft products. If you publish extensions, build a VS Code fork, or track the developer-tools market, Open VSX is the registry that actually serves that ecosystem, and this actor turns it into clean rows.

### What it does

- Keyword search across the registry, paginated, sorted by downloads, rating or recency
- Whole-namespace pull: every extension a publisher ships (e.g. `ms-python`, `redhat`)
- Direct lookups by `namespace.name` or open-vsx.org URL
- Optional per-extension reviews (rating and comment)
- A politeness delay, retries with backoff, and a hard `maxItems` cap

### Input

| Field | What it does |
|-------|--------------|
| `searchQueries` | Keywords to search. Empty means browse everything by the chosen sort. Default `["python"]`. |
| `namespaces` | Publishers to pull in full, e.g. `["ms-python", "redhat"]`. |
| `extensionIds` | Specific extensions as `namespace.name` or a full URL. |
| `category` | Restrict search to one category (Themes, Linters, AI, and so on). |
| `sortBy` / `sortOrder` | `downloadCount`, `averageRating`, `timestamp` or `relevance`, ascending or descending. |
| `fetchFullDetails` | Enrich each hit with categories, tags, license, repository and publisher. On by default. |
| `includeReviews` | Also pull user reviews per extension. |
| `maxItems` | Cap on rows returned. Default 100. |
| `requestDelaySecs` | Delay between requests. Default 0.2s. |

A run with no input returns the top Python extensions by download count, so you always get a real dataset on the first click.

### Output

One row per extension:

`extensionId`, `namespace`, `name`, `displayName`, `description`, `version`, `preRelease`, `downloadCount`, `averageRating`, `reviewCount`, `categories`, `tags`, `license`, `homepage`, `repository`, `bugs`, `sponsorLink`, `publisherLogin`, `publisherName`, `publisherProvider`, `publisherHomepage`, `verified`, `namespaceAccess`, `targetPlatform`, `deprecated`, `lastUpdated`, `iconUrl`, `downloadUrl`, `openVsxUrl`, `apiUrl`, and `reviews` when requested.

Export to JSON, CSV, Excel or the API.

### Use cases

- Market research before you build an extension: sizes, ratings and gaps in a category
- Competitor tracking: watch downloads, versions and release dates over time
- Publisher intelligence: who ships what, with GitHub handles and repository links
- Feed a dataset for the Cursor, Windsurf, VSCodium and Gitpod ecosystem
- A clean, allowed alternative to scraping Microsoft's restricted marketplace

### Notes on the data

Everything here is served by the public Open VSX REST API (`https://open-vsx.org/api`). Each extension carries its own license, shown in the `license` field. Respect it when you redistribute anything beyond the metadata.

### Pricing

Pay per result. Platform usage is free, and you pay a small amount for each extension returned plus a tiny per-run fee. Start on the free tier, then scale.

# Actor input Schema

## `searchQueries` (type: `array`):

Keywords to search the Open VSX registry (e.g. "python", "ai", "theme"). Leave empty to browse all extensions in the chosen sort order.

## `namespaces` (type: `array`):

Fetch every extension published under these namespaces, e.g. "ms-python" or "redhat".

## `extensionIds` (type: `array`):

Exact extensions to fetch, as "namespace.name" (e.g. "redhat.vscode-yaml") or full open-vsx.org URLs.

## `category` (type: `string`):

Restrict keyword search to a single Open VSX category.

## `sortBy` (type: `string`):

Ordering for keyword search and namespace browse.

## `sortOrder` (type: `string`):

Ascending or descending order for the sort field above.

## `fetchFullDetails` (type: `boolean`):

Enrich each extension with categories, tags, license, repository, publisher and links (one extra request per extension).

## `includeReviews` (type: `boolean`):

Also fetch user reviews (rating and comment) for each extension.

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

Maximum number of extensions to return across all modes.

## `requestDelaySecs` (type: `number`):

Politeness delay between requests to the Open VSX API.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "searchQueries": [
    "python"
  ],
  "namespaces": [],
  "extensionIds": [],
  "category": "",
  "sortBy": "downloadCount",
  "sortOrder": "desc",
  "fetchFullDetails": true,
  "includeReviews": false,
  "maxItems": 100,
  "requestDelaySecs": 0.2
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (type: `string`):

No description

# 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 = {
    "searchQueries": [
        "python"
    ],
    "maxItems": 100
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("mangudai/open-vsx-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 = {
    "searchQueries": ["python"],
    "maxItems": 100,
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("mangudai/open-vsx-scraper").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print("💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/" + run["defaultDatasetId"])
for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "searchQueries": [
    "python"
  ],
  "maxItems": 100
}' |
apify call mangudai/open-vsx-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": [
                "mcp-remote",
                "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=mangudai/open-vsx-scraper",
                "--header",
                "Authorization: Bearer <YOUR_API_TOKEN>"
            ]
        }
    }
}

```

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/2iKa4Krj51w9N2JeC/builds/WeFrKkrpHs5bbUHbI/openapi.json