# Craigslist Car Hunter (`querulous_daisy/craigslist-car-scraper`) Actor

Craigslist Car Hunter
Instantly turn unstructured Craigslist "Cars & Trucks for Sale" listings into structured, analysis-ready data.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/querulous\_daisy/craigslist-car-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [Mike](https://apify.com/querulous_daisy) (community)
- **Categories:** Agents, Automation
- **Stats:** 7 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

$5.00/month + usage

To use this Actor, you pay a monthly rental fee to the developer. The rent is subtracted from your prepaid usage every month after the free trial period.You also pay for the Apify platform usage, which gets cheaper the higher Apify subscription plan you have.

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

## 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

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### What this does

This is a dedicated data extraction tool (an Apify Agent/Actor) designed to efficiently search and gather listings from the "Cars & Trucks for Sale" sections of various regional Craigslist sites.

The primary function of this scraper is to transform unstructured web data into structured, reusable data, making it readily available for other projects to consume.

The Value Proposition: Data as an Asset 📊
Instead of manual collection, this tool automates the process of market research, delivering a comprehensive, uniform dataset. The scraped information is instantly usable for:

Market Analysis: Tracking price trends and inventory changes over time.

Price Comparison: Identifying vehicles priced above or below the regional average.

Cross-Platform Integration: Feeding data into dashboards, custom alerting systems, or third-party databases.

### Getting started

The Actor is designed for maximum simplicity on the Apify Platform.1. Set Input URLIn the Actor's input interface, paste the direct URL of the Craigslist search page you wish to scrape.

Example Input URL: `https://albany.craigslist.org/search/cta?purveyor=owner#search=2~thumb~0`

2. Run the ActorClick the "Run" button. The Actor will navigate to the page, wait for the dynamic content to load, extract the listings, and save the results to the Dataset.💾 Data Output FormatThe Actor outputs a dataset where each entry is a JSON object containing the scraped vehicle details.
   FieldDescriptionExampletitleThe main title/description of the car listing.2018 Ford F-150
   priceThe asking price of the vehicle.$1,995
   mileageThe recorded mileage of the vehicle.146k mi
   timePostedHow long ago the listing was posted.10m ago

Example JSON Object:JSON
`{
  "title": "2018 Ford F-150",
  "price": "$1,995",
  "mileage": "146k mi",
  "timePosted": "10m ago"
}`

For complete information [see this article](https://docs.apify.com/platform/actors/development#build-actor-at-apify-console). In short, you will:

1. Build the Actor
2. Run the Actor

### Pull the Actor for local development

If you would like to develop locally, you can pull the existing Actor from Apify console using Apify CLI:

1. Install `apify-cli`

   **Using Homebrew**

   ```bash
   brew install apify-cli
   ```

   **Using NPM**

   ```bash
   npm -g install apify-cli
   ```

2. Pull the Actor by its unique `<ActorId>`, which is one of the following:

   - unique name of the Actor to pull (e.g. "apify/hello-world")
   - or ID of the Actor to pull (e.g. "E2jjCZBezvAZnX8Rb")

   You can find both by clicking on the Actor title at the top of the page, which will open a modal containing both Actor unique name and Actor ID.

   This command will copy the Actor into the current directory on your local machine.

   ```bash
   apify pull <ActorId>
   ```

### Documentation reference

To learn more about Apify and Actors, take a look at the following resources:

- [Apify SDK for JavaScript documentation](https://docs.apify.com/sdk/js)
- [Apify SDK for Python documentation](https://docs.apify.com/sdk/python)
- [Apify Platform documentation](https://docs.apify.com/platform)
- [Join our developer community on Discord](https://discord.com/invite/jyEM2PRvMU)

# Actor input Schema

## `startUrls` (type: `array`):

URLs to start with.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "startUrls": [
    {
      "url": "https://hartford.craigslist.org/search/cta?purveyor=owner#search=2~thumb~0"
    }
  ]
}
```

# 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 = {
    "startUrls": [
        {
            "url": "https://hartford.craigslist.org/search/cta?purveyor=owner#search=2~thumb~0"
        }
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("querulous_daisy/craigslist-car-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 = { "startUrls": [{ "url": "https://hartford.craigslist.org/search/cta?purveyor=owner#search=2~thumb~0" }] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("querulous_daisy/craigslist-car-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 '{
  "startUrls": [
    {
      "url": "https://hartford.craigslist.org/search/cta?purveyor=owner#search=2~thumb~0"
    }
  ]
}' |
apify call querulous_daisy/craigslist-car-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

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

```

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/flYzxulahRhWGSz0k/builds/8ggzJhG4sRYg7WUQn/openapi.json