Gitea Explore Repositories Scraper

Gitea Explore Repositories Scraper

Scrape public repositories from any Gitea instance, filtered by keyword, sort order, and up to a million per run. Every repository comes with its stars, forks, description, and last update time. No API key required. Export to CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML.

Finding open-source projects across self-hosted Gitea instances like Codeberg or gitea.com means clicking through paginated explore pages by hand. This Actor reads the public repository listing directly from any Gitea instance you point it at, letting you search by name or keyword and sort by stars, forks, or recent activity. It returns a flat dataset of matching repositories, ready for analysis or archiving.

Who uses it	What they scrape Gitea for
Open-source researchers	Discover trending projects across self-hosted Gitea communities.
DevTool companies	Find projects that match a technology stack for partnership or integration.
Security analysts	Monitor newly created or updated repositories for specific keywords.
Recruiters	Identify active maintainers and popular projects in a niche.

What it does

This Actor collects public repositories from a Gitea instance's explore endpoint and returns each one as a flat row with its metadata.

• 🔍 Keyword filter: Search repositories by name or description with a single query term.
• 📊 Flexible sorting: Order results by stars, forks, size, last update, creation date, or alphabetically.
• 🌐 Any Gitea instance: Point the Actor at gitea.com, Codeberg, or any self-hosted Gitea server.
• 📦 Bulk collection: Pull up to 1,000,000 repositories in a single run.

Results export to CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML, or straight from the API.

What you can do with Gitea data

📈 Track emerging open-source projects.

A researcher runs the Actor weekly on Codeberg with the keyword 'activitypub' sorted by stars to see which federated projects are gaining traction.

🛡️ Audit repositories for sensitive keywords.

A security team points the Actor at their organization's internal Gitea instance and searches for 'password' or 'secret' in recently updated repos.

📊 Build a directory of niche tools.

A content curator scrapes gitea.com for 'static site generator' sorted by forks to compile a list of actively maintained alternatives.

🤝 Find potential integration partners.

A DevTool company searches for 'docker' and 'kubernetes' across multiple Gitea instances to identify projects that could benefit from their platform.

Why choose this scraper

	What you get
No API key	Reads the public explore API that requires no authentication.
Fixed schema	Every row has the same fields: name, description, stars, forks, owner, and timestamps.
Multi-instance	Works with any standard Gitea instance, not gitea.com.

How it compares

No other Store actor targets Gitea the same way, so the honest comparison is with the alternatives teams actually weigh.

	Gitea Explore Repositories Scraper	Build it in-house	By hand
Setup	Run it now, zero config	Days of engineering	None, but hours per pull
When Gitea changes	Maintained for you	You fix it	You re-learn the page
Proxies, retries, anti-bot	Built in	Your problem	Browser only
Output	Fixed JSON schema, CSV/Excel export	Whatever you build	Copy-paste
Cost	Pay per result	Engineering time	Analyst hours

Configure the run

Drive the Actor from a Gitea instance URL and an optional keyword, and sorting runs server-side so only the top matches reach your dataset. The Input tab lists every parameter.

A first run with the defaults:

{
 "instanceUrl": "https://gitea.com",
 "maxItems": 10
}

A larger pull:

{
 "instanceUrl": "https://gitea.com",
 "maxItems": 200
}

Pricing

Pay-per-result: $0.0085 per result collected. You pay only for the results written to your dataset.

Results collected	Approximate cost
100 results	$0.85
1,000 results	$8.50
10,000 results	$85.00

New Apify accounts start with $5 in free credit.

Free users

Free-plan runs return up to 10 results as a preview. Upgrade your Apify plan to collect up to 1,000,000 results per run.

Run it

1. Create a free Apify account with $5 in credit.
2. Open the Gitea Explore Repositories Scraper.
3. Set your inputs and any filters, then click Start.
4. Export the results as CSV, Excel, JSON, or XML from the Dataset tab.

Run it programmatically through the Apify API (run-sync-get-dataset-items) or the ApifyClient for JavaScript and Python.

Use with AI agents (MCP)

Give an AI agent live access to Gitea through the Model Context Protocol. Add the Actor to Claude, Cursor, or any MCP client:

claude mcp add --transport http apify "https://mcp.apify.com?tools=parseforge/gitea-explore-scraper"

Then prompt it in plain language to run the scraper and read back the results.

Troubleshooting

Why am I getting no results?

Check that your instanceUrl points to a real Gitea instance and that your query keyword matches some public repository names or descriptions. Try leaving the query empty to list all public repos.

The Actor fails with a connection error.

Verify the instanceUrl is correct and includes the protocol (https://). Some self-hosted instances may block cloud IPs; try running the Actor with a proxy configuration.

I get fewer results than the maxItems I set.

The Actor stops when it has collected the requested number of repositories or when the instance has no more matching results. If the instance has fewer public repos than your maxItems, you will get all of them.

Sorting by 'size' returns unexpected order.

Gitea's API sorts by repository size in kilobytes as reported by the server. Very small or empty repositories may appear out of intuitive order.

The run is slow for large maxItems values.

The Actor paginates through results. Large instances with many repositories will take longer. Reduce maxItems or target a smaller instance if speed is critical.

FAQ

Question	Answer
Do I need an API key or login to scrape Gitea?	No. This Actor uses the public, unauthenticated explore API endpoint that every Gitea instance exposes. provide the instance URL.
Which Gitea instances does this work with?	Any standard Gitea instance that has the /explore/repos page and its backing API enabled. This includes gitea.com, Codeberg, and most self-hosted installations.
Can I filter repositories by programming language?	The Gitea explore API does not support filtering by language directly. You can use the keyword query to search names and descriptions, then filter the resulting dataset by language if that field is present.
How many repositories can I collect in one run?	You can set the maximum up to 1,000,000 repositories. The actual number returned depends on how many public repositories match your query on that instance.
What does the sort order 'alpha' mean?	It sorts repositories alphabetically by their name.
Does this Actor scrape private repositories?	No. It only accesses the public explore listing, so only repositories marked as public on the target instance are returned.
Can I scrape multiple Gitea instances in one run?	One run targets one instance URL. To scrape several instances, run the Actor multiple times with different instanceUrl values, or use an Apify task for each.
What output formats are supported?	You can export your dataset as JSON, CSV, Excel, or XML from the Apify storage tab.
Is there a rate limit on Gitea's explore API?	Unauthenticated requests may be rate-limited by the instance administrator. If you hit a limit, the Actor will retry automatically with backoff.

Related actors

Browse the full ParseForge collection for more scrapers.

🆘 Need help? Email parseforge@protonmail.com with your run ID, your input, and what you expected.

⚠️ Disclaimer. This Actor is unofficial and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Gitea. It collects only publicly available data. You are responsible for using the collected data in compliance with the source's terms of service and applicable data-protection laws, including GDPR, CCPA, and PIPL. Do not use it to collect personal data unlawfully.