Apify MCP: Actors, runs and datasets in your AI app

How to connect Apify to Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor

1. 1Click Connect Apify free and sign in with your Apify account.
2. 2All tools are on once you connect. Keep the ones that list runs, read logs and fetch dataset items; switch off the tools that delete Actors or webhooks, and the one that creates Actors, if your AI app should only use what's already built.
3. 3Add ContextGate to your AI app as a connector or MCP server. The steps for each app are on the Works with page.
4. 4Ask your AI app why the latest run of one of your Apify Actors failed and have it read the run's log, then open Activity to see each call.

Scraping and automation tasks in Apify

• List an Actor's runs, filter them by status and read the log of one that failed.
• Fetch items from a dataset page by page once a scrape finishes.
• Create an Actor task with saved input, then inspect that input before the next run.
• Add a webhook to a task so another system hears when a run completes or fails.
• Get the OpenAPI definition for an Actor build to generate client code.

Guardrails for your Actors and data

• Switch off the delete tools for Actors and webhooks, and your AI app can no longer call them.
• Scraped results can include names and contact details, and a workspace policy can hide that personal data.
• Activity keeps a record of every Apify call, so you can see which runs and datasets an AI app touched.

What you get with Apify and ContextGate

• Your AI apps can use ApifyClaude, Cursor, ChatGPT and other AI apps reach Apify through the one ContextGate connection you add to them.
• You choose which tools they can useSwitch off any Apify tool you don't want used. It's hidden from your AI apps and refused if called.
• Every call is checked and recordedYour policies check each call (for example, personal data is hidden and secrets are blocked), and Activity keeps a record of it.

ContextGate sees only the tool calls that go through it, not your AI app's built-in tools or your chats.

Apify tools

Examples of what your AI apps can do in Apify. You'll see the exact list of tools after you connect it.

• Create ActorTool to create a new actor with specified configuration. use when you need to initialize a fresh actor programmatically before publishing or running it.
• Create DatasetTool to create a new dataset. use when you need to initialize or retrieve a dataset by name.
• Create Actor TaskTool to create a new actor task with specified settings. use when you need to configure or schedule recurring actor runs programmatically.
• Create Task WebhookTool to create a webhook for an actor task. use when you need external notifications about task run events (e.g., completion or failure) in downstream systems.
• Delete ActorTool to delete an actor permanently. use when you need to remove an actor by its id or username~actorname. confirm before calling.
• Delete WebhookTool to delete a webhook by its id. use when removing a webhook after confirming the webhook id.
• Get Actor DetailsTool to get details of a specific actor. use when you need actor metadata by id or username/actorname.
• Get all webhooksTool to get a list of all webhooks created by the user. use when you need to enumerate webhooks before filtering or maintenance.
• Get dataset itemsTool to retrieve items from a dataset. use when you need to fetch data from a specified dataset by pagination or filtering. only json format is fully supported.
• Get Default BuildTool to get the default build for an actor. use after specifying the actor id; optionally wait for the build to finish before returning.
• Get Key-Value RecordTool to retrieve a record from a key-value store. use when you need to fetch a specific value by key from an apify key-value store.
• Get list of buildsTool to get a list of builds for a specific actor. use when you need paginated access to an actor’s build (version) history.
• Get list of runsTool to get a list of runs for a specific actor. use when you need to paginate through runs and optionally filter by status before processing run data.
• Get list of task runsTool to get a list of runs for a specific actor task. use when you need to paginate through task runs and optionally filter by status.
• Get list of tasksTool to fetch a paginated list of tasks belonging to the authenticated user. use when you need to browse or sort tasks created by the user.
• Get list of task webhooksTool to get a list of webhooks for a specific actor task. use when you need to review or paginate webhooks after creating or updating a task.
• Get logTool to retrieve logs for a specific actor run or build. use after initiating an actor run or build when you need to inspect execution logs.
• Get OpenAPI DefinitionTool to get the openapi definition for a specific actor build. use when you need the api schema for code generation or analysis.
• Get Task InputTool to retrieve the input configuration of a specific task. use when you need to inspect stored task input before execution or debugging.
• Resurrect RunTool to resurrect a finished actor run. use when you need to restart a completed or failed run. deprecated endpoint; may be removed in future.