How to add Apify Actors to Claude Desktop

Official Apify MCP server — search and scrape the web via thousands of ready-made Actors; local or remote. Paste the config into ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json and restart Claude Desktop.

Last updated June 15, 2026 · 1.3k★ · stdio · apikey · official

Claude Desktop config for Apify Actors

npx -y @apify/actors-mcp-server

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "apify-actors": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@apify/actors-mcp-server"
      ],
      "env": {
        "APIFY_TOKEN": "<your-apify-token>"
      }
    }
  }
}

Setup steps

1Open Claude Desktop → Settings → Developer → Edit Config (this opens ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json).
2Paste the Apify Actors config below under the top-level "mcpServers" key.
3Fill in any placeholder secrets (API keys, paths) in the snippet.
4Save the file, then fully quit and reopen Claude Desktop.
5Open a chat and confirm Apify Actors's tools appear under the 🔌 tools menu.

Before you start

An Apify account and API token from the Apify Console (Settings -> Integrations / API tokens)
For local use: Node.js v22+ to run `npx @apify/actors-mcp-server`
For remote use: an MCP client that supports remote servers and OAuth (e.g. Claude.ai, VS Code), or a Bearer token
Note: running Actors consumes Apify platform credits/usage on your account

What Apify Actors can do in Claude Desktop

search-actors

Discover Actors in the Apify Store relevant to a task.

fetch-actor-details

Return an Actor's specs, README, and input schema.

call-actor

Run an Actor with input and retrieve its results.

add-actor

Dynamically expose a chosen Actor as its own MCP tool.

get-actor-run

Fetch information about a specific Actor run.

get-dataset-items

Retrieve paginated items from an Actor run's output dataset.

get-key-value-store-record

Read a record from an Actor's key-value store.

abort-actor-run

Cancel a running Actor.

Security

The APIFY_TOKEN gates billable Actor runs; keep it secret and consider scoping exposed tools to limit what an agent can trigger. Actors execute remote scraping you may pay for, so review which Actors are enabled before running untrusted prompts.

Apify Actors + Claude Desktop FAQ

Where is the Claude Desktop config file?

Claude Desktop reads MCP servers from ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json. Paste the Apify Actors config there under the "mcpServers" key and restart the client.

Is Apify Actors safe to use with Claude Desktop?

How do I authenticate?

With an Apify API token. The hosted server at mcp.apify.com supports OAuth, or you can pass Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_TOKEN>; locally set the APIFY_TOKEN environment variable.

Is it free?

The server itself is open source (MIT), but running Actors consumes Apify platform usage. New accounts get free monthly platform credits to start.

Should I use the hosted server or run it locally?

Apify recommends the hosted server at https://mcp.apify.com — it supports OAuth and gets the newest features (like output schema inference) first. Local stdio via npm is available for offline/embedded use.

View repo Full Apify Actors page