How to Scrape Bluesky (bsky.app): API and Web Methods

Learn how to scrape Bluesky (bsky.app) posts, profiles, and engagement data. Master the AT Protocol API and web scraping techniques for real-time social...

Bluesky favicon
bsky.appMedium
Coverage:GlobalUnited StatesJapanUnited KingdomGermanyBrazil
Available Data6 fields
LocationDescriptionImagesSeller InfoPosting DateAttributes
All Extractable Fields
Post Text ContentPost TimestampAuthor HandleAuthor Display NameAuthor DIDLike CountRepost CountReply CountUser BioFollower CountFollowing CountImage URLsImage Alt TextPost LanguageHashtagsThread URIUser Location
Technical Requirements
JavaScript Required
No Login
Has Pagination
Official API Available
Anti-Bot Protection Detected
Rate LimitingIP BlockingProof-of-WorkSession Token Rotation

Anti-Bot Protection Detected

Rate Limiting
Limits requests per IP/session over time. Can be bypassed with rotating proxies, request delays, and distributed scraping.
IP Blocking
Blocks known datacenter IPs and flagged addresses. Requires residential or mobile proxies to circumvent effectively.
Proof-of-Work
Session Token Rotation

About Bluesky

Learn what Bluesky offers and what valuable data can be extracted from it.

Bluesky is a decentralized social media platform built on the AT Protocol (Authenticated Transfer Protocol), originally incubated as an internal project at Twitter. It emphasizes user choice, algorithmic transparency, and data portability, functioning as a microblogging site where users share short-form text posts, images, and engage in threaded conversations. The platform is designed to be open and interoperable, allowing users to host their own data servers while still participating in a unified social network.

The platform contains a wealth of public social data, including real-time posts, user profiles, engagement metrics like reposts and likes, and community-curated 'Starter Packs'. Because the underlying protocol is open by design, much of this data is accessible via public endpoints, making it a highly valuable resource for researchers and developers. The data is particularly high-quality due to the platform's focus on professional and technical communities.

Scraping Bluesky is essential for modern social listening, market research, and academic studies on decentralized systems. As high-profile users migrate from traditional social giants, Bluesky provides a clear, real-time window into shifting social trends and public discourse without the restrictive and expensive API barriers common in legacy social media ecosystems.

About Bluesky

Why Scrape Bluesky?

Discover the business value and use cases for extracting data from Bluesky.

Real-time sentiment analysis of public discourse

Tracking user migration from other social platforms

Academic research on decentralized social networks

Lead generation for SaaS and tech-focused products

Competitive analysis for brand engagement

Training datasets for Natural Language Processing (NLP) models

Scraping Challenges

Technical challenges you may encounter when scraping Bluesky.

Single Page Application (SPA) architecture requires JavaScript rendering for web views

Complex nested JSON structures in the AT Protocol API responses

Rate limits on public XRPC endpoints that require session rotation for large volumes

Dynamic CSS classes in the React-based frontend make selector-based scraping fragile

Handling the real-time Firehose stream requires high-performance websocket processing

Scrape Bluesky with AI

No coding required. Extract data in minutes with AI-powered automation.

How It Works

1

Describe What You Need

Tell the AI what data you want to extract from Bluesky. Just type it in plain language — no coding or selectors needed.

2

AI Extracts the Data

Our artificial intelligence navigates Bluesky, handles dynamic content, and extracts exactly what you asked for.

3

Get Your Data

Receive clean, structured data ready to export as CSV, JSON, or send directly to your apps and workflows.

Why Use AI for Scraping

No-code interface allows non-developers to scrape complex social data
Automatically handles dynamic rendering and infinite scroll pagination
Cloud-based execution bypasses local IP restrictions and rate limits
Direct integration with Google Sheets and webhooks for real-time alerts
No credit card requiredFree tier availableNo setup needed

AI makes it easy to scrape Bluesky without writing any code. Our AI-powered platform uses artificial intelligence to understand what data you want — just describe it in plain language and the AI extracts it automatically.

How to scrape with AI:
  1. Describe What You Need: Tell the AI what data you want to extract from Bluesky. Just type it in plain language — no coding or selectors needed.
  2. AI Extracts the Data: Our artificial intelligence navigates Bluesky, handles dynamic content, and extracts exactly what you asked for.
  3. Get Your Data: Receive clean, structured data ready to export as CSV, JSON, or send directly to your apps and workflows.
Why use AI for scraping:
  • No-code interface allows non-developers to scrape complex social data
  • Automatically handles dynamic rendering and infinite scroll pagination
  • Cloud-based execution bypasses local IP restrictions and rate limits
  • Direct integration with Google Sheets and webhooks for real-time alerts

No-Code Web Scrapers for Bluesky

Point-and-click alternatives to AI-powered scraping

Several no-code tools like Browse.ai, Octoparse, Axiom, and ParseHub can help you scrape Bluesky. These tools use visual interfaces to select elements, but they come with trade-offs compared to AI-powered solutions.

Typical Workflow with No-Code Tools

1
Install browser extension or sign up for the platform
2
Navigate to the target website and open the tool
3
Point-and-click to select data elements you want to extract
4
Configure CSS selectors for each data field
5
Set up pagination rules to scrape multiple pages
6
Handle CAPTCHAs (often requires manual solving)
7
Configure scheduling for automated runs
8
Export data to CSV, JSON, or connect via API

Common Challenges

Learning curve

Understanding selectors and extraction logic takes time

Selectors break

Website changes can break your entire workflow

Dynamic content issues

JavaScript-heavy sites often require complex workarounds

CAPTCHA limitations

Most tools require manual intervention for CAPTCHAs

IP blocking

Aggressive scraping can get your IP banned

No-Code Web Scrapers for Bluesky

Several no-code tools like Browse.ai, Octoparse, Axiom, and ParseHub can help you scrape Bluesky. These tools use visual interfaces to select elements, but they come with trade-offs compared to AI-powered solutions.

Typical Workflow with No-Code Tools
  1. Install browser extension or sign up for the platform
  2. Navigate to the target website and open the tool
  3. Point-and-click to select data elements you want to extract
  4. Configure CSS selectors for each data field
  5. Set up pagination rules to scrape multiple pages
  6. Handle CAPTCHAs (often requires manual solving)
  7. Configure scheduling for automated runs
  8. Export data to CSV, JSON, or connect via API
Common Challenges
  • Learning curve: Understanding selectors and extraction logic takes time
  • Selectors break: Website changes can break your entire workflow
  • Dynamic content issues: JavaScript-heavy sites often require complex workarounds
  • CAPTCHA limitations: Most tools require manual intervention for CAPTCHAs
  • IP blocking: Aggressive scraping can get your IP banned

Code Examples

import requests

def scrape_bsky_api(handle):
    # Using the public XRPC API endpoint for profile data
    url = f"https://bsky.social/xrpc/app.bsky.actor.getProfile?actor={handle}"
    headers = {"User-Agent": "Mozilla/5.0"}
    
    try:
        response = requests.get(url, headers=headers)
        response.raise_for_status()
        data = response.json()
        print(f"Display Name: {data.get('displayName')}")
        print(f"Followers: {data.get('followersCount')}")
    except Exception as e:
        print(f"Request failed: {e}")

scrape_bsky_api('bsky.app')

When to Use

Best for static HTML pages where content is loaded server-side. The fastest and simplest approach when JavaScript rendering isn't required.

Advantages

  • Fastest execution (no browser overhead)
  • Lowest resource consumption
  • Easy to parallelize with asyncio
  • Great for APIs and static pages

Limitations

  • Cannot execute JavaScript
  • Fails on SPAs and dynamic content
  • May struggle with complex anti-bot systems

How to Scrape Bluesky with Code

Python + Requests
import requests

def scrape_bsky_api(handle):
    # Using the public XRPC API endpoint for profile data
    url = f"https://bsky.social/xrpc/app.bsky.actor.getProfile?actor={handle}"
    headers = {"User-Agent": "Mozilla/5.0"}
    
    try:
        response = requests.get(url, headers=headers)
        response.raise_for_status()
        data = response.json()
        print(f"Display Name: {data.get('displayName')}")
        print(f"Followers: {data.get('followersCount')}")
    except Exception as e:
        print(f"Request failed: {e}")

scrape_bsky_api('bsky.app')
Python + Playwright
from playwright.sync_api import sync_playwright

def scrape_bluesky_web():
    with sync_playwright() as p:
        browser = p.chromium.launch(headless=True)
        page = browser.new_page()
        page.goto("https://bsky.app/profile/bsky.app")
        
        # Wait for React to render post items using stable data-testid
        page.wait_for_selector('[data-testid="postText"]')
        
        # Extract the text of the first few posts
        posts = page.query_selector_all('[data-testid="postText"]')
        for post in posts[:5]:
            print(post.inner_text())
            
        browser.close()

scrape_bluesky_web()
Python + Scrapy
import scrapy
import json

class BlueskySpider(scrapy.Spider):
    name = 'bluesky_api'
    # Targeting the public author feed API
    start_urls = ['https://bsky.social/xrpc/app.bsky.feed.getAuthorFeed?actor=bsky.app']

    def parse(self, response):
        data = json.loads(response.text)
        for item in data.get('feed', []):
            post_data = item.get('post', {})
            yield {
                'cid': post_data.get('cid'),
                'text': post_data.get('record', {}).get('text'),
                'author': post_data.get('author', {}).get('handle'),
                'likes': post_data.get('likeCount')
            }
Node.js + Puppeteer
const puppeteer = require('puppeteer');

(async () => {
  const browser = await puppeteer.launch();
  const page = await browser.newPage();
  await page.goto('https://bsky.app/profile/bsky.app');

  // Use data-testid for more stable selectors in the SPA
  await page.waitForSelector('div[data-testid="postText"]');

  const postData = await page.evaluate(() => {
    const items = Array.from(document.querySelectorAll('div[data-testid="postText"]'));
    return items.map(item => item.innerText);
  });

  console.log('Latest posts:', postData.slice(0, 5));
  await browser.close();
})();

What You Can Do With Bluesky Data

Explore practical applications and insights from Bluesky data.

Brand Reputation Monitoring

Businesses can track real-time sentiment and brand mentions among high-value technical and professional user groups.

How to implement:

  1. 1Set up a keyword scraper for brand names and product terms.
  2. 2Scrape all posts and replies hourly to capture fresh mentions.
  3. 3Run sentiment analysis on post text using pre-trained NLP models.
  4. 4Visualize sentiment trends on a dashboard to detect PR issues early.

Use Automatio to extract data from Bluesky and build these applications without writing code.

What You Can Do With Bluesky Data

  • Brand Reputation Monitoring

    Businesses can track real-time sentiment and brand mentions among high-value technical and professional user groups.

    1. Set up a keyword scraper for brand names and product terms.
    2. Scrape all posts and replies hourly to capture fresh mentions.
    3. Run sentiment analysis on post text using pre-trained NLP models.
    4. Visualize sentiment trends on a dashboard to detect PR issues early.
  • Competitive Intelligence

    Analyze competitor engagement strategies and community growth on an open platform.

    1. Collect a list of competitor handles on Bluesky.
    2. Scrape their follower counts and daily post volume over time.
    3. Analyze the most liked posts to determine high-performing content themes.
    4. Identify 'super-fans' who engage frequently with competitor content.
  • Decentralized Network Research

    Academic researchers can map the topology of decentralized networks and community clusters.

    1. Scrape public 'Starter Packs' to identify defined community groups.
    2. Extract follower/following networks between specific actors.
    3. Apply graph theory to visualize the connectivity of the AT Protocol ecosystem.
    4. Track the speed and depth of information diffusion.
  • B2B Lead Generation

    Sales teams can find high-quality leads by identifying users discussing specific industry problems.

    1. Scrape posts containing 'how do I' or 'need alternative to' in niche industries.
    2. Extract the user bio and handle to assess prospect quality.
    3. Filter for users with significant following in relevant circles.
    4. Automate personalized outreach based on the context of their posts.
  • Training AI Conversation Models

    Developers can extract massive datasets of human conversation to fine-tune Large Language Models.

    1. Connect to the Bluesky Firehose to stream all public posts.
    2. Filter for threads with 5+ replies to ensure meaningful conversational data.
    3. Clean data by stripping PII and irrelevant links.
    4. Format the result into JSONL for model fine-tuning pipelines.
More than just prompts

Supercharge your workflow with AI Automation

Automatio combines the power of AI agents, web automation, and smart integrations to help you accomplish more in less time.

AI Agents
Web Automation
Smart Workflows

Pro Tips for Scraping Bluesky

Expert advice for successfully extracting data from Bluesky.

Always prefer the AT Protocol API over DOM scraping as it is faster and won't break when the UI updates.

Monitor the 'X-RateLimit-Remaining' header in API responses to avoid being throttled by the PDS.

Use App Passwords for authenticated scraping to keep your main account credentials secure.

When scraping the website directly, target 'data-testid' attributes which are specifically designed for testing and scraping stability.

Tap into the websocket firehose at 'wss

//bsky.network/xrpc/com.atproto.sync.subscribeRepos' for high-volume real-time data needs.

Implement exponential backoff strategies to handle the Proof-of-Work challenges occasionally triggered by high frequency.

Testimonials

What Our Users Say

Join thousands of satisfied users who have transformed their workflow

Jonathan Kogan

Jonathan Kogan

Co-Founder/CEO, rpatools.io

Automatio is one of the most used for RPA Tools both internally and externally. It saves us countless hours of work and we realized this could do the same for other startups and so we choose Automatio for most of our automation needs.

Mohammed Ibrahim

Mohammed Ibrahim

CEO, qannas.pro

I have used many tools over the past 5 years, Automatio is the Jack of All trades.. !! it could be your scraping bot in the morning and then it becomes your VA by the noon and in the evening it does your automations.. its amazing!

Ben Bressington

Ben Bressington

CTO, AiChatSolutions

Automatio is fantastic and simple to use to extract data from any website. This allowed me to replace a developer and do tasks myself as they only take a few minutes to setup and forget about it. Automatio is a game changer!

Sarah Chen

Sarah Chen

Head of Growth, ScaleUp Labs

We've tried dozens of automation tools, but Automatio stands out for its flexibility and ease of use. Our team productivity increased by 40% within the first month of adoption.

David Park

David Park

Founder, DataDriven.io

The AI-powered features in Automatio are incredible. It understands context and adapts to changes in websites automatically. No more broken scrapers!

Emily Rodriguez

Emily Rodriguez

Marketing Director, GrowthMetrics

Automatio transformed our lead generation process. What used to take our team days now happens automatically in minutes. The ROI is incredible.

Jonathan Kogan

Jonathan Kogan

Co-Founder/CEO, rpatools.io

Automatio is one of the most used for RPA Tools both internally and externally. It saves us countless hours of work and we realized this could do the same for other startups and so we choose Automatio for most of our automation needs.

Mohammed Ibrahim

Mohammed Ibrahim

CEO, qannas.pro

I have used many tools over the past 5 years, Automatio is the Jack of All trades.. !! it could be your scraping bot in the morning and then it becomes your VA by the noon and in the evening it does your automations.. its amazing!

Ben Bressington

Ben Bressington

CTO, AiChatSolutions

Automatio is fantastic and simple to use to extract data from any website. This allowed me to replace a developer and do tasks myself as they only take a few minutes to setup and forget about it. Automatio is a game changer!

Sarah Chen

Sarah Chen

Head of Growth, ScaleUp Labs

We've tried dozens of automation tools, but Automatio stands out for its flexibility and ease of use. Our team productivity increased by 40% within the first month of adoption.

David Park

David Park

Founder, DataDriven.io

The AI-powered features in Automatio are incredible. It understands context and adapts to changes in websites automatically. No more broken scrapers!

Emily Rodriguez

Emily Rodriguez

Marketing Director, GrowthMetrics

Automatio transformed our lead generation process. What used to take our team days now happens automatically in minutes. The ROI is incredible.

Related Web Scraping

Frequently Asked Questions About Bluesky

Find answers to common questions about Bluesky