Analyze competitors using Apify Actors to extract data from multiple platforms.

Prerequisites

(No need to check it upfront)

.env file with APIFY_TOKEN
Node.js 20.6+ (for native --env-file support)
mcpc CLI tool (for fetching Actor schemas)

Workflow

Copy this checklist and track progress:

Task Progress:
- [ ] Step 1: Identify competitor analysis type (select Actor)
- [ ] Step 2: Fetch Actor schema via mcpc
- [ ] Step 3: Ask user preferences (format, filename)
- [ ] Step 4: Run the analysis script
- [ ] Step 5: Summarize findings

Step 1: Identify Competitor Analysis Type

Select the appropriate Actor based on analysis needs:

| Competitor business data | compass/crawler-google-places | Location analysis

| Competitor contact discovery | poidata/google-maps-email-extractor | Email extraction

| Feature benchmarking | compass/google-maps-extractor | Detailed business data

| Competitor review analysis | compass/Google-Maps-Reviews-Scraper | Review comparison

| Hotel competitor data | voyager/booking-scraper | Hotel benchmarking

| Hotel review comparison | voyager/booking-reviews-scraper | Review analysis

| Competitor ad strategies | apify/facebook-ads-scraper | Ad creative analysis

| Competitor page metrics | apify/facebook-pages-scraper | Page performance

| Competitor content analysis | apify/facebook-posts-scraper | Post strategies

| Competitor reels performance | apify/facebook-reels-scraper | Reels analysis

| Competitor audience analysis | apify/facebook-comments-scraper | Comment sentiment

| Competitor event monitoring | apify/facebook-events-scraper | Event tracking

| Competitor audience overlap | apify/facebook-followers-following-scraper | Follower analysis

| Competitor review benchmarking | apify/facebook-reviews-scraper | Review comparison

| Competitor ad monitoring | apify/facebook-search-scraper | Ad discovery

| Competitor profile metrics | apify/instagram-profile-scraper | Profile analysis

| Competitor content monitoring | apify/instagram-post-scraper | Post tracking

| Competitor engagement analysis | apify/instagram-comment-scraper | Comment analysis

| Competitor reel performance | apify/instagram-reel-scraper | Reel metrics

| Competitor growth tracking | apify/instagram-followers-count-scraper | Follower tracking

| Comprehensive competitor data | apify/instagram-scraper | Full analysis

| API-based competitor analysis | apify/instagram-api-scraper | API access

| Competitor video analysis | streamers/youtube-scraper | Video metrics

| Competitor sentiment analysis | streamers/youtube-comments-scraper | Comment sentiment

| Competitor channel metrics | streamers/youtube-channel-scraper | Channel analysis

| TikTok competitor analysis | clockworks/tiktok-scraper | TikTok data

| Competitor video strategies | clockworks/tiktok-video-scraper | Video analysis

| Competitor TikTok profiles | clockworks/tiktok-profile-scraper | Profile data

Step 2: Fetch Actor Schema

Fetch the Actor's input schema and details dynamically using mcpc:

export $(grep APIFY_TOKEN .env | xargs) && mcpc --json mcp.apify.com --header "Authorization: Bearer $APIFY_TOKEN" tools-call fetch-actor-details actor:="ACTOR_ID" | jq -r ".content"

Replace ACTOR_ID with the selected Actor (e.g., compass/crawler-google-places).

This returns:

Actor description and README
Required and optional input parameters
Output fields (if available)

Step 3: Ask User Preferences

Before running, ask:

Output format:

Quick answer - Display top few results in chat (no file saved)

CSV - Full export with all fields
JSON - Full export in JSON format
Number of results: Based on character of use case

Step 4: Run the Script

Quick answer (display in chat, no file):

node --env-file=.env ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/reference/scripts/run_actor.js \
  --actor "ACTOR_ID" \
  --input 'JSON_INPUT'

CSV:

node --env-file=.env ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/reference/scripts/run_actor.js \
  --actor "ACTOR_ID" \
  --input 'JSON_INPUT' \
  --output YYYY-MM-DD_OUTPUT_FILE.csv \
  --format csv

JSON:

node --env-file=.env ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/reference/scripts/run_actor.js \
  --actor "ACTOR_ID" \
  --input 'JSON_INPUT' \
  --output YYYY-MM-DD_OUTPUT_FILE.json \
  --format json

Step 5: Summarize Findings

After completion, report:

Number of competitors analyzed
File location and name
Key competitive insights
Suggested next steps (deeper analysis, benchmarking)

Error Handling

APIFY_TOKEN not found - Ask user to create .env with APIFY_TOKEN=your_token mcpc not found - Ask user to install npm install -g @apify/mcpc Actor not found - Check Actor ID spelling Run FAILED - Ask user to check Apify console link in error output Timeout - Reduce input size or increase --timeout

apify-competitor-intelligence

安装