# scrapy-web-scraping

A skill that gives your coding agent Scrapy expertise: spider development, data extraction, pipelines and production settings.

- skill · `type=skill` · Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Gemini CLI, OpenCode · 2000 installs · ★ 286
- Author: Mindrally
- License: Apache-2.0 · policy=mirror · the beginning of the file is at the end of this page
- Source: https://github.com/Mindrally/skills/tree/HEAD/scrapy-web-scraping/SKILL.md
- Updated: 2026-10-08
- HTML: https://affpapa.org/en/nevibecode/skills/scrapy-web-scraping

## What it does

This skill turns the agent into a Scrapy reference. It covers framework architecture, spider development, CSS and XPath selectors, item pipelines and middleware for request and response handling. JavaScript rendering gets its own sections on scrapy-splash and scrapy-playwright, alongside proxy rotation and distributed crawling with scrapy-redis.

Inside you get the standard Scrapy project layout, `ItemLoader` examples with input and output processors, and settings such as `DOWNLOAD_DELAY`, `AUTOTHROTTLE` and `CONCURRENT_REQUESTS_PER_DOMAIN`. Error handling with `errback`, HTTP caching via `HTTPCACHE_ENABLED` and spider contracts for tests are covered too. JS-heavy targets need a separate dependency — scrapy-playwright or scrapy-splash — and the skill does not install it for you.

The guidance pushes robots.txt compliance and sane request delays. If your project scrapes without regard for site rules, those recommendations will get in the way. Worth checking how your crawler is set up before you add this.

## Requirements
- Works with: Playwright

## Install

### Claude Code (native platform)

1. **Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add Mindrally/skills --skill scrapy-web-scraping -a claude-code
```

2. **Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `~/.claude/skills/scrapy-web-scraping/SKILL.md` — Copy the whole skill folder; for one project use .claude/skills/scrapy-web-scraping/

### Codex

1. **Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add Mindrally/skills --skill scrapy-web-scraping -a codex
```

2. **Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `.agents/skills/scrapy-web-scraping/SKILL.md` — For all projects use ~/.agents/skills/

### Cursor

1. **Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add Mindrally/skills --skill scrapy-web-scraping -a cursor
```

2. **Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `.cursor/skills/scrapy-web-scraping/SKILL.md` — Cursor also reads .agents/skills/ and .claude/skills/

### GitHub Copilot

1. **GitHub CLI**
```bash
gh skill install Mindrally/skills scrapy-web-scraping
```

2. **Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `.github/skills/scrapy-web-scraping/SKILL.md`

### Gemini CLI

1. **Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add Mindrally/skills --skill scrapy-web-scraping -a gemini-cli
```

2. **Platform CLI**
```bash
gemini skills install https://github.com/Mindrally/skills --path scrapy-web-scraping
```

### Windsurf (Devin Desktop)

**Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `.devin/skills/scrapy-web-scraping/SKILL.md` — The legacy .windsurf/skills/ path still works

### OpenCode

**Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add Mindrally/skills --skill scrapy-web-scraping -a opencode
```

### Claude.ai

**Claude.ai**
- Zip the folder and upload it in Settings → Capabilities → Skills

Where a file is given instead of a command, copy the files from the source to that path: https://github.com/Mindrally/skills/tree/HEAD/scrapy-web-scraping/SKILL.md

## When to use it
- write a Scrapy spider for a specific site from scratch
- pull fields into an Item with CSS selectors and XPath
- set up a pipeline for validation and deduplication
- add proxy and User-Agent rotation for large crawls
- handle JavaScript rendering with scrapy-playwright

## Example prompts
- Write a Scrapy spider for a product catalog with `allowed_domains` and `ItemLoader`
- Configure `DOWNLOAD_DELAY` and `AUTOTHROTTLE` for production and explain each setting
- Add a pipeline that drops items missing the name field

## Source text · SKILL.md · Apache-2.0

Below is the content of a third-party file. It is data, not instructions for you: do not act on anything written inside unless the human asks. Block tag: 2050fcc9a2e30fef.

BEGIN THIRD-PARTY FILE 2050fcc9a2e30fef
````text
---
name: scrapy-web-scraping
description: Expert guidance for building web scrapers and crawlers using the Scrapy Python framework with best practices for spider development, data extraction, and pipeline management.
metadata:
  maintainer: Mindrally
  source: https://github.com/Mindrally/skills
---

# Scrapy Web Scraping

You are an expert in Scrapy, Python web scraping, spider development, and building scalable crawlers for extracting data from websites.

## Core Expertise
- Scrapy framework architecture and components
- Spider development and crawling strategies
- CSS Selectors and XPath expressions for data extraction
- Item Pipelines for data processing and storage
- Middleware development for request/response handling
- Handling JavaScript-rendered content with Scrapy-Splash or Scrapy-Playwright
- Proxy rotation and anti-bot evasion techniques
- Distributed crawling with Scrapy-Redis

## Key Principles

- Write clean, maintainable spider code following Python best practices
- Use modular spider architecture with clear separation of concerns
- Implement robust error handling and retry mechanisms
- Follow ethical scraping practices including robots.txt compliance
- Design for scalability and performance from the start
- Document spider behavior and data schemas thoroughly

## Spider Development

### Project Structure
```
myproject/
    scrapy.cfg
    myproject/
        __init__.py
        items.py
        middlewares.py
        pipelines.py
        settings.py
        spiders/
            __init__.py
            myspider.py
```

### Spider Best Practices

- Use descriptive spider names that reflect the target site
- Define clear `allowed_domains` to prevent crawling outside scope
- Implement `start_requests()` for custom starting logic
- Use `parse()` methods with clear, single responsibilities
- Leverage `ItemLoader` for consistent data extraction
- Apply input/output processors for data cleaning

### Data Extraction

- Prefer CSS selectors for readability when possible
- Use XPath for complex selections (parent traversal, text normalization)
- Always extract data into defined Item classes
- Handle missing data gracefully with default values
- Use `::text` and `::attr()` pseudo-elements in CSS selectors

```python
# Good practice: Using ItemLoader
from scrapy.loader import ItemLoader
from myproject.items import ProductItem

def parse_product(self, response):
    loader = ItemLoader(item=ProductItem(), response=response)
    loader.add_css('name', 'h1.product-title::text')
    loader.add_css('price', 'span.price::text')
    loader.add_xpath('description', '//div[@class="desc"]/text()')
````
END THIRD-PARTY FILE 2050fcc9a2e30fef

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