Name: apify-actor-development
Rating: 68.8 (1 reviews)
Author: apify

apify-actor-development

Develop, debug, and deploy Apify Actors - serverless cloud programs for web scraping, automation, and data processing. Use when creating new Actors, modifying existing ones, or troubleshooting Actor code.

Quality

83%

Does it follow best practices?

Run evals on this skill

Adds up to 20 points to the overall score

View guide

Securityby

Passed

No findings from the security scan

Quality

Content

78%Weight 40%Scale 1-5

Reviews the quality of instructions and guidance provided to agents. Good implementation is clear, handles edge cases, and produces reliable results.

A well-structured, highly actionable Actor-development guide with strong progressive disclosure and a clear numbered workflow. The main gaps are the absence of an inline Actor code example and an explicit validate-fix-retry loop in the main workflow.

Suggestions

Add a short inline Actor code skeleton (src/main.py or main.ts) so the core implementation pattern is visible without following a reference.

Make the deploy workflow's feedback loop explicit, e.g. "If apify run fails, fix and re-run before apify push", to reach the top workflow-clarity anchor.

Trim the "What are Apify Actors?" concept paragraphs to the essentials Claude needs, keeping conciseness tight.

Dimension	Reasoning	Score
Conciseness	The body is dense with commands, do/don't lists, and security notes; the "What are Apify Actors?" intro explains a platform-specific concept rather than common knowledge, so only minor over-explanation remains — efficient but trimmable.	4 / 5
Actionability	Copy-paste-ready command blocks, specific templates (-t ts_empty, -t python-empty), named deprecated options, and a concrete remote-call flow give mostly executable guidance; not a 5 because no inline Actor implementation code example is present (it is delegated to references).	4 / 5
Workflow Clarity	The 8-step Quick start is clearly sequenced with a local-test checkpoint (step 7) before deploy (step 8) and a validate-schema command, so validation is present and the destructive-cap does not apply; not a 5 because no explicit validate→fix→retry feedback loop is written out.	4 / 5
Progressive Disclosure	The body is a clear overview with well-signaled, one-level-deep references; all 8 referenced files (actor-json, actor-readme, logging, standby-mode, input-schema, output-schema, dataset-schema, key-value-store) exist and are linked with clear navigation.	5 / 5
	Total	17 / 20 Passed

Description

87%Weight 40%Scale 1-5

Based on the skill's description, can an agent find and select it at the right time? Clear, specific descriptions lead to better discovery.

A strong, third-person description that pairs a concrete capability statement with an explicit "Use when..." trigger clause. It is distinctive and complete; the only soft spot is trigger-term breadth, where a few natural synonyms would push it to the top.

Suggestions

Add natural synonyms users say, e.g. "crawler", "scraper", or "Apify scraper", to broaden trigger matching.

Consider naming concrete deliverables (e.g. Docker images, datasets, key-value stores) to raise specificity from lifecycle verbs to tangible actions.

Dimension	Reasoning	Score
Specificity	"Develop, debug, and deploy Apify Actors" names three concrete lifecycle actions plus the domain "serverless cloud programs for web scraping, automation, and data processing"; not a 5 because the actions are high-level lifecycle verbs rather than the granular operations seen in the top anchor.	4 / 5
Completeness	It explicitly answers both "what" (develop/debug/deploy Apify Actors for scraping, automation, data processing) and "when" ("Use when creating new Actors, modifying existing ones, or troubleshooting Actor code") with concrete trigger phrases, matching the top anchor.	5 / 5
Trigger Term Quality	"creating new Actors, modifying existing ones, or troubleshooting Actor code" plus "web scraping", "automation", and "data processing" give good natural keyword coverage; not a 5 because common synonyms like "crawler" or "scraper" and an explicit file-extension trigger are absent.	4 / 5
Distinctiveness Conflict Risk	"Apify Actors" is a clearly named platform niche with distinct triggers and minimal overlap with other skills, matching the clear-niche anchor.	5 / 5
	Total	18 / 20 Passed

Validation

100%

Warnings & errors only

Checks the skill against the spec for correct structure and formatting. All validation checks must pass before discovery and implementation can be scored.

Validation — 16 / 16 Passed

Validation for skill structure

No warnings or errors.

Repository: apify/agent-skills
Path: skills/apify-actor-development/SKILL.md
Commit: dd6bb07

Reviewed: 10 days ago

Table of Contents

Discovery Implementation Validation

Is this your skill?

If you maintain this skill, you can claim it as your own. Once claimed, you can manage eval scenarios, bundle related skills, attach documentation or rules, and ensure cross-agent compatibility.