data-scraper-agent

SKILL.md

Data Scraper Agent

Build a production-ready, AI-powered data collection agent for any public data source.
Runs on a schedule, enriches results with a free LLM, stores to a database, and improves over time.

Stack: Python · Gemini Flash (free) · GitHub Actions (free) · Notion / Sheets / Supabase

When to Activate

User wants to scrape or monitor any public website or API

User says "build a bot that checks...", "monitor X for me", "collect data from..."

User wants to track jobs, prices, news, repos, sports scores, events, listings

User asks how to automate data collection without paying for hosting

User wants an agent that gets smarter over time based on their decisions

Core Concepts

The Three Layers
Every data scraper agent has three layers:

COLLECT → ENRICH → STORE
  │           │        │
Scraper    AI (LLM)  Database
runs on    scores/   Notion /
schedule   summarises Sheets /
           & classifies Supabase

Free Stack

Layer
Tool
Why

Scraping
requests + BeautifulSoup
No cost, covers 80% of public sites

JS-rendered sites
playwright (free)
When HTML scraping fails

AI enrichment
Gemini Flash via REST API
500 req/day, 1M tokens/day — free

Storage
Notion API
Free tier, great UI for review

Schedule
GitHub Actions cron
Free for public repos

Learning
JSON feedback file in repo
Zero infra, persists in git

AI Model Fallback Chain

Build agents to auto-fallback across Gemini models on quota exhaustion:

gemini-2.0-flash-lite (30 RPM) →
gemini-2.0-flash (15 RPM) →
gemini-2.5-flash (10 RPM) →
gemini-flash-lite-latest (fallback)

Batch API Calls for Efficiency

Never call the LLM once per item. Always batch:

# BAD: 33 API calls for 33 items
for item in items:
    result = call_ai(item)  # 33 calls → hits rate limit

# GOOD: 7 API calls for 33 items (batch size 5)
for batch in chunks(items, size=5):
    results = call_ai(batch)  # 7 calls → stays within free tier

Workflow

Step 1: Understand the Goal

Ask the user:

What to collect: "What data source? URL / API / RSS / public endpoint?"

What to extract: "What fields matter? Title, price, URL, date, score?"

How to store: "Where should results go? Notion, Google Sheets, Supabase, or local file?"

How to enrich: "Do you want AI to score, summarise, classify, or match each item?"

Frequency: "How often should it run? Every hour, daily, weekly?"

Common examples to prompt:

Job boards → score relevance to resume

Product prices → alert on drops

GitHub repos → summarise new releases

News feeds → classify by topic + sentiment

Sports results → extract stats to tracker

Events calendar → filter by interest

Step 2: Design the Agent Architecture

Generate this directory structure for the user:

my-agent/
├── config.yaml              # User customises this (keywords, filters, preferences)
├── profile/
│   └── context.md           # User context the AI uses (resume, interests, criteria)
├── scraper/
│   ├── __init__.py
│   ├── main.py              # Orchestrator: scrape → enrich → store
│   ├── filters.py           # Rule-based pre-filter (fast, before AI)
│   └── sources/
│       ├── __init__.py
│       └── source_name.py   # One file per data source
├── ai/
│   ├── __init__.py
│   ├── client.py            # Gemini REST client with model fallback
│   ├── pipeline.py          # Batch AI analysis
│   ├── jd_fetcher.py        # Fetch full content from URLs (optional)
│   └── memory.py            # Learn from user feedback
├── storage/
│   ├── __init__.py
│   └── notion_sync.py       # Or sheets_sync.py / supabase_sync.py
├── data/
│   └── feedback.json        # User decision history (auto-updated)
├── .env.example
├── setup.py                 # One-time DB/schema creation
├── enrich_existing.py       # Backfill AI scores on old rows
├── requirements.txt
└── .github/
    └── workflows/
        └── scraper.yml      # GitHub Actions schedule

Step 3: Build the Scraper Source

Template for any data source:

# scraper/sources/my_source.py
"""
[Source Name] — scrapes [what] from [where].
Method: [REST API / HTML scraping / RSS feed]
"""
import requests
from bs4 import BeautifulSoup
from datetime import datetime, timezone
from scraper.filters import is_relevant

HEADERS = {
    "User-Agent": "Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; research-bot/1.0)",
}

def fetch() -> list[dict]:
    """
    Returns a list of items with consistent schema.
    Each item must have at minimum: name, url, date_found.
    """
    results = []

    # ---- REST API source ----
    resp = requests.get("https://api.example.com/items", headers=HEADERS, timeout=15)
    if resp.status_code == 200:
        for item in resp.json().get("results", []):
            if not is_relevant(item.get("title", "")):
                continue
            results.append(_normalise(item))

    return results

def _normalise(raw: dict) -> dict:
    """Convert raw API/HTML data to the standard schema."""
    return {
        "name": raw.get("title", ""),
        "url": raw.get("link", ""),
        "source": "MySource",
        "date_found": datetime.now(timezone.utc).date().isoformat(),
        # add domain-specific fields here
    }

HTML scraping pattern:

soup = BeautifulSoup(resp.text, "lxml")
for card in soup.select("[class*='listing']"):
    title = card.select_one("h2, h3").get_text(strip=True)
    link = card.select_one("a")["href"]
    if not link.startswith("http"):
        link = f"https://example.com{link}"

RSS feed pattern:

import xml.etree.ElementTree as ET
root = ET.fromstring(resp.text)
for item in root.findall(".//item"):
    title = item.findtext("title", "")
    link = item.findtext("link", "")

Step 4: Build the Gemini AI Client

# ai/client.py
import os, json, time, requests

_last_call = 0.0

MODEL_FALLBACK = [
    "gemini-2.0-flash-lite",
    "gemini-2.0-flash",
    "gemini-2.5-flash",
    "gemini-flash-lite-latest",
]

def generate(prompt: str, model: str = "", rate_limit: float = 7.0) -> dict:
    """Call Gemini with auto-fallback on 429. Returns parsed JSON or {}."""
    global _last_call

    api_key = os.environ.get("GEMINI_API_KEY", "")
    if not api_key:
        return {}

    elapsed = time.time() - _last_call
    if elapsed < rate_limit:
        time.sleep(rate_limit - elapsed)

    models = [model] + [m for m in MODEL_FALLBACK if m != model] if model else MODEL_FALLBACK
    _last_call = time.time()

    for m in models:
        url = f"https://generativelanguage.googleapis.com/v1beta/models/{m}:generateContent?key={api_key}"
        payload = {
            "contents": [{"parts": [{"text": prompt}]}],
            "generationConfig": {
                "responseMimeType": "application/json",
                "temperature": 0.3,
                "maxOutputTokens": 2048,
            },
        }
        try:
            resp = requests.post(url, json=payload, timeout=30)
            if resp.status_code == 200:
                return _parse(resp)
            if resp.status_code in (429, 404):
                time.sleep(1)
                continue
            return {}
        except requests.RequestException:
            return {}

    return {}

def _parse(resp) -> dict:
    try:
        text = (
            resp.json()
            .get("candidates", [{}])[0]
            .get("content", {})
            .get("parts", [{}])[0]
            .get("text", "")
            .strip()
        )
        if text.startswith("```"):
            text = text.split("\n", 1)[-1].rsplit("```", 1)[0]
        return json.loads(text)
    except (json.JSONDecodeError, KeyError):
        return {}

Step 5: Build the AI Pipeline (Batch)

# ai/pipeline.py
import json
import yaml
from pathlib import Path
from ai.client import generate

def analyse_batch(items: list[dict], context: str = "", preference_prompt: str = "") -> list[dict]:
    """Analyse items in batches. Returns items enriched with AI fields."""
    config = yaml.safe_load((Path(__file__).parent.parent / "config.yaml").read_text())
    model = config.get("ai", {}).get("model", "gemini-2.5-flash")
    rate_limit = config.get("ai", {}).get("rate_limit_seconds", 7.0)
    min_score = config.get("ai", {}).get("min_score", 0)
    batch_size = config.get("ai", {}).get("batch_size", 5)

    batches = [items[i:i + batch_size] for i in range(0, len(items), batch_size)]
    print(f"  [AI] {len(items)} items → {len(batches)} API calls")

    enriched = []
    for i, batch in enumerate(batches):
        print(f"  [AI] Batch {i + 1}/{len(batches)}...")
        prompt = _build_prompt(batch, context, preference_prompt, config)
        result = generate(prompt, model=model, rate_limit=rate_limit)

        analyses = result.get("analyses", [])
        for j, item in enumerate(batch):
            ai = analyses[j] if j < len(analyses) else {}
            if ai:
                score = max(0, min(100, int(ai.get("score", 0))))
                if min_score and score < min_score:
                    continue
                enriched.append({**item, "ai_score": score, "ai_summary": ai.get("summary", ""), "ai_notes": ai.get("notes", "")})
            else:
                enriched.append(item)

    return enriched

def _build_prompt(batch, context, preference_prompt, config):
    priorities = config.get("priorities", [])
    items_text = "\n\n".join(
        f"Item {i+1}: {json.dumps({k: v for k, v in item.items() if not k.startswith('_')})}"
        for i, item in enumerate(batch)
    )

    return f"""Analyse these {len(batch)} items and return a JSON object.

# Items
{items_text}

# User Context
{context[:800] if context else "Not provided"}

# User Priorities
{chr(10).join(f"- {p}" for p in priorities)}

{preference_prompt}

# Instructions
Return: {{"analyses": [{{"score": <0-100>, "summary": "<2 sentences>", "notes": "<why this matches or doesn't>"}} for each item in order]}}
Be concise. Score 90+=excellent match, 70-89=good, 50-69=ok, <50=weak."""

Step 6: Build the Feedback Learning System

# ai/memory.py
"""Learn from user decisions to improve future scoring."""
import json
from pathlib import Path

FEEDBACK_PATH = Path(__file__).parent.parent / "data" / "feedback.json"

def load_feedback() -> dict:
    if FEEDBACK_PATH.exists():
        try:
            return json.loads(FEEDBACK_PATH.read_text())
        except (json.JSONDecodeError, OSError):
            pass
    return {"positive": [], "negative": []}

def save_feedback(fb: dict):
    FEEDBACK_PATH.parent.mkdir(parents=True, exist_ok=True)
    FEEDBACK_PATH.write_text(json.dumps(fb, indent=2))

def build_preference_prompt(feedback: dict, max_examples: int = 15) -> str:
    """Convert feedback history into a prompt bias section."""
    lines = []
    if feedback.get("positive"):
        lines.append("# Items the user LIKED (positive signal):")
        for e in feedback["positive"][-max_examples:]:
            lines.append(f"- {e}")
    if feedback.get("negative"):
        lines.append("\n# Items the user SKIPPED/REJECTED (negative signal):")
        for e in feedback["negative"][-max_examples:]:
            lines.append(f"- {e}")
    if lines:
        lines.append("\nUse these patterns to bias scoring on new items.")
    return "\n".join(lines)

Integration with your storage layer: after each run, query your DB for items with positive/negative status and call save_feedback() with the extracted patterns.

Step 7: Build Storage (Notion example)

# storage/notion_sync.py
import os
from notion_client import Client
from notion_client.errors import APIResponseError

_client = None

def get_client():
    global _client
    if _client is None:
        _client = Client(auth=os.environ["NOTION_TOKEN"])
    return _client

def get_existing_urls(db_id: str) -> set[str]:
    """Fetch all URLs already stored — used for deduplication."""
    client, seen, cursor = get_client(), set(), None
    while True:
        resp = client.databases.query(database_id=db_id, page_size=100, **{"start_cursor": cursor} if cursor else {})
        for page in resp["results"]:
            url = page["properties"].get("URL", {}).get("url", "")
            if url: seen.add(url)
        if not resp["has_more"]: break
        cursor = resp["next_cursor"]
    return seen

def push_item(db_id: str, item: dict) -> bool:
    """Push one item to Notion. Returns True on success."""
    props = {
        "Name": {"title": [{"text": {"content": item.get("name", "")[:100]}}]},
        "URL": {"url": item.get("url")},
        "Source": {"select": {"name": item.get("source", "Unknown")}},
        "Date Found": {"date": {"start": item.get("date_found")}},
        "Status": {"select": {"name": "New"}},
    }
    # AI fields
    if item.get("ai_score") is not None:
        props["AI Score"] = {"number": item["ai_score"]}
    if item.get("ai_summary"):
        props["Summary"] = {"rich_text": [{"text": {"content": item["ai_summary"][:2000]}}]}
    if item.get("ai_notes"):
        props["Notes"] = {"rich_text": [{"text": {"content": item["ai_notes"][:2000]}}]}

    try:
        get_client().pages.create(parent={"database_id": db_id}, properties=props)
        return True
    except APIResponseError as e:
        print(f"[notion] Push failed: {e}")
        return False

def sync(db_id: str, items: list[dict]) -> tuple[int, int]:
    existing = get_existing_urls(db_id)
    added = skipped = 0
    for item in items:
        if item.get("url") in existing:
            skipped += 1; continue
        if push_item(db_id, item):
            added += 1; existing.add(item["url"])
        else:
            skipped += 1
    return added, skipped

Step 8: Orchestrate in main.py

# scraper/main.py
import os, sys, yaml
from pathlib import Path
from dotenv import load_dotenv

load_dotenv()

from scraper.sources import my_source          # add your sources

# NOTE: This example uses Notion. If storage.provider is "sheets" or "supabase",
# replace this import with storage.sheets_sync or storage.supabase_sync and update
# the env var and sync() call accordingly.
from storage.notion_sync import sync

SOURCES = [
    ("My Source", my_source.fetch),
]

def ai_enabled():
    return bool(os.environ.get("GEMINI_API_KEY"))

def main():
    config = yaml.safe_load((Path(__file__).parent.parent / "config.yaml").read_text())
    provider = config.get("storage", {}).get("provider", "notion")

    # Resolve the storage target identifier from env based on provider
    if provider == "notion":
        db_id = os.environ.get("NOTION_DATABASE_ID")
        if not db_id:
            print("ERROR: NOTION_DATABASE_ID not set"); sys.exit(1)
    else:
        # Extend here for sheets (SHEET_ID) or supabase (SUPABASE_TABLE) etc.
        print(f"ERROR: provider '{provider}' not yet wired in main.py"); sys.exit(1)

    config = yaml.safe_load((Path(__file__).parent.parent / "config.yaml").read_text())
    all_items = []

    for name, fetch_fn in SOURCES:
        try:
            items = fetch_fn()
            print(f"[{name}] {len(items)} items")
            all_items.extend(items)
        except Exception as e:
            print(f"[{name}] FAILED: {e}")

    # Deduplicate by URL
    seen, deduped = set(), []
    for item in all_items:
        if (url := item.get("url", "")) and url not in seen:
            seen.add(url); deduped.append(item)

    print(f"Unique items: {len(deduped)}")

    if ai_enabled() and deduped:
        from ai.memory import load_feedback, build_preference_prompt
        from ai.pipeline import analyse_batch

        # load_feedback() reads data/feedback.json written by your feedback sync script.
        # To keep it current, implement a separate feedback_sync.py that queries your
        # storage provider for items with positive/negative statuses and calls save_feedback().
        feedback = load_feedback()
        preference = build_preference_prompt(feedback)
        context_path = Path(__file__).parent.parent / "profile" / "context.md"
        context = context_path.read_text() if context_path.exists() else ""
        deduped = analyse_batch(deduped, context=context, preference_prompt=preference)
    else:
        print("[AI] Skipped — GEMINI_API_KEY not set")

    added, skipped = sync(db_id, deduped)
    print(f"Done — {added} new, {skipped} existing")

if __name__ == "__main__":
    main()

Step 9: GitHub Actions Workflow

# .github/workflows/scraper.yml
name: Data Scraper Agent

on:
  schedule:
    - cron: "0 */3 * * *"  # every 3 hours — adjust to your needs
  workflow_dispatch:        # allow manual trigger

permissions:
  contents: write   # required for the feedback-history commit step

jobs:
  scrape:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    timeout-minutes: 20

    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - uses: actions/setup-python@v5
        with:
          python-version: "3.11"
          cache: "pip"

      - run: pip install -r requirements.txt

      # Uncomment if Playwright is enabled in requirements.txt
      # - name: Install Playwright browsers
      #   run: python -m playwright install chromium --with-deps

      - name: Run agent
        env:
          NOTION_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.NOTION_TOKEN }}
          NOTION_DATABASE_ID: ${{ secrets.NOTION_DATABASE_ID }}
          GEMINI_API_KEY: ${{ secrets.GEMINI_API_KEY }}
        run: python -m scraper.main

      - name: Commit feedback history
        run: |
          git config user.name "github-actions[bot]"
          git config user.email "github-actions[bot]@users.noreply.github.com"
          git add data/feedback.json || true
          git diff --cached --quiet || git commit -m "chore: update feedback history"
          git push

Step 10: config.yaml Template

# Customise this file — no code changes needed

# What to collect (pre-filter before AI)
filters:
  required_keywords: []      # item must contain at least one
  blocked_keywords: []       # item must not contain any

# Your priorities — AI uses these for scoring
priorities:
  - "example priority 1"
  - "example priority 2"

# Storage
storage:
  provider: "notion"         # notion | sheets | supabase | sqlite

# Feedback learning
feedback:
  positive_statuses: ["Saved", "Applied", "Interested"]
  negative_statuses: ["Skip", "Rejected", "Not relevant"]

# AI settings
ai:
  enabled: true
  model: "gemini-2.5-flash"
  min_score: 0               # filter out items below this score
  rate_limit_seconds: 7      # seconds between API calls
  batch_size: 5              # items per API call

Common Scraping Patterns

Pattern 1: REST API (easiest)

resp = requests.get(url, params={"q": query}, headers=HEADERS, timeout=15)
items = resp.json().get("results", [])

Pattern 2: HTML Scraping

soup = BeautifulSoup(resp.text, "lxml")
for card in soup.select(".listing-card"):
    title = card.select_one("h2").get_text(strip=True)
    href = card.select_one("a")["href"]

Pattern 3: RSS Feed

import xml.etree.ElementTree as ET
root = ET.fromstring(resp.text)
for item in root.findall(".//item"):
    title = item.findtext("title", "")
    link = item.findtext("link", "")
    pub_date = item.findtext("pubDate", "")

Pattern 4: Paginated API

page = 1
while True:
    resp = requests.get(url, params={"page": page, "limit": 50}, timeout=15)
    data = resp.json()
    items = data.get("results", [])
    if not items:
        break
    for item in items:
        results.append(_normalise(item))
    if not data.get("has_more"):
        break
    page += 1

Pattern 5: JS-Rendered Pages (Playwright)

from playwright.sync_api import sync_playwright

with sync_playwright() as p:
    browser = p.chromium.launch()
    page = browser.new_page()
    page.goto(url)
    page.wait_for_selector(".listing")
    html = page.content()
    browser.close()

soup = BeautifulSoup(html, "lxml")

Anti-Patterns to Avoid

Anti-pattern
Problem
Fix

One LLM call per item
Hits rate limits instantly
Batch 5 items per call

Hardcoded keywords in code
Not reusable
Move all config to config.yaml

Scraping without rate limit
IP ban
Add time.sleep(1) between requests

Storing secrets in code
Security risk
Always use .env + GitHub Secrets

No deduplication
Duplicate rows pile up
Always check URL before pushing

Ignoring robots.txt
Legal/ethical risk
Respect crawl rules; use public APIs when available

JS-rendered sites with requests
Empty response
Use Playwright or look for the underlying API

maxOutputTokens too low
Truncated JSON, parse error
Use 2048+ for batch responses

Free Tier Limits Reference

Service
Free Limit
Typical Usage

Gemini Flash Lite
30 RPM, 1500 RPD
~56 req/day at 3-hr intervals

Gemini 2.0 Flash
15 RPM, 1500 RPD
Good fallback

Gemini 2.5 Flash
10 RPM, 500 RPD
Use sparingly

GitHub Actions
Unlimited (public repos)
~20 min/day

Notion API
Unlimited
~200 writes/day

Supabase
500MB DB, 2GB transfer
Fine for most agents

Google Sheets API
300 req/min
Works for small agents

Requirements Template

requests==2.31.0
beautifulsoup4==4.12.3
lxml==5.1.0
python-dotenv==1.0.1
pyyaml==6.0.2
notion-client==2.2.1   # if using Notion
# playwright==1.40.0   # uncomment for JS-rendered sites

Quality Checklist

Before marking the agent complete:

 config.yaml controls all user-facing settings — no hardcoded values

 profile/context.md holds user-specific context for AI matching

 Deduplication by URL before every storage push

 Gemini client has model fallback chain (4 models)

 Batch size ≤ 5 items per API call

 maxOutputTokens ≥ 2048

 .env is in .gitignore

 .env.example provided for onboarding

 setup.py creates DB schema on first run

 enrich_existing.py backfills AI scores on old rows

 GitHub Actions workflow commits feedback.json after each run

 README covers: setup in < 5 minutes, required secrets, customisation

Real-World Examples

"Build me an agent that monitors Hacker News for AI startup funding news"
"Scrape product prices from 3 e-commerce sites and alert when they drop"
"Track new GitHub repos tagged with 'llm' or 'agents' — summarise each one"
"Collect Chief of Staff job listings from LinkedIn and Cutshort into Notion"
"Monitor a subreddit for posts mentioning my company — classify sentiment"
"Scrape new academic papers from arXiv on a topic I care about daily"
"Track sports fixture results and keep a running table in Google Sheets"
"Build a real estate listing watcher — alert on new properties under ₹1 Cr"

Reference Implementation

A complete working agent built with this exact architecture would scrape 4+ sources,
batch Gemini calls, learn from Applied/Rejected decisions stored in Notion, and run
100% free on GitHub Actions. Follow Steps 1–9 above to build your own.