GraphQL: guides & tutorials

Identify the GraphQL endpoint via DevTools (usually /graphql or /api/graphql), copy the query from the network tab, and replay it with curl or a Python requests call. Include all required headers including Authorization tokens. GraphQL often exposes more data than displayed on the page—explore the schema with introspection queries if permitted.

Browser DevTools Network tab filtered to XHR/Fetch shows all GraphQL operations. GraphQL Voyager visualizes schemas from introspection. Altair and Insomnia let you test queries interactively. Once you have a working query, implement it in Crawlee or Apify actors as a plain HTTP POST request without needing a browser.

Public GraphQL APIs allow unauthenticated queries; authenticated ones return 401 or empty data. If the site loads data after login, capture the auth token from the browser session and include it in request headers. Tokens often expire so implement refresh logic. Avoid storing long-lived tokens in plaintext in actor configurations.

GraphQL returns exact structured JSON without HTML parsing, handles pagination cleanly via cursor or offset arguments, and is far more stable than CSS selectors that break with redesigns. When a site's data loads from a GraphQL API, targeting the API directly reduces maintenance burden and extraction errors significantly.