apify-keys

What This Skill Does

The apify-keys skill is a robust credential management utility designed for OpenClaw agents performing large-scale web scraping and automation tasks via Apify. It automates the rotation of API keys by interacting with a central ColdCore MySQL database. By tracking the usage history of each credential, the skill ensures that the agent utilizes the least-recently-used key, effectively distributing API load across multiple accounts. The system includes built-in balance verification, ensuring that the agent never attempts to execute a task with a depleted or invalid key. It simplifies the developer workflow by allowing direct integration via command-line piping or subprocess calls within Python-based skills.

Installation

To install this skill, use the ClawHub command-line interface provided in your OpenClaw environment: clawhub install openclaw/skills/skills/aces1up/apify-keys Ensure that your environment variables (COLDCORE_HOST, COLDCORE_USER, COLDCORE_PASS, COLDCORE_DB) are properly configured in your system profile or .env file to allow the script to establish a connection with the ColdCore database instance.

Use Cases

This skill is essential for high-volume data extraction projects where individual Apify accounts may hit rate limits or monthly quota caps. By cycling through a rotation pool, the agent maintains consistent uptime without manual intervention. It is particularly useful for lead generation workflows, social media monitoring, and bulk web-crawling scenarios where IP reputation and account-level limits are critical success factors.

Example Prompts

1. "Check the status of my available Apify keys and provide a summary of the current account balances to ensure we are ready for the morning scrape."
2. "Execute the lead generation scraping script, making sure to fetch a fresh, high-balance Apify key from the database before starting the job."
3. "Can you list all the Apify keys stored in ColdCore along with their associated email addresses and remaining account balances?"

Tips & Limitations

• Tip: Always use the --json flag when writing wrapper scripts to ensure robust parsing of account metadata.
• Tip: If a specific task is mission-critical, use the --check-balance flag to verify the health of your key before starting long-running jobs.
• Limitation: The skill requires active database connectivity; ensure your network security groups permit communication between the OpenClaw agent and your MySQL host.
• Limitation: The script updates the 'last_used' timestamp locally; ensure your database permissions allow both SELECT and UPDATE operations for the designated user.