Connect your AI agent to Apify

The MCP server is the live connection an agent uses to search Apify Store, run Actors, and read the results. Agent Skills carry the procedure for multi-step work, and a plugin installs both in one step for a specific coding agent. Machine-readable docs and agentic payments let an agent read the documentation and pay for runs without signing up.

To run your first Actor from an agent, follow the agent quickstart.

Pick your agent

Each card opens that agent's setup guide in Integrations.

Claude

Anthropic's chat assistant and its Claude Code coding agent.

ChatGPT/Codex

OpenAI's chat assistant and its Codex coding agent.

Cursor

AI code editor with a built-in coding agent.

GitHub Copilot

GitHub's AI coding agent in the CLI and desktop app.

VS Code

Microsoft's code editor, with Copilot in agent mode.

OpenCode

Open-source coding agent that runs in your terminal.

Kimi Code

Moonshot AI's coding agent for the command line.

Qoder/Qwen

Alibaba's agentic coding platform and terminal agent.

DeepSeek Harness

DeepSeek's open-source agent harness for the terminal and web.

Grok Bot

xAI's AI teammate that works from a persistent cloud computer.

OpenClaw

Open-source personal AI assistant you run yourself.

Hermes Agent

Nous Research's open-source, self-improving agent.

Grok Build and Kilo Code install from the plugins page.

Other AI agents and LLM chatbots can connect directly to Apify via the MCP server.

Key concepts

With the MCP server alone, an agent can call any Apify tool but has to work out the order of steps itself. Agent Skills add the tested sequence for a task such as building an Actor. The pieces stack rather than compete, and most setups use more than one:

Piece	What it is	Reach for it when
MCP server	A hosted server at `mcp.apify.com` with tools to search Apify Store, run Actors, and search the Apify documentation, plus optional tools for runs, storage, tasks, and schedules.	Your agent needs to act on Apify: find an Actor, run it, and get structured data back.
Plugin	One install for a specific coding agent. Most plugins bundle the MCP server, Agent Skills, and an `apify` routing agent. The OpenClaw, Hermes Agent, and Kilo Code plugins add native Apify tools instead of the MCP server.	Your coding agent has a plugin and you want the whole setup in one step.
Agent Skills	Instructions your agent loads when a task matches, such as building an Actor or choosing a scraper.	Your agent already connects to Apify and you want it to follow a tested multi-step workflow.
Resources for agents	Every documentation page as Markdown, `llms.txt` indexes, and the agent-facing files on apify.com.	Your agent needs current Apify documentation instead of its training data.
Agentic payments	Prepaid, spend-capped access for agents that pay their own way, through the Apify Agent General Interface.	Your agent can pay for Actor runs on its own with a web3 wallet, with no credentials needed.

Build on Apify instead

The pages above cover agents that call Apify. These adjacent topics cover building on the platform:

Develop AI agents on Apify - Build an agent that runs as an Actor on the Apify platform.
Build Actors with AI - Use a coding agent to create and deploy an Actor.
MCP connectors - Let an Actor you built act on a user's third-party accounts, such as Notion, Slack, or GitHub.
AI integrations - Call Apify from agent frameworks such as LangChain, CrewAI, and the Vercel AI SDK, and load results into vector databases.
API client libraries - Call the Apify API from your own application code, or use the JavaScript client or the Python client.