Skills bright-data

Bright Data Web Scraper API via curl. Use this skill for scraping social media (Twitter/X, Reddit, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok), account management, and usage monitoring.

install

source · Clone the upstream repo

git clone https://github.com/wulaosiji/skills

Claude Code · Install into ~/.claude/skills/

T=$(mktemp -d) && git clone --depth=1 https://github.com/wulaosiji/skills "$T" && mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills && cp -r "$T/third-party/bright-data" ~/.claude/skills/wulaosiji-skills-bright-data && rm -rf "$T"

manifest: third-party/bright-data/SKILL.md

source content

Bright Data Web Scraper API

Use the Bright Data API via direct

curl

calls for social media scraping, web data extraction, and account management.

Official docs:
https://docs.brightdata.com/

When to Use

Use this skill when you need to:

Scrape social media - Twitter/X, Reddit, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn
Extract web data - Posts, profiles, comments, engagement metrics
Monitor usage - Track bandwidth and request usage
Manage account - Check status and zones

Prerequisites

Sign up at Bright Data
Get your API key from Settings > Users
Create a Web Scraper dataset in the Control Panel to get your
```
dataset_id
```

export BRIGHTDATA_API_KEY="your-api-key"

Base URL

https://api.brightdata.com

Important: When using
$VAR
in a command that pipes to another command, wrap the command containing
$VAR
in
bash -c '...'
. Due to a Claude Code bug, environment variables are silently cleared when pipes are used directly.
bash -c 'curl -s "https://api.example.com" -H "Authorization: Bearer $API_KEY"'

Social Media Scraping

Bright Data supports scraping these social media platforms:

Platform	Profiles	Posts	Comments	Reels/Videos
Twitter/X	✅	✅	-	-
Reddit	-	✅	✅	-
YouTube	✅	✅	✅	-
Instagram	✅	✅	✅	✅
TikTok	✅	✅	✅	-
LinkedIn	✅	✅	-	-

How to Use

1. Trigger Scraping (Asynchronous)

Trigger a data collection job and get a

snapshot_id

for later retrieval.

Write to

/tmp/brightdata_request.json

[
  {"url": "https://twitter.com/username"},
  {"url": "https://twitter.com/username2"}
]

Then run (replace

<dataset-id>

with your actual dataset ID):

bash -c 'curl -s -X POST "https://api.brightdata.com/datasets/v3/trigger?dataset_id=<dataset-id>" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer ${BRIGHTDATA_API_KEY}" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d @/tmp/brightdata_request.json'

Response:

{
  "snapshot_id": "s_m4x7enmven8djfqak"
}

2. Trigger Scraping (Synchronous)

Get results immediately in the response (for small requests).

Write to

/tmp/brightdata_request.json

[
  {"url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/xxxxx"}
]

Then run (replace

<dataset-id>

with your actual dataset ID):

bash -c 'curl -s -X POST "https://api.brightdata.com/datasets/v3/scrape?dataset_id=<dataset-id>" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer ${BRIGHTDATA_API_KEY}" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d @/tmp/brightdata_request.json'

3. Monitor Progress

Check the status of a scraping job (replace

<snapshot-id>

with your actual snapshot ID):

bash -c 'curl -s "https://api.brightdata.com/datasets/v3/progress/<snapshot-id>" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer ${BRIGHTDATA_API_KEY}"'

Response:

{
  "snapshot_id": "s_m4x7enmven8djfqak",
  "dataset_id": "gd_xxxxx",
  "status": "running"
}

Status values:

running

ready

failed

4. Download Results

Once status is

ready

, download the collected data (replace

<snapshot-id>

with your actual snapshot ID):

bash -c 'curl -s "https://api.brightdata.com/datasets/v3/snapshot/<snapshot-id>?format=json" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer ${BRIGHTDATA_API_KEY}"'

5. List Snapshots

Get all your snapshots:

bash -c 'curl -s "https://api.brightdata.com/datasets/v3/snapshots" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer ${BRIGHTDATA_API_KEY}"' | jq '.[] | {snapshot_id, dataset_id, status}'

6. Cancel Snapshot

Cancel a running job (replace

<snapshot-id>

with your actual snapshot ID):

bash -c 'curl -s -X POST "https://api.brightdata.com/datasets/v3/cancel?snapshot_id=<snapshot-id>" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer ${BRIGHTDATA_API_KEY}"'

Platform-Specific Examples

Twitter/X - Scrape Profile

Write to

/tmp/brightdata_request.json

[
  {"url": "https://twitter.com/elonmusk"}
]

Then run (replace

<dataset-id>

with your actual dataset ID):

bash -c 'curl -s -X POST "https://api.brightdata.com/datasets/v3/scrape?dataset_id=<dataset-id>" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer ${BRIGHTDATA_API_KEY}" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d @/tmp/brightdata_request.json'

Returns:

x_id

profile_name

biography

is_verified

followers

following

profile_image_link

Twitter/X - Scrape Posts

Write to

/tmp/brightdata_request.json

[
  {"url": "https://twitter.com/username/status/123456789"}
]

Then run (replace

<dataset-id>

with your actual dataset ID):

bash -c 'curl -s -X POST "https://api.brightdata.com/datasets/v3/scrape?dataset_id=<dataset-id>" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer ${BRIGHTDATA_API_KEY}" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d @/tmp/brightdata_request.json'

Returns:

post_id

text

replies

likes

retweets

views

hashtags

media

Reddit - Scrape Subreddit Posts

Write to

/tmp/brightdata_request.json

[
  {"url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/technology", "sort_by": "hot"}
]

Then run (replace

<dataset-id>

with your actual dataset ID):

bash -c 'curl -s -X POST "https://api.brightdata.com/datasets/v3/trigger?dataset_id=<dataset-id>" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer ${BRIGHTDATA_API_KEY}" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d @/tmp/brightdata_request.json'

Parameters:

url

sort_by

(new/top/hot)

Returns:

post_id

title

description

num_comments

upvotes

date_posted

community

Reddit - Scrape Comments

Write to

/tmp/brightdata_request.json

[
  {"url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/xxxxx/post_title"}
]

Then run (replace

<dataset-id>

with your actual dataset ID):

bash -c 'curl -s -X POST "https://api.brightdata.com/datasets/v3/scrape?dataset_id=<dataset-id>" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer ${BRIGHTDATA_API_KEY}" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d @/tmp/brightdata_request.json'

Returns:

comment_id

user_posted

comment_text

upvotes

replies

YouTube - Scrape Video Info

Write to

/tmp/brightdata_request.json

[
  {"url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ"}
]

Then run (replace

<dataset-id>

with your actual dataset ID):

bash -c 'curl -s -X POST "https://api.brightdata.com/datasets/v3/scrape?dataset_id=<dataset-id>" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer ${BRIGHTDATA_API_KEY}" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d @/tmp/brightdata_request.json'

Returns:

title

views

likes

num_comments

video_length

transcript

channel_name

YouTube - Search by Keyword

Write to

/tmp/brightdata_request.json

[
  {"keyword": "artificial intelligence", "num_of_posts": 50}
]

Then run (replace

<dataset-id>

with your actual dataset ID):

bash -c 'curl -s -X POST "https://api.brightdata.com/datasets/v3/trigger?dataset_id=<dataset-id>" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer ${BRIGHTDATA_API_KEY}" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d @/tmp/brightdata_request.json'

YouTube - Scrape Comments

Write to

/tmp/brightdata_request.json

[
  {"url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxxxx", "load_replies": 3}
]

Then run (replace

<dataset-id>

with your actual dataset ID):

bash -c 'curl -s -X POST "https://api.brightdata.com/datasets/v3/scrape?dataset_id=<dataset-id>" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer ${BRIGHTDATA_API_KEY}" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d @/tmp/brightdata_request.json'

Returns:

comment_text

likes

replies

username

date

Instagram - Scrape Profile

Write to

/tmp/brightdata_request.json

[
  {"url": "https://www.instagram.com/username"}
]

Then run (replace

<dataset-id>

with your actual dataset ID):

bash -c 'curl -s -X POST "https://api.brightdata.com/datasets/v3/scrape?dataset_id=<dataset-id>" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer ${BRIGHTDATA_API_KEY}" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d @/tmp/brightdata_request.json'

Returns:

followers

post_count

profile_name

is_verified

biography

Instagram - Scrape Posts

Write to

/tmp/brightdata_request.json

[
  {
    "url": "https://www.instagram.com/username",
    "num_of_posts": 20,
    "start_date": "01-01-2024",
    "end_date": "12-31-2024"
  }
]

Then run (replace

<dataset-id>

with your actual dataset ID):

bash -c 'curl -s -X POST "https://api.brightdata.com/datasets/v3/trigger?dataset_id=<dataset-id>" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer ${BRIGHTDATA_API_KEY}" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d @/tmp/brightdata_request.json'

Account Management

Check Account Status

bash -c 'curl -s "https://api.brightdata.com/status" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer ${BRIGHTDATA_API_KEY}"'

Response:

{
  "status": "active",
  "customer": "hl_xxxxxxxx",
  "can_make_requests": true,
  "ip": "x.x.x.x"
}

Get Active Zones

bash -c 'curl -s "https://api.brightdata.com/zone/get_active_zones" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer ${BRIGHTDATA_API_KEY}"' | jq '.[] | {name, type}'

Get Bandwidth Usage

bash -c 'curl -s "https://api.brightdata.com/customer/bw" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer ${BRIGHTDATA_API_KEY}"'

Getting Dataset IDs

To use the scraping features, you need a

dataset_id

Go to Bright Data Control Panel
Create a new Web Scraper dataset or select an existing one
Choose the platform (Twitter, Reddit, YouTube, etc.)
Copy the
```
dataset_id
```
from the dataset settings

Dataset IDs can also be found in the bandwidth usage API response under the

data

field keys (e.g.,

v__ds_api_gd_xxxxx

where

gd_xxxxx

is your dataset ID).

Common Parameters

Parameter	Description	Example
`url`	Target URL to scrape	`https://twitter.com/user`
`keyword`	Search keyword	`"artificial intelligence"`
`num_of_posts`	Limit number of results	`50`
`start_date`	Filter by date (MM-DD-YYYY)	`"01-01-2024"`
`end_date`	Filter by date (MM-DD-YYYY)	`"12-31-2024"`
`sort_by`	Sort order (Reddit)	`new` , `top` , `hot`
`format`	Response format	`json` , `csv`

Rate Limits

Batch mode: up to 100 concurrent requests
Maximum input size: 1GB per batch
Exceeding limits returns
```
429
```
error

Guidelines

Create datasets first: Use the Control Panel to create scraper datasets
Use async for large jobs: Use
```
/trigger
```
for discovery and batch operations
Use sync for small jobs: Use
```
/scrape
```
for single URL quick lookups
Check status before download: Poll
```
/progress
```
until status is
```
ready
```
Respect rate limits: Don't exceed 100 concurrent requests
Date format: Use MM-DD-YYYY for date parameters