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14 changes: 7 additions & 7 deletions CONTRIBUTING.md
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# Contributing to Feed Agents with Data Workshop
# Contributing to feed agents with data workshop

Thanks for considering contributing! This workshop is maintained by Apify and the developer education community.

## How to Contribute
## How to contribute

### Reporting Issues
### Reporting issues
- Open an issue if you find broken links, unclear instructions, or technical problems
- Include which lesson you were working on and what went wrong
- Suggest fixes if you have ideas

### Improving Content
### Improving content
- Fix typos, clarify confusing instructions, or update outdated screenshots
- Add new examples or expand existing ones
- Update links or references that have changed

### Adding New Lessons
### Adding new lessons
- Propose new lessons via an issue before creating them
- Keep the same format as existing lessons (Goal, Time, numbered steps, Checkpoint)
- Test your lesson with someone who hasn't seen it before

### Running This Workshop Yourself
### Running this workshop yourself

If you want to run this workshop at your own event or meetup:

Expand All @@ -29,7 +29,7 @@ If you want to run this workshop at your own event or meetup:
4. **Budget 90 minutes** minimum for the full workshop
5. **Have helpers available** to assist participants who get stuck

## Code of Conduct
## Code of conduct

Be respectful and constructive. This workshop is designed to be beginner-friendly.

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14 changes: 7 additions & 7 deletions README.md
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Expand Up @@ -4,11 +4,11 @@ A 90-minute hands-on workshop. Connect your AI coding agent to live web data usi

**Author:** Kevin Lewis ([@phazonoverload](https://github.com/phazonoverload)), Apify

## Why This Workshop Exists
## Why this workshop exists

AI coding agents can write code, but they can't access the live web. This workshop teaches you how to bridge that gap using MCP (Model Context Protocol) and Apify's platform. By the end, your agent will be able to scrape websites, pull real-time data, and build custom scrapers on command.

## What You'll Learn
## What you'll learn

After completing this workshop, you will be able to:

Expand All @@ -17,7 +17,7 @@ After completing this workshop, you will be able to:
- Install Agent Skills that teach your coding tool Apify-specific workflows
- Build and deploy your own custom web scraper using natural language prompts

## Target Audience
## Target audience

This workshop is designed for **developers** who:

Expand All @@ -27,7 +27,7 @@ This workshop is designed for **developers** who:

No prior experience with web scraping, MCP, or Apify is required.

## What You'll Build Today
## What you'll build today

- Run your first web scraping Actor and get live data in seconds
- Connect your AI agent to Apify's MCP server so it can pull data from the web on demand
Expand All @@ -45,7 +45,7 @@ No prior experience with MCP or Apify needed.

> **Note for self-hosted workshops:** If you're running this workshop at your own event, you may want to provide promo codes for free Apify credits to attendees. Contact Apify for event-specific codes. Instructors should be available to help participants who get stuck.

## Session Structure
## Session structure

1. **Opening talk** (~15 min) — introduces Apify, MCP, and Agent Skills
2. **Self-paced lessons** (~70 min) — work through the lesson files at your own speed
Expand All @@ -69,7 +69,7 @@ If you're running this workshop at an event, raise your hand or flag down an ins

If you're working through this on your own, open an issue on this repo and we'll help.

## After the Workshop
## After the workshop

The [Apify Store](https://apify.com/store) has thousands of ready-made Actors you can call through MCP or the CLI. A few highlights:

Expand All @@ -81,7 +81,7 @@ The [Apify Store](https://apify.com/store) has thousands of ready-made Actors yo
| LinkedIn | Company and job data |
| Amazon | Product details, reviews, prices |

## Further Reading
## Further reading

- [Model Context Protocol Documentation](https://modelcontextprotocol.io)
- [Apify MCP Server](https://mcp.apify.com)
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4 changes: 2 additions & 2 deletions lesson-1-first-actor.md
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# Lesson 1: Run Your First Actor
# Lesson 1: Run your first actor

**Goal:** Create an Apify account, apply your promo code, and run an existing Actor to see what the platform can do. No terminal required.

Expand All @@ -21,7 +21,7 @@ If you have a promo code from a workshop or event:

Otherwise, you'll have access to Apify's free tier credits.

## 3. Run the YouTube Scraper
## 3. Run the YouTube scraper

**What is an Actor?**
An "Actor" is a serverless cloud program. It's the building block of the Apify platform. Each Actor is a mini-app designed for a specific task—like scraping a website, automating a browser, or processing data. They run in the cloud, so you don't have to worry about servers, proxies, or staying online.
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6 changes: 3 additions & 3 deletions lesson-2-mcp.md
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# Lesson 2: Connect Your Agent with MCP
# Lesson 2: Connect your agent with MCP

**Goal:** Understand what MCP is and configure your AI coding tool to use Apify's MCP server.

Expand Down Expand Up @@ -45,7 +45,7 @@ Ask your agent:

Your agent should call the Apify Google Search tool through MCP and return live results.

## 5. Add any Actor to your agent
## 5. Add any actor to your agent

With **Actor discovery** and **Actor runs** enabled, your agent can now use any of the 2,000+ Actors in the Apify Store on demand.

Expand Down Expand Up @@ -73,7 +73,7 @@ When ready, open [lesson-3-apify-cli.md](./lesson-3-apify-cli.md).

---

## Bonus: On-the-fly Tool Creation (Optional)
## Bonus: On-the-fly tool creation (optional)

Some MCP clients support **dynamic tool discovery** — the agent can find a tool it doesn't have yet, "install" it, and use it immediately without restarting.

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6 changes: 3 additions & 3 deletions lesson-3-apify-cli.md
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# Lesson 3: Install and Use the Apify CLI
# Lesson 3: Install and use the Apify CLI

**Goal:** Install the Apify CLI, log in, and run an Actor directly from your terminal.

Expand Down Expand Up @@ -30,7 +30,7 @@ apify login

This opens a browser tab to authenticate. Complete the login and return to your terminal.

## 3. Run an Actor from the CLI
## 3. Run an actor from the CLI

The Instagram Scraper you ran in Lesson 1 can also be called from the terminal. Try it:

Expand All @@ -40,7 +40,7 @@ apify call apify/instagram-scraper --input '{"usernames": ["natgeo"], "resultsLi

This runs the Actor and streams the results to your terminal. The same Actor, the same data — but now you're controlling it programmatically.

## 4. Run other Actors and inspect inputs
## 4. Run other actors and inspect inputs

You can run any Actor on the Apify Store this way. But how do you know what the `--input` JSON should look like?

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8 changes: 4 additions & 4 deletions lesson-4-agent-skills.md
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# Lesson 4: Install Agent Skills
# Lesson 4: Install agent skills

**Goal:** Understand what Agent Skills are and install the two Apify skills into your coding tool.

**Time:** ~10 minutes

---

## 1. What are Agent Skills?
## 1. What are agent skills?

Agent Skills are structured instruction files that teach your AI coding agent domain-specific knowledge about a platform or workflow. They tell the agent which tools to use, which patterns to follow, and which best practices to apply — without you having to explain it every time.

Expand Down Expand Up @@ -52,14 +52,14 @@ When you ask your agent to build an Actor, the Actor Development skill tells it:

Your agent already knows how to write code. These skills give it the Apify-specific knowledge to turn code into deployed, running Actors.

## 4. MCP vs. Agent Skills: Which one to use?
## 4. MCP vs. agent skills: Which one to use?

You now have two ways to connect your agent to Apify. Here is the distinction:

- **MCP:** Best for "chat and research." Use it when you want the agent to quickly grab some data from the web and bring it into your current conversation.
- **Agent Skills:** Best for "coding and building." Use these when you want the agent to use the Apify CLI, automate complex data pipelines, or build and deploy new Actors (which you'll do in the next lesson).

## 5. Practical Exercise: Research a Topic
## 5. Practical exercise: Research a topic

Let's test the **Ultimate Scraper** skill with a focused task. Ask your agent:

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2 changes: 1 addition & 1 deletion lesson-5-build-your-own.md
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# Lesson 5: Build and Publish Your Own Actor
# Lesson 5: Build and publish your own actor

**Goal:** Use the Actor Development skill to build a Hacker News hiring scraper and deploy it to the Apify platform — from a single prompt.

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