Facebook Page & Group Scraper

Part of ScrapeClaw — a suite of production-ready, agentic social media scrapers for Instagram, YouTube, X/Twitter, and Facebook built with Python & Playwright, no API keys required.

A browser-based Facebook page and group discovery and scraping tool.

---
name: facebook-scraper
description: Discover and scrape Facebook pages and public groups from your browser.
emoji: 📘
version: 1.0.0
author: influenza
tags:
  - facebook
  - scraping
  - social-media
  - page-discovery
  - group-discovery
  - business-pages
metadata:
  clawdbot:
    requires:
      bins:
        - python3
        - chromium

    config:
      stateDirs:
        - data/output
        - data/queue
        - thumbnails
      outputFormats:
        - json
        - csv
---

Overview

This skill provides a two-phase Facebook scraping system:

1. Page/Group Discovery
2. Browser Scraping

Features

• 🔍 - Discover Facebook pages and groups by location and category
• 🌐 - Full browser simulation for accurate scraping
• 🛡️ - Browser fingerprinting, human behavior simulation, and stealth scripts
• 📊 - Page/group info, stats, images, and engagement data
• 💾 - JSON/CSV export with downloaded thumbnails
• 🔄 - Resume interrupted scraping sessions
• ⚡ - Auto-skip private groups, low-like pages, empty profiles
• 📂 - Supports pages, groups, and public profiles via --type flag

Getting Google API Credentials (Optional)

1. Go to Google Cloud Console
2. Create a new project or select existing
3. Enable "Custom Search API"
4. Create API credentials → API Key
5. Go to Programmable Search Engine
6. Create a search engine with facebook.com as the site to search
7. Copy the Search Engine ID

Usage

Agent Tool Interface

For OpenClaw agent integration, the skill provides JSON output:

# Discover Facebook pages (returns JSON)
discover --location "Miami" --category "restaurant" --type page --output json

# Discover Facebook groups (returns JSON)
discover --location "New York" --category "fitness" --type group --output json

# Scrape single page (returns JSON)
scrape --page-name examplebusiness --output json

# Scrape single group (returns JSON)
scrape --page-name examplegroup --type group --output json

Output Data

Page/Group Data Structure

{
  "page_name": "example_business",
  "display_name": "Example Business",
  "entity_type": "page",
  "category": "Restaurant",
  "subcategory": "Italian Restaurant",
  "about": "Family-owned Italian restaurant since 1985",
  "followers": 45000,
  "page_likes": 42000,
  "location": "Miami, FL",
  "address": "123 Main St, Miami, FL 33101",
  "phone": "+1-555-0123",
  "email": "info@example.com",
  "website": "https://example.com",
  "hours": "Mon-Sat 11AM-10PM",
  "is_verified": false,
  "page_tier": "mid",
  "profile_pic_local": "thumbnails/example_business/profile_abc123.jpg",
  "cover_photo_local": "thumbnails/example_business/cover_def456.jpg",
  "recent_posts": [
    {"post_url": "https://facebook.com/example_business/posts/123", "reactions": 320, "comments": 45, "shares": 12}
  ],
  "scrape_timestamp": "2026-02-20T14:30:00"
}

Group Data Structure

{
  "page_name": "example_group",
  "display_name": "Miami Fitness Community",
  "entity_type": "group",
  "about": "A community for fitness enthusiasts in Miami",
  "members": 15000,
  "privacy": "Public",
  "posts_per_day": 25,
  "location": "Miami",
  "page_tier": "mid",
  "profile_pic_local": "thumbnails/example_group/profile_abc123.jpg",
  "cover_photo_local": "thumbnails/example_group/cover_def456.jpg",
  "scrape_timestamp": "2026-02-20T14:30:00"
}

Page Tiers

File Outputs

• Queue files: data/queue/{location}_{category}_{type}_{timestamp}.json
• Scraped data: data/output/{page_name}.json
• Thumbnails: thumbnails/{page_name}/profile_*.jpg, thumbnails/{page_name}/cover_*.jpg
• Export files: data/export_{timestamp}.json, data/export_{timestamp}.csv

Configuration

Edit config/scraper_config.json:

{
  "google_search": {
    "enabled": true,
    "api_key": "",
    "search_engine_id": "",
    "queries_per_location": 3
  },
  "scraper": {
    "headless": false,
    "min_likes": 1000,
    "download_thumbnails": true,
    "max_thumbnails": 6
  },
  "cities": ["New York", "Los Angeles", "Miami", "Chicago"],
  "categories": ["restaurant", "retail", "fitness", "real-estate", "healthcare", "beauty"]
}

Filters Applied

The scraper automatically filters out:

• ❌ Private groups
• ❌ Pages with < 1,000 likes (configurable)
• ❌ Deactivated or removed pages
• ❌ Non-existent pages/groups
• ❌ Already scraped entries (deduplication)

Troubleshooting

Login Issues

• Ensure credentials are correct
• Handle verification codes when prompted
• Wait if rate limited (the script will auto-retry)

No Pages Discovered

• Check Google API key and quota
• Verify Search Engine ID is configured for facebook.com
• Try different location/category combinations

Rate Limiting

• Reduce scraping speed (increase delays)
• Use multiple Facebook accounts
• Run during off-peak hours
• Use a residential proxy (see below)

🌐 Residential Proxy Support

Why Use a Residential Proxy?

Running a scraper at scale without a residential proxy will get your IP blocked fast. Here's why proxies are essential for long-running scrapes:

Recommended Proxy Providers

We have affiliate partnerships with top residential proxy providers. Using these links supports continued development of this skill:

Setup Steps

1. Get Your Proxy Credentials

Sign up with any provider above, then grab:

• Username (from your provider dashboard)
• Password (from your provider dashboard)
• Host and Port are pre-configured per provider (or use custom)

2. Configure Entirely via Environment Variables

export PROXY_ENABLED=true
export PROXY_PROVIDER=netnut       # brightdata | iproyal | stormproxies | netnut | custom
export PROXY_USERNAME=your_user
export PROXY_PASSWORD=your_pass
export PROXY_COUNTRY=us            # optional: two-letter country code
export PROXY_STICKY=true           # optional: keep same IP per session

3. Provider-Specific Host/Port Defaults

These are auto-configured when you set the provider name:

Override with "host" and "port" in config or PROXY_HOST / PROXY_PORT env vars if your plan uses a different gateway.

4. Custom Proxy Provider

For any other proxy service, set provider to custom and supply host/port manually:

{
  "proxy": {
    "enabled": true,
    "provider": "custom",
    "host": "your.proxy.host",
    "port": 8080,
    "username": "user",
    "password": "pass"
  }
}

Running the Scraper with Proxy

Once configured, the scraper picks up the proxy automatically — no extra flags needed:

# Discover and scrape as usual — proxy is applied automatically
python main.py discover --location "Miami" --category "restaurant" --type page
python main.py scrape --page-name examplebusiness

# The log will confirm proxy is active:
# INFO - Proxy enabled: <ProxyManager provider=netnut enabled host=gw-resi.netnut.io:5959>
# INFO - Browser using proxy: netnut → gw-resi.netnut.io:5959

Using the Proxy Manager Programmatically

from proxy_manager import ProxyManager

# From config (auto-reads config/scraper_config.json)
pm = ProxyManager.from_config()

# From environment variables
pm = ProxyManager.from_env()

# Manual construction
pm = ProxyManager(
    provider="netnut",
    username="your_user",
    password="your_pass",
    country="us",
    sticky=True
)

# For Playwright browser context
proxy = pm.get_playwright_proxy()
# → {"server": "http://gw-resi.netnut.io:5959", "username": "user-country-us-session-abc123", "password": "pass"}

# For requests / aiohttp
proxies = pm.get_requests_proxy()
# → {"http": "http://user:pass@host:port", "https": "http://user:pass@host:port"}

# Force new IP (rotates session ID)
pm.rotate_session()

# Debug info
print(pm.info())

Best Practices for Long-Running Scrapes

1. Always use sticky sessions — Facebook requires consistent IPs during a login session. Set "sticky": true.
2. Target the right country — Set "country": "us" (or your target region) so Facebook serves content in the expected locale.
3. Combine with existing anti-detection — This scraper already has fingerprinting, stealth scripts, and human behavior simulation. The proxy is the final layer.
4. Rotate sessions between accounts — Call pm.rotate_session() when switching Facebook accounts to get a fresh IP.
5. Use delays — Even with proxies, respect delay_between_profiles in config (default 5-10s) to avoid aggressive patterns.
6. Monitor your proxy dashboard — All providers (Bright Data, IProyal, Storm Proxies, NetNut) have dashboards showing bandwidth usage and success rates.