Apify Upgrade & Migration

Overview

Guide for upgrading apify, apify-client, and crawlee packages. The biggest migration in Apify's history was SDK v2 to v3, which split crawling functionality into the crawlee package. This skill covers that migration plus general upgrade procedures. Read and edit source files with Grep/Read/Edit to apply the rename-heavy changes, then verify with the packaged script.

Prerequisites

Before starting, confirm the working tree is in a recoverable state:

• A dedicated git branch for the upgrade, so a bad bump can be reverted cleanly.
• A runnable test suite (npm test) plus a build step (npm run build) to catch TypeScript interface changes.
• The current installed versions recorded (npm list apify apify-client crawlee) so rollback targets are known.
• APIFY_TOKEN in the environment if the verification script's API-connection check will run.

Instructions

Step 1: Check Current Versions

# Check installed versions
npm list apify apify-client crawlee 2>/dev/null

# Check latest available versions
npm view apify version
npm view apify-client version
npm view crawlee version

# Check for outdated packages
npm outdated apify apify-client crawlee

Step 2: Create Upgrade Branch

git checkout -b upgrade/apify-packages

Step 3: Upgrade Packages

# Upgrade to latest
npm install apify@latest crawlee@latest apify-client@latest

# Or upgrade to specific version
npm install apify@3.2.0 crawlee@3.11.0

# Check for peer dependency issues
npm ls 2>&1 | grep "ERESOLVE\|peer dep"

Step 4: Apply Code Changes

If crossing the v2→v3 boundary, use Grep to find every Apify. reference and Edit each call site. The full before/after set — imports, Actor.main, crawler option renames (handlePageFunction → requestHandler), proxy config, request queues, and the new router pattern — is in the v2-to-v3 migration guide. Minimal shape:

// v2
import Apify from 'apify';
const { CheerioCrawler } = Apify;
// v3
import { Actor } from 'apify';
import { CheerioCrawler } from 'crawlee';

Step 5: Verify and Test

npm test
npm run build  # Catch TypeScript errors

Then run the packaged verification script from verify-and-rollback.md, which checks imports resolve, the client connects, and a crawler instantiates.

Output

A successful upgrade produces:

• Updated package.json / package-lock.json with the new apify, crawlee, and apify-client versions on the upgrade/apify-packages branch.
• Migrated source files with all Apify.* call sites converted to Actor.* / crawlee imports (only when crossing v2→v3).
• A passing verification run, e.g.:

=== Upgrade Verification ===
  [PASS] Actor import
  [PASS] CheerioCrawler import
  [PASS] ApifyClient import
  [PASS] API connection
  [PASS] Crawler instantiation

All checks passed.

If any check fails, follow the rollback procedure to restore the previous versions before investigating.

Error Handling

Error	Cause	Solution
handlePageFunction is not valid	Using v2 option names in v3	Rename to requestHandler
Apify.main is not a function	v2 default export removed	Import { Actor } from apify
Cannot find module 'crawlee'	Crawlee not installed	npm install crawlee
Type errors after upgrade	Changed interfaces	Check release notes for type changes
ERESOLVE peer conflict on install	Mismatched apify/crawlee majors	Pin both to matching majors, e.g. apify@3 crawlee@3

Examples

Example 1 — Straight version bump (no major boundary). Update within v3 and confirm nothing broke:

git checkout -b upgrade/apify-packages
npm install apify@latest crawlee@latest apify-client@latest
npm test && npm run build

Example 2 — v2 → v3 crawler migration. Rename the removed option names in a crawler config:

// BEFORE (v2)
const crawler = new Apify.CheerioCrawler({
  handlePageFunction: async ({ request, $ }) => { /* ... */ },
});
// AFTER (v3 / Crawlee)
const crawler = new CheerioCrawler({
  requestHandler: async ({ request, $ }) => { /* ... */ },
});

Example 3 — apify-client constructor change. Drop the removed userId:

// v1.x
const client = new ApifyClient({ userId: 'xxx', token: 'yyy' });
// v2+
const client = new ApifyClient({ token: 'yyy' });

Deeper walkthroughs — the complete v2→v3 rename set and the full verification script — live in references/.

Resources

• v2-to-v3 migration guide — every import, initialization, crawler, proxy, request-queue, and router change plus apify-client notes.
• Verification & rollback — the post-upgrade check script and version-revert procedure.
• SDK v2 to v3 Migration Guide
• Crawlee Changelog
• apify-client Releases

Next Steps

For CI integration during upgrades, see apify-ci-integration.