How do I connect my Apify account?

To connect your Apify account, sign in with GitHub or Google at apifyforge.com/connect, then open Settings → Apify API Token and paste a scoped API token. The whole process takes about two minutes: OAuth sign-in, create a scoped token in Apify (five specific permission boxes), paste it into ApifyForge, and the dashboard begins populating immediately.

Step 1: Sign in to ApifyForge

Visit apifyforge.com/connect and sign in with your GitHub or Google account. This creates your ApifyForge dashboard account via OAuth — your GitHub or Google identity is how we know it is you, and it is completely separate from your Apify credentials.

Step 2: Create a scoped Apify API token

Open console.apify.com/settings/integrations in another tab, click Create new token, toggle Limit token permissions, and check exactly five boxes across two dropdowns: Actors (Read + Run + List runs) and Storages (Read + Write). Leave everything else unchecked — including the entire Tasks section.

The full walkthrough with justifications for each box is in How do I create a scoped Apify API token for ApifyForge?. Read that article if you want to understand exactly what each permission grants before clicking Save.

Step 3: Paste the token in Settings

Once you have the scoped token, go to Settings → Apify API Token in ApifyForge and paste it in. Click Save. ApifyForge validates the token by calling Apify's /v2/users/me endpoint and shows a green connected indicator if it works. The token is immediately encrypted with AES-256-GCM using a server-held key before being written to the database — the plaintext is never persisted on disk.

Step 4: Run your first Fleet Analysis

Navigate to your dashboard. The first time you land there with a valid token, you will see a FirstRunExperience card with a Get Fleet Health Score button. Click it. ApifyForge triggers the fleet-analytics backend actor on your account — typical run time is 2–3 minutes, and you can leave the page while it runs. When it completes, the hero section re-renders with your Fleet Health Score, Action Plan, and whatever else the analytics pass surfaced. A green success pulse flashes for a few seconds to confirm the data is fresh.

Alternative: the CLI flow (advanced)

If you prefer to keep your token entirely on your own machine and never hand it to ApifyForge's servers, the CLI flow is still available as an advanced alternative. Run npx apifyforge run <tool> in your terminal with APIFY_TOKEN set in your local environment. The CLI uses your token locally, calls the Apify API, and uploads only the computed results to your dashboard. Both modes produce identical results in the dashboard — the browser flow is just easier for most users because it does not require a local Node install or a terminal.

Best practices

A few things worth adopting regardless of which flow you pick:

Create a dedicated token for ApifyForge — do not reuse your main Apify token. Use the suggested name apifyforge-dashboard so it is identifiable in your Apify audit logs. This limits the blast radius if anything goes wrong and makes it easy to revoke ApifyForge's access without disrupting other integrations.
Set a budget alarm in your Apify account at console.apify.com/billing. The scoped-token permission model limits what an attacker can do, but it does not limit how much money they can burn through running actors. A budget alarm is your cap on that cost-drain risk and is the single most important safeguard to set up.
Rotate every 90 days. Create a new scoped token, paste it into Settings (it overwrites the old one automatically), then revoke the old one in Apify.
Never commit tokens to git. Obvious but worth saying: add .env to your .gitignore.

What data can ApifyForge access? — exactly what the scoped token does and does not grant
How do I create a scoped Apify API token for ApifyForge? — the full walkthrough with per-permission justifications
Do you store my API token? — how the token is encrypted and stored
How do I disconnect my account? — how to revoke access later

Last updated: April 14, 2026