Core concepts
Extralt has two related models. The control plane manages work: Robots, Runs, Schedules, Imports, and Enrichments. The data plane stores the result: Captures, Items, and Enrich-published analytical entities.
Do not use these concepts interchangeably. In particular, a Robot is extraction
tooling for a host and country. A Store is an analytical host × country
entity in the customer dataset.
Robot
A Robot is the stable extraction resource for one host and country. Its status
tracks creation of the internal crawler and scraper from pending through
building to completed or failed. Users create, inspect, and run the Robot;
the internal components are not separate dashboard or API resources.
- One Robot per organization, host, and country combination
- The Robot ID remains stable throughout the build and later Runs
- Only completed Robots can start Runs or Schedules
- Robot names are derived from host and country and cannot be edited
run_countrecords how many Runs have been created for the Robot in the API
Run
A Run is an extraction job. You select a completed Robot, optionally provide start URLs and a budget, and the Robot crawls the site to produce Captures from product pages.
Run lifecycle:
- Pending -> queued for execution
- Starting -> run is starting
- Running -> actively crawling and extracting
- Completed -> finished successfully
- Failed -> encountered an unrecoverable error
- Stopped -> manually stopped by the user
Each successful product-page Capture in a Run costs 2 credits. Category, search, collection, and other discovery pages do not consume credits.
Run names combine the Robot name and its next counter, such as
nike_com_US_1.
See Extracting data for the complete Robot and Run lifecycle.
Schedule
A Schedule automates recurring extraction. It links a completed Robot to a cadence (for example, every hour, day, or week) and creates Runs at that interval.
- User-paused Schedules remain paused until resumed
- Schedules paused for credits or payment resume when the issue is resolved
- Scheduled Runs consume credits and increment the Robot's Run counter like manual Runs
See Schedules for creation and management.
Import
An import is an Extract job that turns uploaded catalog data into captures. Runs crawl ecommerce pages. Imports ingest product data you already have.
Use imports when you want your own catalog inside the same pipeline as open-web observations. A valid import produces captures that can be enriched and explored like captures from a run.
Import lifecycle:
- Pending -> queued for processing
- Running -> validating and converting the source file
- Completed -> finished successfully
- Validation failed -> the source file did not contain enough clean product data
- Failed -> encountered an unrecoverable error
See Imports for dashboard upload and validation behavior.
Capture
A capture is a single structured product data record from a run or import. You can browse and export captures in the dashboard, or fetch them programmatically via the API.
{
"id": "019d3ec3-cf96-7520-bc31-1474206e06ed",
"url": "https://www.nike.com/t/dna-mens-dri-fit-basketball-shorts-hVGm16/HV1878-350",
"extracted_at": 1774874512106,
"product_id": "HV1878-350",
"handle": "dna-mens-dri-fit-basketball-shorts-hVGm16",
"group_id": "hVGm16",
"title": "Nike DNA",
"subtitle": "Men's Dri-FIT Basketball Shorts",
"brand": "Nike",
"breadcrumbs": "Men > Basketball > Shorts",
"description": "Built for the court, ready for anywhere. These lightweight-yet-durable basketball shorts help keep you cool with our sweat-wicking Dri-FIT technology.",
"publication_date": "2025-10-02T07:00:00.000Z",
"gender": "MEN",
"age_group": "Adult",
"ratings_average": null,
"ratings_count": 0,
"ratings_scale": 5,
"min_price": 41.97,
"max_price": 41.97,
"currency": "USD",
"available": true,
"sku_count": 7,
"image_url": "https://static.nike.com/a/images/t_default/326dc2d4-a16d-4433-93d7-8d6f8313d4d0/M+NK+DF+DNA+8IN+SHORT+AOP.png",
"categories": [
"Men",
"Basketball",
"Shorts"
],
"tags": [
"Basketball",
"Dri-FIT",
"Shorts",
"Men"
],
"images": [
{
"url": "https://static.nike.com/a/images/t_default/326dc2d4-a16d-4433-93d7-8d6f8313d4d0/M+NK+DF+DNA+8IN+SHORT+AOP.png",
"position": 1,
"sku_ids": [
"HV1878-350"
]
},
{
"url": "https://static.nike.com/a/images/t_default/e2c6c1aa-6d12-46b9-9385-d76bd4fa30e0/M+NK+DF+DNA+8IN+SHORT+AOP.png",
"position": 3,
"sku_ids": [
"HV1878-350"
]
},
{
"url": "https://static.nike.com/a/images/t_default/38d8c21c-c8dd-466b-949c-92fdfcd0320b/M+NK+DF+DNA+8IN+SHORT+AOP.png",
"position": 4,
"sku_ids": [
"HV1878-350"
]
},
{
"url": "https://static.nike.com/a/images/t_default/79d907aa-1763-4af7-a1bf-99f5fc30acc4/M+NK+DF+DNA+8IN+SHORT+AOP.png",
"position": 5,
"sku_ids": [
"HV1878-350"
]
},
{
"url": "https://static.nike.com/a/images/t_default/1cd3d1a3-fea9-4295-bf8a-f3d6d59f2d47/M+NK+DF+DNA+8IN+SHORT+AOP.png",
"position": 6,
"sku_ids": [
"HV1878-350"
]
},
{
"url": "https://static.nike.com/a/images/t_default/3cf19355-4f26-4faf-b658-581297b87e9c/M+NK+DF+DNA+8IN+SHORT+AOP.png",
"position": 7,
"sku_ids": [
"HV1878-350"
]
}
],
"videos": null,
"physical_measurements": null,
"properties_dict": {
"Style": "HV1878-350",
"Shown": "Chlorophyll/Black"
},
"properties_list": [
"Recycled Materials",
"Designed for Basketball",
"Unlined",
"Lightweight, sweat-wicking fabric with mesh and smooth interior",
"Side pockets and zippered utility pocket large enough for a phone",
"Elastic waistband with drawcord",
"Body: 100% polyester. Pocket bags: 100% polyester.",
"Machine wash",
"Imported",
"Shown: Chlorophyll/Black",
"Style: HV1878-350"
],
"options": {
"opt1": {
"name": "Color",
"values": [
"Chlorophyll/Black"
]
},
"opt2": {
"name": "Size",
"values": [
"S",
"M",
"L",
"XL",
"2XL",
"3XL",
"4XL"
]
},
"opt3": null
},
"skus": [
{
"id": "90c9f2c2-d984-5cc2-a2a0-89deac668eb3",
"title": null,
"identifiers": {
"gtin": "00198482162061",
"mpn": "HV1878-350"
},
"opt1": "Chlorophyll/Black",
"opt2": "S",
"opt3": null,
"offers": [
{
"price": {
"amount": 41.97,
"full_amount": 60,
"currency": "USD"
},
"availability": {
"in_stock": true,
"quantity": "In stock"
},
"condition": "new",
"seller": "Nike",
"seller_type": "1p"
}
]
},
{
"id": "032621f4-8f17-5716-932d-a93b0d1dfc4a",
"title": null,
"identifiers": {
"gtin": "00198481839179",
"mpn": "HV1878-350"
},
"opt1": "Chlorophyll/Black",
"opt2": "M",
"opt3": null,
"offers": [
{
"price": {
"amount": 41.97,
"full_amount": 60,
"currency": "USD"
},
"availability": {
"in_stock": true,
"quantity": "In stock"
},
"condition": "new",
"seller": "Nike",
"seller_type": "1p"
}
]
},
{
"id": "a73069dc-17b2-5dc7-b5cc-e78c9674d8cd",
"title": null,
"identifiers": {
"gtin": "00198481982455",
"mpn": "HV1878-350"
},
"opt1": "Chlorophyll/Black",
"opt2": "L",
"opt3": null,
"offers": [
{
"price": {
"amount": 41.97,
"full_amount": 60,
"currency": "USD"
},
"availability": {
"in_stock": true,
"quantity": "In stock"
},
"condition": "new",
"seller": "Nike",
"seller_type": "1p"
}
]
},
{
"id": "417e97e7-c31c-5ac0-999c-5b6779ba831d",
"title": null,
"identifiers": {
"gtin": "00198482264932",
"mpn": "HV1878-350"
},
"opt1": "Chlorophyll/Black",
"opt2": "XL",
"opt3": null,
"offers": [
{
"price": {
"amount": 41.97,
"full_amount": 60,
"currency": "USD"
},
"availability": {
"in_stock": true,
"quantity": "In stock"
},
"condition": "new",
"seller": "Nike",
"seller_type": "1p"
}
]
},
{
"id": "42484108-e343-520f-9ed1-1ca72a301174",
"title": null,
"identifiers": {
"gtin": "00198481731473",
"mpn": "HV1878-350"
},
"opt1": "Chlorophyll/Black",
"opt2": "2XL",
"opt3": null,
"offers": [
{
"price": {
"amount": 41.97,
"full_amount": 60,
"currency": "USD"
},
"availability": {
"in_stock": true,
"quantity": "Limited stock available"
},
"condition": "new",
"seller": "Nike",
"seller_type": "1p"
}
]
},
{
"id": "179d2b07-b59e-5a7d-912f-cebf81b1d13f",
"title": null,
"identifiers": {
"mpn": "HV1878-350",
"gtin": "00198482258597"
},
"opt1": "Chlorophyll/Black",
"opt2": "3XL",
"opt3": null,
"offers": [
{
"price": {
"amount": 41.97,
"full_amount": 60,
"currency": "USD"
},
"availability": {
"in_stock": false,
"quantity": "Out of stock"
},
"condition": "new",
"seller": "Nike",
"seller_type": "1p"
}
]
},
{
"id": "fad73aae-e6b1-58ac-83a3-f17125c0b3b2",
"title": null,
"identifiers": {
"gtin": "00198482211318",
"mpn": "HV1878-350"
},
"opt1": "Chlorophyll/Black",
"opt2": "4XL",
"opt3": null,
"offers": [
{
"price": {
"amount": 41.97,
"full_amount": 60,
"currency": "USD"
},
"availability": {
"in_stock": false,
"quantity": "Out of stock"
},
"condition": "new",
"seller": "Nike",
"seller_type": "1p"
}
]
}
]
}See Working with Captures for the full schema reference.
Enrichment and Item
An Enrichment processes Captures from an Extract Run. Each successfully processed Capture produces one page-grain Item with normalized English content, taxonomy, attributes, signals, options, embedded normalized SKU data, review aggregates, and lineage back to the source Capture.
After normalization closes, Enrich publishes the complete committed Item scope into the final Product, Variant, Listing, Offer, Review, Store, and Change tables. Final materialization is included and consumes no additional credits.
See Enriching Captures.
Product, Variant, Listing, Offer, Review, and Store
Enrich publishes the analytical model:
- a Product is a normalized product family;
- a Variant is an exact canonical configuration under a Product;
- a Listing is a store-specific source SKU linked to a Variant;
- an Offer is an observed price, availability, seller, and stock fact for a Listing;
- a Review is the latest normalized review aggregate for a Listing and Store;
- a Store is an organization-scoped host and country pair.
Matching quality depends on the identifiers and product evidence present in the source data.
See Data model for grains, lineage, and relationships.
How they relate
| Step | What happens |
|---|---|
| 1. You provide | A URL and country |
| 2. Robot | Track generation and validation until the stable Robot is ready |
| 3. Schedule (optional) | Automate recurring extractions on a cadence |
| 4. Run | The robot crawls start URLs and extracts products (manual or via schedule) |
| 5. Import (optional) | Upload catalog data you already have |
| 6. Captures | Source-backed records produced by Runs or Imports |
| 7. Enrichment | Produces one Item per successful Capture, then publishes the committed analytical projection |
| 8. Items | One normalized page-grain record per successful Capture |
| 9. Explore | Reads current-market, relationship, change, Variant, Offer, and history views |