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Documentation Index

Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://help.lobstr.io/llms.txt

Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

A run is a single execution of a Squid. Every time a Squid works — whether launched manually, fired on a schedule, or triggered via the API — it creates a new run. Each run has its own ID, duration, results, credits consumed, and status, and is logged in the Squid’s history. In short: a Squid is the configuration. A run is the execution of that configuration at a point in time.

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How a run is triggered

A run starts in one of three ways:
  • Manually — you press the Launch button on a Squid’s page.
  • On a schedule — if the Squid is set to run Repeatedly, it fires automatically at every interval.
  • Via the API — you can trigger runs programmatically using your API key.
Once a run starts, everything lobstr.io does — browsing, scraping, enrichment, exporting — happens inside that run.
The Launch button is hidden while a run is in progress. Even if you change the Squid’s settings during a live run, those changes don’t affect the current run — they apply to the next run you launch.

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The runs table

Below the live console on every Squid page, the Runs tab shows all previous and active runs for that Squid.
Runs table below the live console showing run ID, timestamps, credits used, status, and done reason
Each row contains:
ColumnWhat it shows
Run IDUnique identifier for that execution (click to open the run detail page)
Started AtWhen the run kicked off
Ended AtWhen the run finished (blank if still running)
Total ResultsEvery row the scraper collected during the run
Unique ResultsRows left after deduplication — usually the number you care about
Credits UsedHow many credits this single run consumed
DurationTotal run time
StatusCurrent state — see below
Done ReasonWhy the run ended (e.g. tasks_done, last_page_reached, aborted)
DownloadDownloads the CSV for just that run
Total Results vs Unique Results — the delta is almost always duplicates removed. It can also include rows dropped by filters (for example, Geo Match or Category Match skipping non-matching listings).

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Run statuses

A run moves through one of five states. You can see the current status in the Runs table, at the top of the run detail page, and in the List of Squids table on your dashboard (under the Status column, showing the current or last run’s status for each Squid).
List of Squids on the dashboard showing the Status column with Running and Done statuses
The run is active and collecting data. A progress bar shows how far along it is, and the live console streams logs in real time.
Running run shown in the Runs table with a progress bar
The run has temporarily stopped but will resume automatically once the blocking condition is resolved.
Paused run shown in the Runs table
Common causes:
  • The synced account hit a daily or batch limit (see Account Bans & Limits).
  • The account’s cookies expired — refresh them to resume.
  • Daily credits ran out while End run once all tasks consumed is enabled — the run picks up the next day when credits refresh.
  • The scraper encountered a transient error.
You can’t download data from a paused run unless you abort it first.
The run was stopped manually by pressing the Abort button. Partial data collected before the abort is still available — click the download icon on that row in the Runs table.
Aborted run shown in the Runs table with download still available
The scraper crashed because of a technical error on lobstr.io’s side.
Error run shown in the Runs table with the Message button above
You can click the Message button above the Runs table to see the details.
Clicking the Message button to view the error details
You don’t need to do anything — once the engineering team resolves the issue, the run automatically resumes.
The run finished successfully. All collected data is available for download in the Runs table, or from the run detail page.
Done run shown in the Runs table with download available
The Done Reason column explains exactly why a run finished — for example tasks_done (all tasks processed), last_page_reached (pagination ended), or aborted (manual stop). For the full list of values and what each one means, see Run stop reasons.

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When to end a run

A Squid’s Settings have a When to end run option that controls what a run does when it runs out of credits — finish and stop, or pause and wait. This decides the status the run ends in.
When to end run setting with two options in a Squid's settings
The default. As soon as the credits available to the run run out, the run is marked Done and stops immediately. Re-launching the Squid starts a fresh run from the beginning — it doesn’t pick up where the last one left off.
Pairing End run once all tasks consumed with daily credit allocation is how you spread one large job across several days automatically — the run pauses each day when the daily budget is spent and resumes when it refreshes. See Spreading a large job across multiple days.

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Aborting a run

While a run is Running, an Abort button appears at the top of the Squid page next to the progress bar.
Abort button shown next to the progress bar on a running Squid
Clicking Abort stops the run immediately. Any data the scraper already collected before the abort is preserved and downloadable — the status switches to Aborted and the download icon stays active in the Runs table.

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The run detail page

Clicking any row in the Runs table opens the run detail page for that specific execution. It shows four summary cards at the top — Status, Credits Used, Total Results, Started At — plus four tabs:

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Results

A paginated preview of the scraped data (50 rows per page). Use this to sanity-check output before downloading the full CSV.
Results tab of a run detail page with paginated data preview

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Tasks

The exact list of tasks this run processed — useful when you need to confirm which inputs were picked up, or to debug why a specific URL or query didn’t return data.

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Credits

A breakdown of where the run’s credits actually went — Avg. Cost / Result on top, then a Distribution donut, a Cost by function bar list (base scraping vs. each enrichment with credits and %), and a one-line Cost insight summary. This is the tab to open when a run cost more than expected. See Tracking your credit consumption for the full walkthrough.

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Logs

The full live console output for that run — every page processed, every pause, every error.
Logs tab of a run detail page showing the full live console output

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Slots and concurrency

A run executes at a given concurrency — the number of parallel instances working on your tasks at the same time. You’ll see this in the very first line of the live log: 
* Run 376b5febe09a46cdab885cee74a54430 started (2026-04-21 16:21:26)
* Concurrency: 1
Slots in lobstr.io serve two purposes:
  • They cap how many Squids you can create on your plan.
  • They cap how many parallel instances a run can use as its concurrency.
So if your plan gives you 30 slots, you can run a Squid at a concurrency of up to 30 — spreading the work across 30 parallel instances.
Max concurrency is 20 per run, regardless of how many slots your plan includes. A plan with 50 slots still caps each individual run at 20 concurrent instances.
For the full slot mechanics, see Slots.

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Launching a run again

To re-run a Squid, simply press the Launch button on the Squid page — each press creates a new run entry in the Runs table. There’s no “re-run this specific past run” button; the Squid’s current settings are what get executed.
Because settings only take effect on the next launch, you can safely tweak a Squid while an existing run is mid-flight — your changes won’t disrupt the run that’s already going.

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Data retention

Run data (results, logs, the run itself) is stored for 28 days on paid plans and 7 days on the free plan. After that, results are permanently deleted from lobstr.io’s servers. Download or export what you need before the window closes — see Download Results.