# WTFEARN (`akewich135135/wtfearn`) Actor

Check business lists from NYC, Chicago, LA or San Francisco against official city licence registries. Get active, lapsed, revoked or closed status with dates and a link to the government record. Charged only $0.05 per record matched to a licence — unmatched records are free.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/akewich135135/wtfearn.md
- **Developed by:** [Akaki Shelia](https://apify.com/akewich135135) (community)
- **Categories:** Lead generation, Automation
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $50.00 / 1,000 business verifieds

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/platform/actors/running/actors-in-store#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

Actors are web data automations that power AI and operations. They run on the Apify platform to scrape websites, process data, connect APIs, and automate workflows.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.
Actors are written with capital "A".

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.
The best way to integrate Actors is as follows.

- **AI agents and MCP clients** — the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/mcp.md) at `https://mcp.apify.com` (remote, streamable HTTP, OAuth on first use).
- **Agentic workflows and local Actor development** — [Agent Skills](https://apify.com/.well-known/agent-skills/index.json) with the [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): `npm install -g apify-cli`, then `apify login`.
- **JavaScript/TypeScript projects** — the official [JS/TS client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md): `npm install apify-client`.
- **Python projects** — the official [Python client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md): `pip install apify-client`.
- **Any other language** — the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md).

For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below.

For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt).

# README

## Business Licence Verifier — is this business still operating?

Paste a list of local businesses (or chain this Actor onto any Google Maps scraper) and get each one's official government licence status: **active, lapsed, revoked or closed** — with licence type, issue and expiry dates, the date the status changed, and a link to the government record.

**You are charged $0.05 only for records matched to an official licence. Unmatched records cost nothing.**

***

### What problem this solves

Scraped local-business lists contain businesses that no longer operate. You pay to scrape them, pay to enrich them, then pay again in wasted outreach (bounced mail, cold calls to disconnected lines, polluted CRMs). This checks them against official city licence registries before you spend anything else.

***

### Which cities are covered

- **Chicago, IL**: Official Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection registry.
- **New York City, NY**: Official DCA & DOB licence datasets.
- **San Francisco, CA**: Official Treasurer & Tax Collector business registration database.
- **Los Angeles, CA**: Official Office of Finance active register delta archive.

Live coverage and data freshness metrics:\
👉 <https://licencecheck.pages.dev/coverage/>

***

### Output Contract

```json
{
  "id": "row-1",
  "input": { "name": "Joe's Pizza #2", "address": "123 N Main St Ste B", "city": "Chicago", "zip": "60601" },

  "status": "ACTIVE",              // ACTIVE | LAPSED | REVOKED | CLOSED
                                   // | NOT_IN_LICENSED_CATEGORY | NO_COVERAGE | AMBIGUOUS
  "billable": true,                // true only for ACTIVE | LAPSED | REVOKED | CLOSED
  "confidence": 0.94,
  "match_method": "deterministic", // deterministic | llm_adjudicated | cached

  "licence": {
    "jurisdiction": "Chicago, IL",
    "licence_number": "2701234",
    "legal_name": "JOES PIZZA INC",
    "dba_name": "JOE'S PIZZA",
    "category": "Retail Food Establishment",
    "status_raw": "AAI",
    "issued_date": "2021-04-02",
    "start_date": "2021-05-16",
    "expiry_date": "2027-05-15",
    "end_date": null,
    "address": "123 N MAIN ST",
    "source_url": "https://data.cityofchicago.org/resource/r5kz-chrr.json?license_number=2701234"
  },

  "history": [                     // THE ACCUMULATED STATUS TIMELINE
    { "observed_on": "2026-03-14", "from": "ACTIVE", "to": "LAPSED",  "evidence": "expiry_date passed" },
    { "observed_on": "2026-04-02", "from": "LAPSED", "to": "ACTIVE",  "evidence": "renewal observed" }
  ],

  "coverage": { "city_supported": true, "data_as_of": "2026-08-14", "stale": false },
  "reason": null
}
```

***

### Status meanings & Billing

| Status | Meaning | Billed |
|---|---|---|
| **ACTIVE** | Current active licence on file | **yes** ($0.05) |
| **LAPSED** | Licence expired and not renewed | **yes** ($0.05) |
| **REVOKED** | Licence revoked or cancelled by the city | **yes** ($0.05) |
| **CLOSED** | End date recorded, or absent from 3 consecutive registry snapshots | **yes** ($0.05) |
| **NOT\_IN\_LICENSED\_CATEGORY** | This business type does not require a city licence here | **no** ($0.00) |
| **NO\_COVERAGE** | City not yet ingested in registry database | **no** ($0.00) |
| **AMBIGUOUS** | More than one plausible record; we will not guess | **no** ($0.00) |
| **TEMPORARILY\_UNAVAILABLE** | Upstream registry temporarily unreachable | **no** ($0.00) |

***

### How to chain onto a Google Maps scraper

1. Run any Google Maps scraper on Apify Store. Copy its **Dataset ID**.
2. Open **Business Licence Verifier**.
3. Paste the dataset ID into `datasetId`. Leave `fieldMap` at the default.
4. Click **Start**. The Actor will verify each business line-by-line and output clean operating status records.

***

### What this Actor does NOT do

It does not generate new leads, scrape personal emails, or make guesses. It verifies operating status against official government records for a list you already possess.

# Actor input Schema

## `records` (type: `array`):

Each item: {name, address, city, state, zip}. Leave empty if you use a source dataset.

## `datasetId` (type: `string`):

Paste the dataset ID of a previous run. The Actor reads it directly — no CSV export needed.

## `fieldMap` (type: `object`):

Maps your source dataset's column names to name/address/city/state/zip. Only needed if your scraper uses different field names than the default.

## `includeHistory` (type: `boolean`):

Adds every observed status change with the date it was observed.

## `minScore` (type: `number`):

Minimum similarity score required for an automatic match, before falling back to LLM adjudication or returning no match.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "records": [
    {
      "name": "Joe's Pizza",
      "address": "123 N Main St",
      "city": "Chicago",
      "state": "IL",
      "zip": "60601"
    }
  ],
  "fieldMap": {
    "name": "title",
    "address": "street",
    "city": "city",
    "state": "state",
    "zip": "postalCode"
  },
  "includeHistory": true,
  "minScore": 0.88
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (type: `string`):

No description

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "records": [
        {
            "name": "Joe's Pizza",
            "address": "123 N Main St",
            "city": "Chicago",
            "state": "IL",
            "zip": "60601"
        }
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("akewich135135/wtfearn").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = { "records": [{
            "name": "Joe's Pizza",
            "address": "123 N Main St",
            "city": "Chicago",
            "state": "IL",
            "zip": "60601",
        }] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("akewich135135/wtfearn").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "records": [
    {
      "name": "Joe'\''s Pizza",
      "address": "123 N Main St",
      "city": "Chicago",
      "state": "IL",
      "zip": "60601"
    }
  ]
}' |
apify call akewich135135/wtfearn --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,akewich135135/wtfearn"
        }
    }
}

```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/cfYMPOcQe5EPal8rb/builds/9ysYf141BokgGyV3i/openapi.json