# EU Open Data Catalogue Directory (`alka-labs/eu-catalogue-directory`) Actor

The catalogues data.europa.eu harvests, one row each: the id you filter the other Actors by, the country, the homepage and how many datasets it holds.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/alka-labs/eu-catalogue-directory.md
- **Developed by:** [Igor Lima](https://apify.com/alka-labs) (community)
- **Categories:** Developer tools, AI, Agents
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

$2.00 / 1,000 catalogue row returneds

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/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

An Actor is a serverless cloud program that runs on the Apify platform. It has two run modes.
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.

Apify vocabulary and the platform model are defined once, in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md.

## 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.

Do not guess an integration path. Every one of them is in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md: the Apify MCP server, Agent Skills with the Apify CLI, the JavaScript and Python clients, the REST API, and the account-free path for an agent with no human to sign in. It also carries the rule on stating cost before the first paid run.

For examples already wired to this Actor's own input schema, see the [API](#api) section below.

Each client library has reference documentation the quickstart does not restate: [JavaScript/TypeScript](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md) (`npm install apify-client`) and [Python](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md) (`pip install apify-client`).

# README

## EU Open Data Catalogue Directory

**Who publishes the EU open data, and how much of it.** One row per catalogue that
[data.europa.eu](https://data.europa.eu) harvests: the id, the title, the country, the
homepage, and how many datasets the portal holds for it. Measured on 2026-09-17: 211
catalogues.

Two reasons to have this as rows instead of a web page:

1. **It is the key to the other Actors.** Every EU open data Actor in this family takes a
   `catalogue` filter, and the ids are not guessable — `data-gov-be`, `govdata`,
   `datos-gob-es`. This is the list you pick them from.
2. **It is a coverage map.** Which national portals does the EU actually harvest, which of
   them are empty, and which one is behind the 29,602 datasets you keep hitting? That is a
   join the portal does not publish as a table.

### What a row looks like

```json
{
  "id": "data-gov-be",
  "title": "data.gov.be",
  "description": "Belgian open data portal, harvesting data from federal, regional and local portals in Belgium",
  "portal_url": "https://data.europa.eu/data/catalogues/data-gov-be?locale=en",
  "homepage": "https://data.gov.be",
  "country_code": "BE",
  "country_label": "Belgium",
  "dataset_count": 19000,
  "source_type": "dcat-ap",
  "languages": ["fr"],
  "issued": "2024-08-30T08:43:47Z",
  "modified": "2024-08-30T08:43:47Z",
  "publisher": null,
  "publisher_withheld": true,
  "child_catalogue_ids": [],
  "child_catalogue_count": 0
}
```

Live API, 2026-09-17.

### Input

Every field is optional. With no input you get the whole directory, biggest catalogue first.

| Field | What it does |
|---|---|
| `query` | full-text filter over catalogue title and description |
| `country` | lowercase ISO codes, as the portal spells them: `be`, `de`, `fr` |
| `source_type` | how the catalogue is harvested: `dcat-ap`, `euodp-legacy`, … |
| `min_datasets` | drop the catalogues the portal holds nothing for |
| `sort_by` | `datasets` (default, largest first), `title`, or `modified` |
| `max_results` | 1 to 500 |
| `language` | which language to collapse multilingual titles to. Default `en` |

`min_datasets` and `sort_by` are applied to the records after they are fetched, not by the
portal. That is why `total_matches` (what the portal matched) and `returned` (what survived
the local filter) can differ, and why both are in the output.

### `publisher_withheld`, and why a field is sometimes empty on purpose

The portal types a catalogue's publisher either as a corporate-body classification — which
proves it is an organisation — or as the bare DCAT class `Agent`, which also covers people.
Measured over 100 catalogues on 2026-09-17: 61 proven, 39 unproven.

This Actor collects no personal data. When the type does not prove the publisher is an
organisation, the name is withheld and `publisher_withheld` is `true`, so you can tell that
apart from a catalogue that simply has no publisher (`publisher_withheld: false`). The
`title` and `homepage` identify the portal in either case.

### Licensing and attribution

Portal metadata is dedicated to the public domain under CC0 1.0
([legal notice](https://data.europa.eu/en/legal-notice)). The `source` block on every run
carries the terms URL and the notice, so a stored result explains its own licence.

### Billing

You are charged per catalogue row delivered to your dataset. A run that matches nothing
delivers no rows and costs nothing.

# Actor input Schema

## `query` (type: `string`):

Full-text filter over catalogue title and description, such as environment or statistics.

## `country` (type: `array`):

Publishing country, as the portal spells it: lowercase ISO codes such as be, de, fr, plus eu for EU institutions. Empty means every country.

## `source_type` (type: `array`):

How the catalogue reaches the portal: dcat-ap, euodp-legacy and the other source types the portal publishes. Empty means every type.

## `min_datasets` (type: `integer`):

Drop catalogues the portal holds fewer datasets than this for. 1 removes the registered-but-empty ones.

## `sort_by` (type: `string`):

datasets returns the largest catalogues first, modified the most recently updated first, title alphabetically.

## `max_results` (type: `integer`):

How many catalogues to return, 1 to 500. The portal listed 211 on 17 September 2026. You are charged per row returned.

## `language` (type: `string`):

Which language to collapse the multilingual titles and descriptions to. Falls back to English, then to whatever the publisher provided.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "country": [],
  "source_type": [],
  "min_datasets": 1,
  "sort_by": "datasets",
  "max_results": 250,
  "language": "en"
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `catalogues` (type: `string`):

One row per harvested catalogue: the id the other Actors filter by, the country, the homepage and the dataset count.

## `summary` (type: `string`):

The filters echoed back, how many catalogues the portal matched, how many survived the local filter, and the licence notice. It carries no rows, so a stored result explains itself without being paid for twice.

# 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 = {
    "country": [],
    "source_type": [],
    "min_datasets": 1,
    "sort_by": "datasets",
    "max_results": 250,
    "language": "en"
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("alka-labs/eu-catalogue-directory").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 = {
    "country": [],
    "source_type": [],
    "min_datasets": 1,
    "sort_by": "datasets",
    "max_results": 250,
    "language": "en",
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("alka-labs/eu-catalogue-directory").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 '{
  "country": [],
  "source_type": [],
  "min_datasets": 1,
  "sort_by": "datasets",
  "max_results": 250,
  "language": "en"
}' |
apify call alka-labs/eu-catalogue-directory --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,alka-labs/eu-catalogue-directory"
        }
    }
}
```

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/kpe2ABnEW1XXeUkxw/builds/YRSAKbg2pBqOcwTgZ/openapi.json