# Companies House Scraper — New Companies & Directors (MCP) (`amygraphics/companies-house-uk-scraper`) Actor

The UK Companies House register without an API key: search 5M+ companies by name, type, status, SIC codes, address & incorporation/dissolution date windows — directors & PSCs included FREE. Monitor mode = daily new-incorporations feed (only never-seen numbers). 5x cheaper than the leader. MCP-ready.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/amygraphics/companies-house-uk-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [Zakaria el bouami](https://apify.com/amygraphics) (community)
- **Categories:** Lead generation, Automation, MCP servers
- **Stats:** 1 total users, 0 monthly users, 0.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

Pay per event

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

## 🏛️ Companies House Scraper — New Companies & Directors UK (MCP)

> The official **UK Companies House register** without an API key: search 5M+ companies by name, type, status, SIC codes, address, and **incorporation / dissolution date windows** — directors & PSCs included **free** (the leader charges +$0.002/officer). **Monitor mode = daily new-incorporations feed.** MCP-ready.

***

### ✨ Why this one

| Ingredient | What it means for you |
|---|---|
| 🔒 **Hard-to-get data** | The official JSON API needs a key, quotas and an account. We read the public advanced search directly — **no key, no auth, 100% legal register data**. Fresh: ~2 000 new LTDs incorporated **every day**. |
| 🛠️ **Hardest problems, solved** | 20 678 rows in a 10-day window? The engine (same as our USAspending actor) paginates 100 pages and **auto-splits the date window** mid-flight. Officers blocks parsed per appointment. |
| ⚙️ **Automation** | `monitor` mode + daily schedule = *“the 1 837 companies incorporated yesterday, in your SIC filter”* — the product formation agents & accountants pay real money for. |
| 🧠 **AI-agent pricing** | Per-row events: $0.0008/company extracted. The cluster leader charges $0.004/company **plus** $0.002/officer. Same register, **5× cheaper, officers free**. |

***

### 🚀 3 recipes that pay

#### #1 — New-incorporation leads (formation agents / accountants / insurers)

```json
{ "mode": "monitor", "daysBack": 1, "companyType": "ltd", "status": ["active"], "requestDelaySecs": 1 }
```

→ Schedule at 07:00 daily → every morning, only NEVER-SEEN-BEFORE company numbers. Plug into Make/Zapier → Slack digest or CRM import.

#### #2 — Vertical prospect list (B2B sales)

```json
{ "mode": "search", "sicCodes": ["62012"], "addressKeyword": "Manchester", "daysBack": 90, "includeOfficers": true, "maxProfiles": 50 }
```

→ Every software house incorporated in Manchester since last quarter, **with director names**.

#### #3 — KYC / AML checker (compliance)

```json
{ "mode": "search", "companyNameIncludes": "HOLDINGS", "status": ["active", "liquidation"], "includePsc": true }
```

→ Status history + beneficial owners per hit.

**MCP**: `https://mcp.apify.com/?actors=amygraphics/companies-house-uk-scraper` — Claude/ChatGPT can ask *"any new care-homes companies this week?"* themselves.

***

### 🆚 Competition — why users switch here

| Actor | 30j users | Pricing | Monitor | Officers | Filters |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| scrapesage/companies-house-scraper (leader) | 52 | $0.004/company + $0.002/officer | ❌ | 💸 paid extra | keyword/number |
| logiover/uk-companies-house-bulk | 15 | $0.0015/item | ❌ | ❌ | bulk dump |
| kaz_kakyo/uk-new-companies | 2 | $0.004–0.012/lead | ❌ | ❌ | date+SIC only |
| **us** | — | **$0.0008/company, officers & PSC FREE** | ✅ KV dedup | ✅ free | **11 filters + window split** |

***

### 📦 What each row contains

`companyName` · `companyNumber` · `companyStatus` · `companyType` · `incorporatedDate` (ISO) · `registeredAddress` · `sicCodes[]` · `officers[]` (name, role, appointedOn, dateOfBirth, nationality, occupation, address) · `pscs[]` (owners + nature of control) · `profileUrl` · `isNew` (monitor) · `firstSeenAt`.

No field named `type` (platform-safe), 8-digit company numbers verified.

***

### 🧪 Input reference

| Key | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| `mode` | `search` | `monitor` = only new companies (KV `companies-house-seen`) |
| `companyType` | `ltd` | ltd/plc/llp/…/any |
| `status` | `[active]` | + dissolved, liquidation, administration… |
| `sicCodes` | — | e.g. `["62012"]` = software |
| `addressKeyword` | — | city / street / postcode fragment |
| `companyNameIncludes` / `…Excludes` | — | name filters |
| `timeFrom` / `timeTo` | rolling `daysBack` 30 | full date window support |
| `includeOfficers` / `includePsc` | false | directors & owners, free |
| `maxProfiles` | 100 | polite cap on profile opens |
| `maxResults` / `maxPages` | 500 / 100 | caps; window auto-split beyond |
| `requestDelaySecs` | 0.5 | Gov.UK politeness |
| `respectRobots` / `proxyConfiguration` | true / — | standard empire options |

**Fair use** — UK register data is public statutory data. For B2B outreach follow UK PECR rules; officer personal addresses are correspondence addresses, not home addresses. We honor robots.txt and rate-limit politely by default.

***

### 💰 Pricing

- **$0.001** actor start (1 GB)
- **$0.0008** per company extracted — **officers & PSCs cost $0.00** (always)

| Rows | Cost |
|---|---|
| 100 companies | ~$0.08 (+ $0.40 at the leader) |
| 1 000 + 200 director pages | ~$0.80 (+ $4.40 at the leader) |
| Daily monitor digest (2 067 new) | ~$1.65/run |

Recurring note: run the monitor every morning for ~$1.65 — the exact same feed formation agents resell for £49/month.

**Part of the AmyGraphics data empire** — 21 public actors: jobs, real estate, tenders, conferences, trade shows & federal awards. Contact: morocco.uiux@gmail.com · apify.com/amygraphics

# Actor input Schema

## `mode` (type: `string`):

search = your filters once · monitor = return ONLY never-seen-before companies (schedule daily for a new-incorporations feed).

## `companyNameIncludes` (type: `string`):

Only keep companies whose name contains this text (e.g. HOLDINGS, CARE, MARKETING).

## `companyNameExcludes` (type: `string`):

Drop companies whose name contains this text.

## `companyType` (type: `string`):

ltd = Private Limited (the 90% case) · any = every legal form.

## `status` (type: `array`):

Company status filter. active default; 'any' = no filter.

## `sicCodes` (type: `array`):

UK SIC codes (5 digits). 62012 = software · 82990 = business support · 70100 = head offices. Companies matching at least one are kept.

## `addressKeyword` (type: `string`):

Filter by address text — city, street or postcode fragment (London, EC1V, Cardiff…).

## `timeFrom` (type: `string`):

Window start. Empty = daysBack days ago.

## `timeTo` (type: `string`):

Window end. Empty = today.

## `daysBack` (type: `number`):

When timeFrom/timeTo are empty: go back this many days (monitor defaults to 7).

## `maxResults` (type: `number`):

Cap of company rows to return.

## `maxPages` (type: `number`):

20 companies per page; the engine auto-splits the date window when too large.

## `includeOfficers` (type: `boolean`):

Open each company officers page — free bonus (the leader charges +$0.002 per officer).

## `includePsc` (type: `boolean`):

Also collect Persons with Significant Control per company.

## `maxProfiles` (type: `number`):

Polite cap on profile opens per run (1 request per officer, 1 per PSC).

## `requestDelaySecs` (type: `number`):

Politeness delay. Gov.UK prefers steady, slow scraping.

## `requestTimeoutSecs` (type: `number`):

Per-request timeout.

## `respectRobots` (type: `boolean`):

Keep on (the register has no robots.txt restrictions anyway).

## `proxyConfiguration` (type: `object`):

Only for heavy bulk jobs (thousands of officer pages). Datacenter is fine otherwise.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "mode": "search",
  "companyNameIncludes": "",
  "companyNameExcludes": "",
  "companyType": "ltd",
  "status": [
    "active"
  ],
  "sicCodes": [],
  "addressKeyword": "",
  "timeFrom": "",
  "timeTo": "",
  "daysBack": 30,
  "maxResults": 500,
  "maxPages": 100,
  "includeOfficers": false,
  "includePsc": false,
  "maxProfiles": 100,
  "requestDelaySecs": 0.5,
  "requestTimeoutSecs": 30,
  "respectRobots": true
}
```

# 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 = {};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("amygraphics/companies-house-uk-scraper").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 = {}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("amygraphics/companies-house-uk-scraper").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 '{}' |
apify call amygraphics/companies-house-uk-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,amygraphics/companies-house-uk-scraper"
        }
    }
}
```

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/iVlJfGkSCiXZpV5PY/builds/kTbj0I3tyZzHrPf67/openapi.json