Federal Register Scraper

Extract every US Federal Register document since 1994 — rules, proposed rules, notices, presidential documents. Auto-partitions past the 2,000-doc window. Keyless, no browser, no proxy.

What does Federal Register Scraper do?

The Federal Register is the daily journal of the US federal government — every rule, proposed rule, notice, and presidential document published since 1994 lives here. This actor wraps the official keyless Federal Register API in four modes:

• Search documents — filter by full-text term, agency, document type, significance flag, and publication date range. Auto-partitions by date so queries returning more than the API's 2,000-document window still complete fully.
• Single document — fetch one document by its Federal Register number.
• List agencies — every federal agency with its slug, description, and parent-child structure.
• List document types — the canonical value list (RULE, PRORULE, NOTICE, PRESDOCU).

Every document record includes number, title, type, abstract, agencies, publication date, comment deadline and days remaining, significance flag, docket IDs, RINs, CFR references, page range, and direct HTML/PDF/raw-text URLs.

Output fields

Document

Field	Description
documentNumber	Federal Register citation number
title	Document title
type / subtype	RULE, PRORULE, NOTICE, PRESDOCU
abstract	Official abstract
publicationDate	Publication date
agencies	Array of { id, name, url, parentId, slug }
agencyNames	Flat list of issuing agency names
action	Stated action (e.g. "Final rule")
effectiveOn	Effective date
commentsCloseOn	Public comment deadline
commentWindowOpen	Boolean — true while the deadline is today or later
commentDaysRemaining	Days until deadline (negative after)
significance	EO 12866 significant-regulatory-action flag
docketIds	Rulemaking dockets
regulationIdNumbers	RINs — track a rule across its lifecycle
cfrReferences	Array of { title, part, chapter }
citation	Full Federal Register citation
startPage / endPage / pageLength	Page range
volume	FR volume number
htmlUrl / pdfUrl / rawTextUrl	Canonical document URLs
executiveOrderNumber	EO number, when applicable
presidentialDocumentNumber	Presidential doc number, when applicable
topics	Topic tags

Agency

Field	Description
id / name / shortName / slug	Identity
url / recentArticlesUrl	Links
parentId	Parent agency (null for top-level)
description	Agency description

Document type

{ value, label, description } — the canonical enum.

Who is it for?

• Regulatory affairs and compliance teams tracking rules that affect their industry
• Law firms and lobbyists monitoring proposed rules and comment windows
• Policy researchers building longitudinal rulemaking datasets
• Data journalists investigating agency activity
• Algo trading and quant funds parsing regulatory signals
• Government contractors tracking procurement and compliance obligations

Pricing

$1.40 per 1,000 results. No subscription.

Results	Cost
100	$0.14
1,000	$1.40
10,000	$14.00

How to use it

1. Pick a Mode.
2. For search: enter a Search Term and/or set Agency, Document Type, and Date Range.
3. For document: enter Document Number.
4. Set Max Items (default 2000).
5. Click Start.

Output example

{
  "recordType": "document",
  "documentNumber": "2026-18046",
  "title": "Energy Conservation Program: Test Procedures for Consumer Refrigerators",
  "type": "Proposed Rule",
  "subtype": "",
  "abstract": "The U.S. Department of Energy proposes to amend its test procedures for consumer refrigerators...",
  "publicationDate": "2026-09-18",
  "agencies": [
    { "id": 197, "name": "Energy Department", "url": "https://www.federalregister.gov/agencies/energy-department", "parentId": null, "slug": "energy-department" }
  ],
  "agencyNames": ["Energy Department"],
  "action": "Notice of proposed rulemaking and public meeting",
  "dates": "Comments due on or before October 20, 2026.",
  "effectiveOn": "",
  "commentsCloseOn": "2026-10-20",
  "commentWindowOpen": true,
  "commentDaysRemaining": 24,
  "significance": true,
  "docketIds": ["EERE-2024-BT-TP-0005"],
  "regulationIdNumbers": ["1904-AD95"],
  "cfrReferences": [{ "title": 10, "part": 430, "chapter": null }],
  "citation": "91 FR 45120",
  "startPage": 45120,
  "endPage": 45156,
  "pageLength": 36,
  "volume": 91,
  "htmlUrl": "https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2026/09/18/2026-18046/...",
  "pdfUrl": "https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2026-09-18/pdf/2026-18046.pdf",
  "rawTextUrl": "https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/full_text/text/2026/09/18/2026-18046.txt",
  "executiveOrderNumber": "",
  "presidentialDocumentNumber": "",
  "topics": [],
  "scrapedAt": "2026-09-26T12:00:00.000Z"
}

Technical details

• Official Federal Register API — https://www.federalregister.gov/api/v1. Public, keyless, unauthenticated.
• No documented rate limit. The actor spaces requests ≥250ms apart and backs off on 429.
• 2,000-document window — the API returns HTTP 400 when page × per_page exceeds 2,000. The actor auto-partitions by publication date and recurses until each slice fits under the ceiling. A query matching 10,000+ documents completes fully.
• 404 means "no documents matched" — the API's documented convention. The actor treats 404 as an empty result set, not an error.
• per_page maxes at 100. The actor uses 100 by default.
• Sparse fields — different document types include different fields. Every optional field is emitted as null or [], never omitted, so downstream parsers don't break on sparse records.
• No browser, no proxy — pure REST JSON.

Known limits

• Historical coverage starts at 1994-01-01. Earlier documents are not in the API.
• raw_text_url is a pointer, not the text. The actor returns the URL; fetch it downstream if you need the full body.
• Some documents have no comment period. commentsCloseOn is null for final rules and most notices.
• Agency slugs must be exact. Use agencies mode to list valid values — epa won't work, environmental-protection-agency will.
• Very broad queries with no date range auto-partition the full 1994→today span and can take several minutes.

FAQ

Do I need an API key? No. The Federal Register API is fully keyless.

Do I need a proxy? No. Datacenter IPs work.

How do I track a rule across its lifecycle? Use regulationIdNumbers (RINs) — they persist from the proposed rule through the final rule.

Why does a query return 0 results? Either the query matched nothing (the API returns 404), or your agency slug or document type is invalid. Verify with agencies mode.

How far back does the data go? 1994-01-01.

How do I export data? After a run, go to Storage → Export as JSON, CSV, Excel.

Support

Open an issue on the Actor's page for bugs or feature requests.