# Contact Waterfall Enrichment — Emails & Directors (`automationnation/contact-waterfall-enrichment`) Actor Find real contact emails for a list of company websites: scrapes published emails first, then falls back to Companies House director lookup + pattern-generated emails verified against real MX records. No paid API required. - **URL**: https://apify.com/automationnation/contact-waterfall-enrichment.md - **Developed by:** [Nathan Carter](https://apify.com/automationnation) (community) - **Categories:** Lead generation, Automation - **Stats:** 1 total users, 0 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks - **User rating**: No ratings yet ## Pricing $15.00 / 1,000 contact enricheds 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. In JavaScript/TypeScript projects, use official [JavaScript/TypeScript client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md): ```bash npm install apify-client ``` In Python projects, use official [Python client library](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md): ```bash pip install apify-client ``` In shell scripts, use [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): ````bash # MacOS / Linux curl -fsSL https://apify.com/install-cli.sh | bash # Windows irm https://apify.com/install-cli.ps1 | iex ```bash In AI frameworks, you might use the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/mcp.md). If your project is in a different language, use 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 ## Contact Waterfall Enrichment — Emails & Directors Find a real, usable contact email for a list of companies. Give it a website, get back the best email it can find — scraped from the site first, then a verified fallback using UK Companies House director data and common email-naming patterns. ### How the waterfall works 1. **Scrape the website** — homepage plus contact/about/team pages, checking mailto links, JSON-LD structured data, meta tags, and deobfuscated page text (`name [at] domain [dot] com` style included). This is the highest-confidence source, since it's a real email the company actually published. 2. **Companies House lookup** (UK companies, optional free API key) — if no email is published, look up the company's registered director name from the official public register. 3. **Pattern generation** — from that director/contact name, generate the common corporate email conventions (`first.last@`, `first@`, `flast@`, etc.). 4. **MX verification** — check the domain actually has a mail server configured before returning a pattern-guessed email, so you're not handed an address that can't possibly deliver. Each result is labelled with a confidence level (`high` = scraped and looks like a real named contact, `medium` = scraped but generic like `info@`, `low` = pattern-guessed and MX-verified, `none` = nothing found) so you know exactly how much to trust it. ### Input | Field | Description | |---|---| | `companies` | Array of `{ name, website }` — `website` is required (URL or bare domain), `name` is used for the Companies House lookup | | `companiesHouseApiKey` | Optional, free — register at developer.companieshouse.gov.uk. Only used as a fallback, and only helps for UK-registered companies | | `usePatternGuessing` | Whether to fall back to pattern generation when no email is scraped (default on) | | `maxResults` | Max companies to process (free trial capped at 10) | ### Known limitations - Marketing/demo-heavy websites occasionally have example or placeholder customer data embedded in the page (e.g. a fictional case-study name); scraping can't perfectly distinguish that from a real contact. Treat scraped results with generic-looking name patterns on marketing pages with a little skepticism. - Pattern guessing only fires when a director/contact name is available (currently via UK Companies House) — non-UK companies with no published email will come back with no result rather than a guess with nothing to base it on. - MX verification confirms the domain can receive mail, not that the specific mailbox exists — it filters out addresses that definitely won't deliver, not a full deliverability guarantee. # Actor input Schema ## `companies` (type: `array`): List of companies to enrich. Each entry needs a "website" (URL or bare domain); "name" (for Companies House lookup) and "contactName" (skip lookup, use this name directly for pattern generation) are optional. ## `companiesHouseApiKey` (type: `string`): Free UK government API key (developer.companieshouse.gov.uk). Used to find a real director name when no email is published on the website, for UK companies only. ## `usePatternGuessing` (type: `boolean`): When no email is found on the website, generate common patterns (first.last@domain, etc.) from a director/contact name and verify the domain can receive mail. ## `maxResults` (type: `integer`): Maximum companies to process. Free trial is capped at 10 regardless of this value. ## Actor input object example ```json { "companies": [ { "name": "Apify", "website": "apify.com" } ], "usePatternGuessing": true, "maxResults": 50 } ```` # 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 '' with your token const client = new ApifyClient({ token: '', }); // Prepare Actor input const input = {}; // Run the Actor and wait for it to finish const run = await client.actor("automationnation/contact-waterfall-enrichment").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 '' with your token. client = ApifyClient("") # Prepare the Actor input run_input = {} # Run the Actor and wait for it to finish run = client.actor("automationnation/contact-waterfall-enrichment").call(run_input=run_input) # Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any) print("💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/" + run["defaultDatasetId"]) for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).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 automationnation/contact-waterfall-enrichment --silent --output-dataset ``` ## MCP server setup ```json { "mcpServers": { "apify": { "command": "npx", "args": [ "mcp-remote", "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=automationnation/contact-waterfall-enrichment", "--header", "Authorization: Bearer " ] } } } ``` ## OpenAPI specification ```json { "openapi": "3.0.1", "info": { "title": "Contact Waterfall Enrichment — Emails & Directors", "description": "Find real contact emails for a list of company websites: scrapes published emails first, then falls back to Companies House director lookup + pattern-generated emails verified against real MX records. No paid API required.", "version": "0.1", "x-build-id": "AgCDwHWgLlNu3cuFQ" }, "servers": [ { "url": "https://api.apify.com/v2" } ], "paths": { "/acts/automationnation~contact-waterfall-enrichment/run-sync-get-dataset-items": { "post": { "operationId": "run-sync-get-dataset-items-automationnation-contact-waterfall-enrichment", "x-openai-isConsequential": false, "summary": "Executes an Actor, waits for its completion, and returns Actor's dataset items in response.", "tags": [ "Run Actor" ], "requestBody": { "required": true, "content": { "application/json": { "schema": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema" } } } }, "parameters": [ { "name": "token", "in": "query", "required": true, "schema": { "type": "string" }, "description": "Enter your Apify token here" } ], "responses": { "200": { "description": "OK" } } } }, "/acts/automationnation~contact-waterfall-enrichment/runs": { "post": { "operationId": "runs-sync-automationnation-contact-waterfall-enrichment", "x-openai-isConsequential": false, "summary": "Executes an Actor and returns information about the initiated run in response.", "tags": [ "Run Actor" ], "requestBody": { "required": true, "content": { "application/json": { "schema": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema" } } } }, "parameters": [ { "name": "token", "in": "query", "required": true, "schema": { "type": "string" }, "description": "Enter your Apify token here" } ], "responses": { "200": { "description": "OK", "content": { "application/json": { "schema": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/runsResponseSchema" } } } } } } }, "/acts/automationnation~contact-waterfall-enrichment/run-sync": { "post": { "operationId": "run-sync-automationnation-contact-waterfall-enrichment", "x-openai-isConsequential": false, "summary": "Executes an Actor, waits for completion, and returns the OUTPUT from Key-value store in response.", "tags": [ "Run Actor" ], "requestBody": { "required": true, "content": { "application/json": { "schema": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema" } } } }, "parameters": [ { "name": "token", "in": "query", "required": true, "schema": { "type": "string" }, "description": "Enter your Apify token here" } ], "responses": { "200": { "description": "OK" } } } } }, "components": { "schemas": { "inputSchema": { "type": "object", "required": [ "companies" ], "properties": { "companies": { "title": "Companies", "type": "array", "description": "List of companies to enrich. Each entry needs a \"website\" (URL or bare domain); \"name\" (for Companies House lookup) and \"contactName\" (skip lookup, use this name directly for pattern generation) are optional.", "default": [ { "name": "Apify", "website": "apify.com" } ] }, "companiesHouseApiKey": { "title": "Companies House API Key (optional, UK only)", "type": "string", "description": "Free UK government API key (developer.companieshouse.gov.uk). Used to find a real director name when no email is published on the website, for UK companies only." }, "usePatternGuessing": { "title": "Use pattern-guessed emails as fallback", "type": "boolean", "description": "When no email is found on the website, generate common patterns (first.last@domain, etc.) from a director/contact name and verify the domain can receive mail.", "default": true }, "maxResults": { "title": "Max results", "minimum": 1, "maximum": 1000, "type": "integer", "description": "Maximum companies to process. Free trial is capped at 10 regardless of this value.", "default": 50 } } }, "runsResponseSchema": { "type": "object", "properties": { "data": { "type": "object", "properties": { "id": { "type": "string" }, "actId": { "type": "string" }, "userId": { "type": "string" }, "startedAt": { "type": "string", "format": "date-time", "example": "2025-01-08T00:00:00.000Z" }, "finishedAt": { "type": "string", "format": "date-time", "example": "2025-01-08T00:00:00.000Z" }, "status": { "type": "string", "example": "READY" }, "meta": { "type": "object", "properties": { "origin": { "type": "string", "example": "API" }, "userAgent": { "type": "string" } } }, "stats": { "type": "object", "properties": { "inputBodyLen": { "type": "integer", "example": 2000 }, "rebootCount": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "restartCount": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "resurrectCount": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "computeUnits": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 } } }, "options": { "type": "object", "properties": { "build": { "type": "string", "example": "latest" }, "timeoutSecs": { "type": "integer", "example": 300 }, "memoryMbytes": { "type": "integer", "example": 1024 }, "diskMbytes": { "type": "integer", "example": 2048 } } }, "buildId": { "type": "string" }, "defaultKeyValueStoreId": { "type": "string" }, "defaultDatasetId": { "type": "string" }, "defaultRequestQueueId": { "type": "string" }, "buildNumber": { "type": "string", "example": "1.0.0" }, "containerUrl": { "type": "string" }, "usage": { "type": "object", "properties": { "ACTOR_COMPUTE_UNITS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATASET_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATASET_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 1 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_LISTS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "REQUEST_QUEUE_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "REQUEST_QUEUE_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATA_TRANSFER_INTERNAL_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATA_TRANSFER_EXTERNAL_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "PROXY_RESIDENTIAL_TRANSFER_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "PROXY_SERPS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 } } }, "usageTotalUsd": { "type": "number", "example": 0.00005 }, "usageUsd": { "type": "object", "properties": { "ACTOR_COMPUTE_UNITS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATASET_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATASET_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_WRITES": { "type": "number", "example": 0.00005 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_LISTS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "REQUEST_QUEUE_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "REQUEST_QUEUE_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATA_TRANSFER_INTERNAL_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATA_TRANSFER_EXTERNAL_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "PROXY_RESIDENTIAL_TRANSFER_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "PROXY_SERPS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 } } } } } } } } } } ```