# Federal Register Scraper — US Rules & Notices (`bovi/federal-register-scraper`) Actor

Scrape US Federal Register documents — final rules, proposed rules, notices and presidential documents. Filter by agency, type, keyword and publication date. Official keyless API. Schedule it as a regulatory/compliance monitor. Pay per result.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/bovi/federal-register-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [Vitalii Bondarev](https://apify.com/bovi) (community)
- **Categories:** Business, News, AI
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $9.90 / 1,000 documents

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

### Federal Register Scraper — US Rules & Notices

Pull structured records straight from the US Federal Register — final rules, proposed rules, notices, and presidential documents — filtered by agency, document type, keyword, and publication date. Built on the official, keyless federalregister.gov API, so results are complete, accurately dated, and never blocked or rate-limited by anti-bot defenses.

#### What it does

The Federal Register is the US government's daily journal of new regulations, proposed rulemakings, agency notices, and presidential documents (executive orders, proclamations). This actor queries the official `federalregister.gov/api/v1/documents.json` endpoint directly — no HTML scraping, no login, no API key required from you — and returns one clean record per matching document. Because it reads the same API the government itself publishes, coverage and dates are authoritative, and there's nothing to break when the site's front-end changes.

Typical use: track every new rule or notice from a specific agency (EPA, SEC, FDA, etc.), monitor a keyword or topic (e.g. "PFAS", "tariff", "artificial intelligence") across all agencies, or run it on a schedule with a rolling `publishedSince` date as a daily regulatory/compliance monitor.

#### Input

- **Search term** — full-text search across document titles and bodies (e.g. `clean water`, `tariff`). Leave blank to list all documents in the date window.
- **Agencies** — filter by agency slug (e.g. `environmental-protection-agency`, `securities-and-exchange-commission`, `food-and-drug-administration`); find slugs at federalregister.gov/agencies.
- **Document types** — `RULE` (final rule), `PRORULE` (proposed rule), `NOTICE`, or `PRESDOCU` (presidential document). Empty = all types.
- **Published since / Published before** — `YYYY-MM-DD` date-window filters; combine `publishedSince` with a rolling recent date for monitoring runs.
- **Max results** — cap on documents returned (1–50,000, default 100).
- **Proxy configuration** — Apify Proxy, RESIDENTIAL by default; billed to your account, not ours.

#### Fields returned

`document_number`, `title`, `type`, `abstract`, `action` (e.g. "Final rule", "Notice of proposed rulemaking"), `agency_names`, `agency_slugs`, `publication_date`, `effective_on`, `signing_date`, `president` (for presidential documents), `citation` (e.g. "89 FR 12345"), `page_length`, `cfr_references` (CFR titles/parts referenced), `docket_ids`, `regulation_id_numbers` (RINs), `html_url` (federalregister.gov page), `pdf_url` (official govinfo.gov PDF), `json_url` (the document's own API record).

#### Pricing

Pay-per-result — billed per document pushed to the dataset. See the Store pricing tab for the current price.

#### Why it's reliable

This actor reads the Federal Register's own official public API — the same source the US government publishes for developers — not a scraped HTML page. That means zero bot-defense risk, no CAPTCHAs, no breakage from site redesigns, and complete/accurate data straight from the source of record. It runs on your Apify account's proxy allocation at effectively zero marginal cost, and is a good fit for scheduled, recurring compliance-monitoring runs.

#### Output example

```json
{
  "document_number": "2026-00000",
  "title": "Example Rule Title",
  "type": "Rule",
  "abstract": "The agency is amending its regulations to ...",
  "action": "Final rule.",
  "agency_names": "Environmental Protection Agency",
  "agency_slugs": "environmental-protection-agency",
  "publication_date": "2026-10-01",
  "effective_on": "2026-11-30",
  "signing_date": "",
  "president": "",
  "citation": "91 FR 12345",
  "page_length": 12,
  "cfr_references": "40 CFR 52",
  "docket_ids": "EPA-HQ-OAR-2026-0000",
  "regulation_id_numbers": "2060-AA00",
  "html_url": "https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2026/10/01/2026-00000/example-rule-title",
  "pdf_url": "https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2026-10-01/pdf/2026-00000.pdf",
  "json_url": "https://www.federalregister.gov/api/v1/documents/2026-00000.json"
}
```

#### Run status and partial results

The run status message always says what happened. If the API fails or rate-limits on a later page, the documents already fetched are still saved and charged, and the message states how many were delivered, which page failed and what to change (narrow the date window with `publishedSince` / `publishedBefore`, or re-run later). If nothing matches your filters, the run ends with an explained empty status and you are not charged for zero results.

If this actor saved you time, a short rating in the Store helps a lot.

# Actor input Schema

## `term` (type: `string`):

Full-text search across document titles and bodies (e.g. "clean water", "tariff", "PFAS"). Leave blank to list all documents in the date window.

## `agencies` (type: `array`):

Filter by agency slug, e.g. environmental-protection-agency, securities-and-exchange-commission, food-and-drug-administration. Find slugs at federalregister.gov/agencies.

## `documentTypes` (type: `array`):

Filter by type: RULE (final rule), PRORULE (proposed rule), NOTICE, PRESDOCU (presidential document). Empty = all types.

## `publishedSince` (type: `string`):

Only documents published on or after this date. Use a rolling recent window (e.g. yesterday) for monitoring.

## `publishedBefore` (type: `string`):

Only documents published on or before this date.

## `maxItems` (type: `integer`):

Maximum number of documents to return.

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

Apify proxy used to reach the API. Residential is the reliable default; the run is billed to your account.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "term": "artificial intelligence",
  "agencies": [],
  "documentTypes": [],
  "maxItems": 100,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true,
    "apifyProxyGroups": [
      "RESIDENTIAL"
    ]
  }
}
```

# Actor output Schema

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

Dataset of Federal Register documents (document_number, title, type, agency_names, publication_date, effective_on, action, abstract, cfr_references, html_url, pdf_url).

# 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 = {
    "term": "artificial intelligence",
    "proxyConfiguration": {
        "useApifyProxy": true,
        "apifyProxyGroups": [
            "RESIDENTIAL"
        ]
    }
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("bovi/federal-register-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 = {
    "term": "artificial intelligence",
    "proxyConfiguration": {
        "useApifyProxy": True,
        "apifyProxyGroups": ["RESIDENTIAL"],
    },
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("bovi/federal-register-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 '{
  "term": "artificial intelligence",
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true,
    "apifyProxyGroups": [
      "RESIDENTIAL"
    ]
  }
}' |
apify call bovi/federal-register-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,bovi/federal-register-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/72YhIkIMlKwn6962P/builds/ezo1a1ekGjoJw4DrA/openapi.json