# DEV Publication Evidence — Missing/Null/False Safe (`civicdataforge/devto-publication-evidence`) Actor

Resolve public DEV article state without accepting credentials. Preserve raw field state, observed endpoint keys, source hash, derivation, and a sealed receipt.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/civicdataforge/devto-publication-evidence.md
- **Developed by:** [Bryan](https://apify.com/civicdataforge) (community)
- **Categories:** Automation
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 0.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

Pay per usage

This Actor is paid per platform usage. The Actor is free to use, and you only pay for the Apify platform usage, which gets cheaper the higher subscription plan you have.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-usage

## 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.

- **AI agents and MCP clients** — the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/mcp.md) at `https://mcp.apify.com` (remote, streamable HTTP, OAuth on first use).
- **Agentic workflows and local Actor development** — [Agent Skills](https://apify.com/.well-known/agent-skills/index.json) with the [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): `npm install -g apify-cli`, then `apify login`.
- **JavaScript/TypeScript projects** — the official [JS/TS client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md): `npm install apify-client`.
- **Python projects** — the official [Python client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md): `pip install apify-client`.
- **Any other language** — 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

## DEV Publication Evidence — Missing/Null/False Safe

DEV's public article endpoint can return a valid published article while omitting the `published` field that appears in authenticated article representations. A deserializer that treats a missing key like `false` can silently classify a live article as a draft.

This Actor is a compatibility and evidence API. Give it a DEV article URL or ID. It returns an explicit `published` value, the evidence-backed `published_state`, the raw publisher field state, a stable endpoint-shape fingerprint, the observed key set, the official response hash, and a sealed receipt.

### Public use

```json
{
  "articleUrl": "https://dev.to/civicdataforge/what-broke-when-we-turned-government-open-data-into-agent-callable-evidence-1m81"
}
```

Public articles need no DEV API key. DEV documents the public article endpoints as returning published articles, and its own request specs return 404 for unpublished articles. Therefore a public-endpoint HTTP 200 is recorded as `published: true` even when the raw response omits the field.

### Owner-only draft resolution without giving us a key

When a public request returns 404, that result alone cannot distinguish a draft, deletion, changed URL, or unknown article. CivicDataForge's hosted Worker and Apify Actor deliberately never accept DEV API keys.

Owners can instead download the dependency-free local verifier. It prompts for the key without terminal echo and sends it directly from the owner's machine to the exact HTTPS host `dev.to`. CivicDataForge and Apify never receive the key or the private result.

```powershell
node .\local\civicdataforge-devto-owner-verify.mjs --url "https://dev.to/yourname/your-draft-slug"
```

The hosted services reject credential fields, authorization headers, credential-like query parameters, and unknown JSON properties. See [SECURITY.md](./SECURITY.md) for the exact boundary.

### Output semantics

- Hosted `published`: `true` or `null` when the public state is genuinely unknown.
- Hosted `published_state`: `PUBLISHED` or `UNKNOWN`; the local owner verifier can also return `DRAFT` with `published: false`.
- `publisher_field_state`: `MISSING`, `PRESENT_NULL`, `PRESENT_TRUE`, `PRESENT_FALSE`, or `PRESENT_VALUE`.
- `publisher_payload_shape`: observed keys, missing expected keys, explicit null keys, explicit false keys, shape fingerprint, response hash, and receipt hash.
- `integrity_state`: makes representation drift visible even when the HTTP request succeeds.

This Actor does not accept credentials, modify DEV, bypass authentication, expose drafts, or claim DEV supplied a field that it omitted.

### Direct CivicDataForge API

The same contract is available without an Apify account:

```text
GET https://civicdataforge-devto-evidence.neoaethel.workers.dev/v1/devto/publication-evidence?url=<encoded-dev-url>
```

Use `POST /v1/devto/publication-evidence` with keyless JSON containing an article URL or ID. The direct API and Actor import the same normalization and receipt implementation, so their public publication semantics cannot drift independently. Private owner checks are intentionally local-only.

### Agent access

- Actor: `civicdataforge/devto-publication-evidence`
- MCP: `https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=civicdataforge/devto-publication-evidence`
- Support: `civicdataforgehq@gmail.com`

Official contract references:

- [Forem API v1](https://developers.forem.com/api/v1)
- [Forem API request specifications](https://github.com/forem/forem/blob/main/spec/requests/api/v0/articles_spec.rb)

# Actor input Schema

## `articleUrl` (type: `string`):

Public https://dev.to/<username>/<slug> URL.

## `articleId` (type: `integer`):

Optional numerical article ID. Use this instead of articleUrl.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "articleUrl": "https://dev.to/civicdataforge/what-broke-when-we-turned-government-open-data-into-agent-callable-evidence-1m81"
}
```

# Actor output Schema

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

No description

## `runReceipt` (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("civicdataforge/devto-publication-evidence").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("civicdataforge/devto-publication-evidence").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 civicdataforge/devto-publication-evidence --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,civicdataforge/devto-publication-evidence"
        }
    }
}

```

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/ES7hLewF7v9amqu1r/builds/eyfILGPvLbfSdzNmM/openapi.json