# Federal Register Scraper — Rules, Notices & Proposed Rules (`devilscrapes/federal-register-documents-scraper`) Actor

Track US federal regulatory activity — export Federal Register rules, proposed rules and notices with title, agency, type, abstract, publication date and document links as clean JSON, CSV or Excel.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/devilscrapes/federal-register-documents-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [DevilScrapes](https://apify.com/devilscrapes) (community)
- **Categories:** News, Business
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% 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/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.

- **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

<div align="center">
  <img src=".actor/icon.svg" width="160" alt="Devil Scrapes mark" />

## Federal Register Scraper — Rules, Notices & Proposed Rules

**💰 $2.05 / 1 000 results**  ·  pay only for results  ·  no credit card to try

*We do the dirty work so your dataset stays clean.* 😈

Track US federal regulatory activity — export Federal Register rules, proposed rules and notices with title, agency, type, abstract, publication date and document links as clean JSON, CSV or Excel.

</div>

***

### 🎯 What this scrapes

Every US federal rule, proposed rule and notice lands in the Federal Register first, which makes it the earliest public signal that a regulation affecting your industry is moving. The official API paginates in a way that stops at 2,000 records per query and buries the agency names in a nested block. This Actor pages it properly, flattens agencies into one readable column, and hands you a dated regulatory feed you can filter in a spreadsheet.

### 🔥 What we handle for you

pages the API properly and stops cleanly at its 2,000-record ceiling
flattens the nested agency block into a readable column plus a lead-agency field
retries transient 429/5xx responses instead of failing the whole run

### 💡 Use cases

- Monitor proposed rules touching your industry before the comment window closes.
- Build a regulatory-change feed for a compliance or legal team.
- Track one agency's output over a quarter for a policy report.
- Assemble a dated evidence trail of rulemaking on a single topic.

### ⚙️ How to use it

1. Click **Try for free** at the top of the page.
2. Fill in the input form — most fields have sensible defaults.
3. Click **Start**. Output streams into the run's dataset.
4. Export from **Storage → Dataset** as JSON, CSV, or Excel — or fetch via the API.

### 📥 Input

| Field | Type | Required | Default | Notes |
|---|---|:--:|---|---|
| `searchTerm` | `string` | no | 'emissions' | Full-text search across the document. Leave empty to take everything in the date range. |
| `documentTypes` | `array` | no | \[] | Restrict to these types: <code>RULE</code>, <code>PRORULE</code> (proposed rule), <code>NOTICE</code>,… |
| `publishedFrom` | `string` | no | '2026-01-01' | Only documents published on or after this date, as <code>YYYY-MM-DD</code>. Leave empty for no floor. |
| `maxResults` | `integer` | no | 100 | Stop after this many documents. Each document is one billed result row. |
| `proxyConfiguration` | `object` | no | {'useApifyProxy': False} | The Federal Register API is public and does not need a proxy. Leave this off unless your account requires egress… |

#### Example input

```json
{
  "searchTerm": "emissions",
  "publishedFrom": "2026-01-01",
  "maxResults": 3,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": false
  }
}
```

### 📤 Output

Every row is one dataset item.

| Field | Type | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| `document_number` | `string` | Federal Register document number. |
| `title` | `string` | Document title. |
| `type` | `string` | `Rule`, `Proposed Rule`, `Notice` or `Presidential Document`. |
| `abstract` | `string` | Official abstract, when present. |
| `publication_date` | `string` | Publication date (`YYYY-MM-DD`). |
| `agencies` | `array` | Issuing agency names. |
| `lead_agency` | `string` | First listed agency — the usual owner. |
| `html_url` | `string` | Document page on federalregister.gov. |
| `pdf_url` | `string` | Official PDF URL. |

#### Example output

```json
{}
```

### 💰 Pricing

Pay-Per-Event — you pay only when these events fire:

| Event | USD | What it is |
|---|---:|---|
| `actor-start` | $0.05 | One-off warm-up charge per run |
| `result` | $0.002 | Per dataset item |

Example: 1 000 results at the rates above ≈ **$2.05**. No subscription, no minimum, no card to start — Apify gives every new account $5 of free credit.

### 🚧 Limitations

- Returns document metadata and links, not the full rule text or the public comments.
- A single query cannot exceed 2,000 documents — that is an API limit, not an Actor one.

### ❓ FAQ

**Do I need an API key?**

No. The Federal Register API is public and keyless, so a run needs no credentials from you.

**How far back can I search?**

The API covers 1994 onward. Set <b>Published from</b> to any date in that range.

**Why cap at 2,000?**

The API stops paging past 2,000 records for a single query. The Actor stops cleanly there and says so in the log rather than looping — narrow the term or the date range to go deeper.

### 💬 Your feedback

Spotted a bug, hit a weird edge case, or need a new field? Open an
issue on the Actor's **Issues** tab on Apify Console — we ship
fixes weekly and we read every report.

***

<div align="center">

Built by **[Devil Scrapes](https://apify.com/DevilScrapes)** 😈 — a small fleet of
opinionated public-data Actors. Honest pricing, real engineering, zero fine print.

</div>

# Actor input Schema

## `searchTerm` (type: `string`):

Full-text search across the document. Leave empty to take everything in the date range.

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

Restrict to these types: <code>RULE</code>, <code>PRORULE</code> (proposed rule), <code>NOTICE</code>, <code>PRESDOCU</code> (presidential document). Leave empty for all.

## `publishedFrom` (type: `string`):

Only documents published on or after this date, as <code>YYYY-MM-DD</code>. Leave empty for no floor.

## `maxResults` (type: `integer`):

Stop after this many documents. Each document is one billed result row.

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

The Federal Register API is public and does not need a proxy. Leave this off unless your account requires egress through Apify Proxy.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "searchTerm": "emissions",
  "documentTypes": [],
  "publishedFrom": "2026-01-01",
  "maxResults": 100,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": false
  }
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `datasetItems` (type: `string`):

All dataset items as JSON.

## `datasetItemsCsv` (type: `string`):

Same data exported to CSV.

## `datasetView` (type: `string`):

Open the run dataset in the Console.

# 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 = {
    "searchTerm": "emissions",
    "documentTypes": [],
    "publishedFrom": "2026-01-01",
    "proxyConfiguration": {
        "useApifyProxy": false
    }
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("devilscrapes/federal-register-documents-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 = {
    "searchTerm": "emissions",
    "documentTypes": [],
    "publishedFrom": "2026-01-01",
    "proxyConfiguration": { "useApifyProxy": False },
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("devilscrapes/federal-register-documents-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 '{
  "searchTerm": "emissions",
  "documentTypes": [],
  "publishedFrom": "2026-01-01",
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": false
  }
}' |
apify call devilscrapes/federal-register-documents-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,devilscrapes/federal-register-documents-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/v0n4zcam2GoHTuPwu/builds/IfIgOdWn0mxFmZIND/openapi.json