# CT Town Permits: Colchester permits by trade (`forrestfarm/connecticut-town-permits`) Actor

Colchester, CT public building permits: owner, address, type, issued date, fee, status and work description, each tagged by trade (roofing, electrical, HVAC, solar). Optional side table: recent home sales in nearby CT towns.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/forrestfarm/connecticut-town-permits.md
- **Developed by:** [Forrest Scholtes-Dowd](https://apify.com/forrestfarm) (community)
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $20.00 / 1,000 permits

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

## Connecticut Town Permits - Colchester building permits, classified by trade

### Use case

A roofer, electrician or HVAC company in eastern Connecticut runs this on Monday (3 pages reach back about 10 days) and walks away with the newest Colchester permits that mean work in their trade: owner, address, what the permit says, when it was issued. Knock, mail a card or leave a door hanger the same day.

### Sample output

Input `{"town": "Colchester", "pages": 2}` -> 44 permits from the live portal (run 2026-10-29).

**Example rows (made up, to show the columns; not real people or addresses):**

| owner | address | permit_type | description | status | category | owner_is_business |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SAMPLE JANE | 100 MAIN ST | Demo | Remove old siding off the house, install new vinyl siding | New | windows_doors_siding | false |
| EXAMPLE ROOFING LLC | 200 OAK AVE | Building | Tear off and reshingle the roof | New | roofing | true |

Columns: parcel_id, owner, house_no, street, permit_no, permit_type, issued, issued_date, fees, status, description, town, state, category, owner_is_business.

**Rows with no permit_no and no issued date are applications that were filed but not issued yet** (status Paid, New, Payment Due, Incomplete, Hold, Under Review and similar; now and then Canceled). They are the freshest leads, so they are kept. On 2026-10-29 the 2 newest pages held 19 of them.

### Price

**$0.02 per permit** plus **$0.01 per start**. Pay per event only: no plan, no subscription, no platform-usage charge. One page (22 permits) costs $0.45; the default 2 pages cost $0.89. For comparison, Construction Monitor sells permit leads from $31 per month per jurisdiction and offers no Connecticut self-serve.

### Input

- `town` - Colchester (the only town covered today).
- `pages` - 22 permits per page, newest first in the portal's own order (not strictly by issue date), 1 to 6, default 2. Measured on 2026-10-29: 2 pages = permits issued 10-25 to 10-27 plus filed ones not issued yet; 3 pages reach back to 10-18; 6 pages to 10-08. For a weekly run use 3 pages.
- `trade` - optional filter: roofing, electrical, hvac, plumbing, landscaping, excavation, handyman, general, auto. Each trade includes related work (roofing also returns solar, siding and demo permits). Empty = every permit.

### Who uses it

- Roofers: strip-and-reshingle, solar and siding permits.
- Electricians: service upgrades, generators, EV chargers, solar.
- HVAC and plumbing: boilers, heat pumps, mini splits, gas lines, water heaters.
- Landscapers and excavators: driveways, foundations, pools, new builds.

### How it works

We read the Town of Colchester public permit list (the PermitLink portal) with a real browser, newest first. Every row is tagged with the trade the work means - roofing, electrical, hvac, plumbing_gas, solar, generator, excavation, carpentry, windows_doors_siding, demo, pool, zoning_other or other - and flagged when the owner is a business. The trade filter uses contractor views, so roofing also sees solar, demo and siding permits.

### What it does not do

- Only Colchester today. Any other town returns 0 rows, exit 0 and a message; only the start is charged.
- No phone numbers and no email addresses. Public records; the owner's name is on the permit itself. Do not cold-call home numbers.
- If the portal changes its layout, the run stops with an error instead of returning a half-empty table.
- If the portal times out, the run tries once more before it stops with an error.
- If the portal will not turn to the next page, the run keeps the pages it read and the status message says so (for example "read 1 of 2 page(s)"). You pay the start plus only the permits you get.

### Tips

- Six pages (132 permits) is the most one run reads.

# Actor input Schema

## `town` (type: `string`):

Colchester is the only town covered today. Others return 0 rows and a message.

## `pages` (type: `integer`):

22 permits per page, 1 to 6. On 2026-10-29, 2 pages covered about 3 days of issued permits and 3 pages about 10 days. For a weekly run use 3.

## `trade` (type: `string`):

Optional: roofing, electrical, hvac, plumbing, landscaping, excavation, handyman, general, auto. Each trade includes related work a contractor in that trade wants, e.g. roofing also returns solar, siding and demo permits. Empty = every permit.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "town": "Colchester",
  "pages": 2,
  "trade": ""
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (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("forrestfarm/connecticut-town-permits").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("forrestfarm/connecticut-town-permits").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 forrestfarm/connecticut-town-permits --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,forrestfarm/connecticut-town-permits"
        }
    }
}
```

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/tgdHb6OSWGSfJ9GL2/builds/aEiPaKkegmLDk1Q9b/openapi.json