# Texas Building Permits: Austin, San Antonio, Fort Worth & more (`groundtip/texas-building-permits`) Actor

Fresh building permits from five Texas city open-data feeds, normalized into one table, with trade presets.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/groundtip/texas-building-permits.md
- **Developed by:** [Groundtip](https://apify.com/groundtip) (community)
- **Categories:** Lead generation
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% 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?

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

## Texas Building Permits: Austin, San Antonio, Fort Worth, Arlington, El Paso

Get fresh building permits from five Texas cities in one clean table. Every run pulls from the cities' own open-data feeds, so each permit is as current as the city publishes it, usually the same day or the day after.

Built for contractors, suppliers and sales teams who sell to builders and homeowners: dumpster and roll-off rental, concrete and flatwork, fencing, roofing, pools, solar and new-home services.

### What you get

One row per permit, the same columns for every city:

| Field | Notes |
|---|---|
| `city` | Austin, San Antonio, Fort Worth, Arlington or El Paso |
| `permit_number` | The city's permit or record number |
| `issued_date` | YYYY-MM-DD. See `date_basis` |
| `date_basis` | `issued` for every city except Fort Worth, whose feed only publishes the filing date (`filed`) |
| `status` | Status from the city feed (Issued, Active, Pending and so on) |
| `type`, `work_class` | Permit type and work class or subtype, as the city labels them |
| `description` | Free-text scope of work |
| `address`, `zip` | Job-site address. Rows with no address are dropped |
| `lat`, `lon` | WGS84 coordinates, where the feed has them |
| `valuation` | Declared job value in USD, where published |
| `contractor_name`, `contractor_phone` | **Austin only.** The contractor of record and their phone, published by the city |
| `contractor_email` | Always empty: none of the five cities publishes contractor email |
| `contact_name`, `contact_role` | Other named party: the San Antonio primary contact (applicant), the Arlington business name. Property-owner names from the Fort Worth and El Paso feeds are not included |
| `source_url` | The permit's page or source dataset |

Duplicate permits are removed within each run.

### Input

- **Cities:** any of the five. The default is all.
- **Date range:** the last N days (default 7), or an exact `dateFrom` / `dateTo`.
- **Trade presets:**

  - dumpster/demolition/remodel
  - concrete/flatwork
  - fencing
  - roofing
  - pools
  - solar
  - new construction

  Presets match on permit type, work class and description.
- **Permit type contains / work class contains:** extra free-text filters, for example `Building Permit` or `Demolition`.
- **Max results:** the newest permits come first.

Example input:

```json
{ "cities": ["austin", "san_antonio"], "daysBack": 7, "tradePresets": ["dumpster_demolition"], "maxResults": 500 }
```

### Coverage by city (what each feed publishes)

| City | Source | Permit types | Contractor | Typical volume (7 days) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Austin | data.austintexas.gov (Socrata), Issued Construction Permits | All: building, electrical, plumbing, mechanical, driveway, demolition | **Name + phone** | ~850 |
| San Antonio | data.sanantonio.gov (CKAN), Permits Issued | All, including re-roof, fence, solar, demolition | Primary contact name only | ~830 |
| Fort Worth | City ArcGIS, CFW Development Permits | Building, accessory structures, trades, grading. No demolition type | No | ~840 (by filing date) |
| Arlington | City ArcGIS, Issued Permits | Residential, commercial, fence, pool, sign, CO | No | ~70 |
| El Paso | City ArcGIS, New Residential / New Commercial | New construction only | No | 0-15. The city refreshes this layer about monthly, so use a 30-day window |

### Pricing

Pay per result: **$4 per 1,000 permits**. A typical weekly pull of all five cities is about 2,600 permits, or about $10.40.

### Notes

- All data comes from public government open-data portals. No sign-ins, no scraping behind logins.
- Field availability depends on each city. Empty means the city doesn't publish that value for that permit.
- Questions or a city you'd like added: hello@groundtip.com

By **Groundtip**.

# Actor input Schema

## `cities` (type: `array`):

Which city feeds to pull. Leave empty for all five.

## `daysBack` (type: `integer`):

Used when 'Date from' is empty: pull the last N days, ending on 'Date to' (or today).

## `dateFrom` (type: `string`):

Optional start date. Overrides 'Days back'.

## `dateTo` (type: `string`):

Optional end date. Defaults to today.

## `tradePresets` (type: `array`):

Keep only permits relevant to these trades (matched on permit type, work class and description). Leave empty for all permits.

## `permitTypes` (type: `array`):

Optional. Keep permits whose type contains any of these words, e.g. 'Building Permit', 'Demolition'.

## `workClasses` (type: `array`):

Optional. Keep permits whose work class contains any of these words, e.g. 'New', 'Remodel'.

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

Stop after this many permits (newest first).

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "cities": [
    "austin",
    "san_antonio",
    "fort_worth",
    "arlington",
    "el_paso"
  ],
  "daysBack": 7,
  "tradePresets": [],
  "permitTypes": [],
  "workClasses": [],
  "maxResults": 5000
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `permits` (type: `string`):

Normalized building permits from the selected city feeds.

## `runReport` (type: `string`):

Per-city fetched and kept counts for this run.

# 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("groundtip/texas-building-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("groundtip/texas-building-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 groundtip/texas-building-permits --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,groundtip/texas-building-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/jkSQ0KEyK2mC1zlFT/builds/qIWkcmDEXS6lruona/openapi.json