API Docs Changelog Diff Monitor

Store Positioning

Store title: API Docs Changelog Diff Monitor

Short description: Compare API docs, SDK docs, changelog, and pricing-doc snapshots for endpoint, header, auth, version, pricing, deprecation, and release-note changes.

SEO title: API Docs Changelog Diff Monitor — change monitoring and diff reports

SEO description: Compare API docs, SDK docs, changelog, and pricing-doc snapshots for endpoint, header, auth, version, pricing, deprecation, and release-note changes. Use it for recurring watchlists, previous/current comparisons, changed-row evidence, and schedule-friendly digests.

Categories: DEVELOPER_TOOLS, AUTOMATION

Keywords: api, docs, changelog, diff, monitor, change monitor, pricing audit, api testing, recurring monitor/diff actor

Fixed-Inclusive PPE Pricing

This actor uses pay-per-event pricing. Event prices include Apify platform usage; users are not expected to pay a separate platform-usage pass-through charge for the configured pricing model.

• Tier: M1 — Recurring monitor/diff actor
• Primary event: snapshot-compared at $0.00650 base
• Default max charge: $20.00
• Store discounts: FREE/BRONZE base, SILVER discounted, GOLD deepest approved discount

Event set:

• actor-start: base $0.02000, GOLD $0.01600. API Docs Changelog Diff Monitor: charged when actor start is completed. The price includes Apify platform usage; no separate usage pass-through is intended.
• snapshot-compared: base $0.00650, GOLD $0.00520. API Docs Changelog Diff Monitor: charged when snapshot compared is completed. The price includes Apify platform usage; no separate usage pass-through is intended.
• change-detected: base $0.01300, GOLD $0.01040. API Docs Changelog Diff Monitor: charged when change detected is completed. The price includes Apify platform usage; no separate usage pass-through is intended.
• digest-generated: base $0.05000, GOLD $0.04000. API Docs Changelog Diff Monitor: charged when digest generated is completed. The price includes Apify platform usage; no separate usage pass-through is intended.
• executive-report-generated: base $0.10000, GOLD $0.08000. API Docs Changelog Diff Monitor: charged when executive report generated is completed. The price includes Apify platform usage; no separate usage pass-through is intended.

Public Task Concepts

• Monitor API Docs Changelog Diff Monitor changes on a schedule
• Compare previous and current API Docs Changelog Diff Monitor snapshots
• Audit api issues across supplied public inputs
• Extract evidence-backed api rows for client QA
• Prioritize api fixes before a launch or migration

What does API Docs Changelog Diff Monitor do?

API Docs Changelog Diff Monitor compares previous and current API documentation, SDK documentation, changelog, or pricing-document snapshots and turns meaningful differences into structured Apify dataset rows. It is designed for developer-monitoring workflows where a generic text diff is too noisy and a strict OpenAPI spec diff is not available.

It detects added, removed, and changed API signals across endpoints, headers, auth schemes, version language, pricing or quota language, deprecations, and release notes. The actor is fixture-first and no-network by default. You paste or pass stored snapshots; it does not crawl, fetch, render pages, call LLMs, or use proxies.

Why Use This Actor

Capability	This actor	Manual text diff	OpenAPI-only diff tools	Generic page-change monitors
Works from pasted docs/changelog text	Yes	Yes	Usually no	Sometimes
Works without a complete OpenAPI spec	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
Structured Apify dataset rows	Yes	No	Usually no	Usually no
API-specific categories	Endpoint, header, auth, version, pricing, deprecation, release note	No	Schema-first only	No
Tiny default run	Yes	Not applicable	Not applicable	Depends on target
Network required	No	No	No	Usually yes
Pricing model	M1 PPE, target-based	Free labor	Tool-specific	Tool-specific

Use this actor for vendor API monitoring, SDK release review, pricing and quota doc review, internal platform docs review, partner integration checks, and changelog triage. Use a schema-first OpenAPI differ when you already have complete previous/current OpenAPI files and need semantic request/response schema changes.

How to Use

Minimal input:

{
  "previousSnapshot": "GET /v1/users lists users. Auth: Bearer token.",
  "currentSnapshot": "GET /v1/users lists active and invited users. GET /v1/teams lists teams. Auth: Bearer token.",
  "sourceId": "partner-api",
  "includeReport": true
}

1. Copy the older docs, SDK docs, or changelog text into previousSnapshot.
2. Copy the newer version into currentSnapshot.
3. Set sourceId to a stable name such as stripe-api or vendor-sdk-docs.
4. Run the actor and review the default dataset rows.
5. Open API_DOCS_DIFF_SUMMARY.json or API_DOCS_DIFF_REPORT.md for run-level triage.

Tiny Default Check

Run with the default input to verify output shape and billing behavior. The default snapshots are intentionally tiny and local.

HTML Snapshot Diff

Set contentType to html when passing rendered HTML. The actor strips scripts, styles, and tags before extracting API signals.

Multi-Target Review

Input Configuration

Name	Type	Default	Description
sourceId	string	example-api-docs	Stable label for the snapshot pair.
sourceUrl	string	empty	Optional traceability URL label. The actor does not fetch it.
previousLabel	string	previous	Label for the older snapshot.
currentLabel	string	current	Label for the newer snapshot.
previousSnapshot	string	tiny fixture	Older text, Markdown, OpenAPI-ish YAML, or HTML snapshot.
currentSnapshot	string	tiny fixture	Newer text, Markdown, OpenAPI-ish YAML, or HTML snapshot.
targets	array	[]	Optional list of snapshot pairs. Overrides top-level snapshots when non-empty.
contentType	string	auto	auto, text, markdown, html, or openapi.
includeCategories	string[]	all categories	Filter to endpoint, header, auth, version, pricing, deprecation, and release-note rows.
maxTargets	integer	1	Maximum snapshot pairs processed in one run.
maxChanges	integer	100	Maximum emitted rows per target after severity sorting.
includeReport	boolean	true	Write JSON and Markdown KVS artifacts.
debug	boolean	false	Enable verbose extraction logs.

Output Format

Each dataset row is one API-change signal:

{
  "changeId": "857cc3b36b406e52",
  "sourceId": "example-api-docs",
  "sourceUrl": null,
  "previousLabel": "2026-06-01",
  "currentLabel": "2026-07-01",
  "status": "changed",
  "changeType": "added",
  "signalCategory": "endpoint",
  "severity": "info",
  "identifier": "GET /v1/teams",
  "method": "GET",
  "path": "/v1/teams",
  "previousHash": null,
  "currentHash": "c65daef7e6d9fc74",
  "previousEvidence": null,
  "currentEvidence": "- Added GET /v1/teams for team membership lookup.",
  "previousLine": null,
  "currentLine": 5,
  "processedAt": "2026-07-02T00:00:00.000Z",
  "recommendation": "Evaluate whether GET /v1/teams should be added to SDK coverage, docs examples, tests, or release notes."
}

API_DOCS_DIFF_RESULTS.json contains the emitted row array. API_DOCS_DIFF_SUMMARY.json contains counts by target, change type, category, and severity. API_DOCS_DIFF_REPORT.md is a Markdown triage report.

Integration Examples

Python example:

from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient("APIFY_TOKEN")
run = client.actor("junipr/api-docs-changelog-diff-monitor").call(run_input={
    "sourceId": "partner-api",
    "previousSnapshot": "GET /v1/users lists users.",
    "currentSnapshot": "GET /v1/users lists users. GET /v1/teams lists teams.",
})

for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    if item["severity"] in {"critical", "warning"}:
        print(item["signalCategory"], item["identifier"], item["recommendation"])

Node.js example:

import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

const client = new ApifyClient({ token: process.env.APIFY_TOKEN });
const run = await client.actor('junipr/api-docs-changelog-diff-monitor').call({
  sourceId: 'sdk-docs',
  previousSnapshot: 'Auth: Bearer token. GET /v1/users lists users.',
  currentSnapshot: 'Auth: OAuth 2.0. GET /v1/users lists users.',
});

const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
console.log(items.filter((item) => item.signalCategory === 'auth'));

Tips and Advanced Usage

Performance Optimization

Keep snapshots focused on API docs, changelogs, endpoint references, or release sections. Large marketing pages add noise and spend your maxChanges budget on low-value release-note lines.

Proxy Configuration

No proxy is needed. This actor does not fetch live pages. If you need to monitor live docs pages, schedule a separate fetcher or crawler to save snapshots, then pass the snapshots here.

Reducing Noise

Use includeCategories to focus on specific signal families. For example, a breaking-change workflow can include only endpoint, auth, header, and deprecation; a vendor-cost workflow can include only pricing and release-note.

Limitations

• The actor compares supplied snapshots and does not crawl or authenticate to live documentation sites.
• It detects meaningful documentation, changelog, endpoint, pricing, auth, and deprecation changes, but it is not a full semantic OpenAPI validator.
• Source URLs are used as evidence labels unless an upstream crawler or archive supplies the page text.
• Human review is still required before treating a detected API change as a contractual or migration decision.

FAQ

Does this actor fetch URLs?

No. sourceUrl is only a label for traceability. Pass snapshots from your own archive, webhook, crawler, CI job, or previous Apify run.

Can it diff OpenAPI files?

It can extract common endpoint patterns from OpenAPI-like YAML, but it is not a full semantic OpenAPI schema differ. Use it for broad docs/changelog monitoring and pair it with schema-specific tooling when complete specs are available.

Why do I see release-note rows and endpoint rows for the same line?

That is intentional. One line can be both a changelog item and an endpoint signal. Filter with includeCategories if you only want one category.

How are severities assigned?

Deprecations, auth changes, pricing changes, and removed endpoints are prioritized. Header, version, and release-note changes become warnings when they include removal, sunset, deprecation, or breaking-change language.

Will it detect parameter or response schema changes?

It detects changed evidence attached to the same endpoint or pricing identifier, but it does not parse every parameter, response object, invoice rule, tax rule, or plan entitlement semantically. For exact schema diffs, use a schema-first OpenAPI differ.

Related Actors

• Domain Extractor Grouper
• Dataset QA Auditor
• Actor Pricing Simulator
• Actor README Quality Linter
• OpenAPI Spec Diff Auditor