# Help Center Broken Link Auditor (`junipr/help-center-broken-link-auditor`) Actor

Crawl public help-center pages and report broken internal links, broken external links, redirect chains, anchors that do not resolve, and risky support navigation dead ends.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/junipr/help-center-broken-link-auditor.md
- **Developed by:** [junipr](https://apify.com/junipr) (community)
- **Categories:** SEO tools, Developer tools
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $4.90 / 1,000 help center page scanneds

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?

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

## Help Center Broken Link Auditor

Support and SEO teams need broken-link cleanup for high-volume help centers without manually checking every article. Crawl public help-center pages and report broken internal links, broken external links, redirect chains, anchors that do not resolve, and risky support navigation dead ends.

### What It Does

Crawl public help-center pages and report broken internal links, broken external links, redirect chains, anchors that do not resolve, and risky support navigation dead ends.

The actor accepts public help-center URLs or authorized public HTML snapshots, normalizes evidence, emits source-backed dataset rows, and writes summary reports for support-content teams.

### Input

- `startUrls`: public support or help-center URLs to inspect.
- `sourceRecords`: optional public HTML snapshots for deterministic analysis.
- `maxPages`, `maxRecords`, and `maxChargeUsd`: strict caps for predictable runs.
- `includePatterns` and `excludePatterns`: URL filters for scoped audits.

### Output

Dataset rows include these fields:

`actorSlug`, `runId`, `crawlTimestamp`, `sourceUrl`, `pageUrl`, `status`, `statusCode`, `evidence`, `issueCode`, `riskLevel`, `recommendation`, `sourcePageUrl`, `linkUrl`, `linkText`, `linkType`, `redirectCount`, `anchorExists`

KVS reports include: `SUMMARY.md`, `SUMMARY.json`, `HELP_CENTER_BROKEN_LINK_AUDITOR_FINDINGS.csv`, `HELP_CENTER_BROKEN_LINK_AUDITOR_INVENTORY.csv`, `ISSUES_BY_SEVERITY.json`, `BLOCKED_OR_NO_RESULT_DIAGNOSTICS.csv`.

### Pricing

This actor uses pay-per-event pricing from the locked 351-400 guide.

- `actor-start`: $0.005 (per run)
- `help-center-page-scanned`: $0.0049 (per page/source scanned)
- `link-record-extracted`: $0.00195 (per record extracted)
- `broken-link-issue-emitted`: $0.00195 (per issue/finding emitted)
- `audit-report-generated`: $0.05 (per report)

Platform usage pass-through is off. The actor stops before paid output when maxChargeUsd would be exceeded.

### Safe Use

Use this actor only with public pages or authorized public snapshots. It does not bypass authentication, CAPTCHAs, paywalls, access controls, or private datasets.

### Example Input

```json
{
  "startUrls": [
    "https://docs.github.com/en/authentication/securing-your-account-with-two-factor-authentication-2fa/about-two-factor-authentication",
    "https://docs.github.com/en/issues/tracking-your-work-with-issues/about-issues",
    "https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Fetch_API"
  ],
  "maxPages": 1,
  "maxDepth": 0,
  "includePatterns": [],
  "excludePatterns": [
    "/login",
    "/admin"
  ],
  "requestDelayMs": 250,
  "timeoutMs": 20000,
  "maxRecords": 10,
  "respectRobotsTxt": true,
  "redactQueryStrings": true,
  "maxChargeUsd": 10.0,
  "debug": false
}
```

# Actor input Schema

## `startUrls` (type: `array`):

Public help-center or support-content URLs to inspect.

## `maxPages` (type: `integer`):

Maximum public pages or snapshots to process.

## `maxDepth` (type: `integer`):

Maximum same-site crawl depth for future live crawling. Source-record mode uses depth 0.

## `includePatterns` (type: `array`):

Only process URLs containing one of these strings when provided.

## `excludePatterns` (type: `array`):

Skip URLs containing any of these strings.

## `requestDelayMs` (type: `integer`):

Delay between public fetches in milliseconds for polite crawling.

## `timeoutMs` (type: `integer`):

Per-request timeout in milliseconds.

## `maxRecords` (type: `integer`):

Maximum dataset rows to emit before stopping gracefully.

## `respectRobotsTxt` (type: `boolean`):

Keep enabled for public crawling. Source-record analysis does not fetch blocked pages.

## `redactQueryStrings` (type: `boolean`):

Remove query strings from output URLs unless query text is core evidence.

## `maxChargeUsd` (type: `number`):

Maximum PPE budget before the actor stops before paid output.

## `debug` (type: `boolean`):

Enable extra non-secret diagnostics in logs and KVS reports.

## `sourceRecords` (type: `array`):

Optional authorized public HTML snapshots for deterministic analysis without live fetching.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "startUrls": [
    "https://docs.github.com/en/authentication/securing-your-account-with-two-factor-authentication-2fa/about-two-factor-authentication",
    "https://docs.github.com/en/issues/tracking-your-work-with-issues/about-issues",
    "https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Fetch_API"
  ],
  "maxPages": 1,
  "maxDepth": 0,
  "includePatterns": [],
  "excludePatterns": [
    "/login",
    "/admin"
  ],
  "requestDelayMs": 250,
  "timeoutMs": 20000,
  "maxRecords": 10,
  "respectRobotsTxt": true,
  "redactQueryStrings": true,
  "maxChargeUsd": 10,
  "debug": false
}
```

# Actor output Schema

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

No description

## `summary` (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("junipr/help-center-broken-link-auditor").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("junipr/help-center-broken-link-auditor").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 junipr/help-center-broken-link-auditor --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,junipr/help-center-broken-link-auditor"
        }
    }
}

```

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/NRMSLPgeZKx7LbTJO/builds/SDR3asGtCNGTPYVGd/openapi.json