# Federal Register Search - Rules, Notices & Presidential Docs (`kdhan/federal-register-search`) Actor

Search US Federal Register documents (final rules, proposed rules, notices, presidential documents) by keyword, agency, type and date from the official federalregister.gov API. Returns abstract, effective and comment-close dates, CFR references and links. No API key.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/kdhan/federal-register-search.md
- **Developed by:** [Doohan Kim](https://apify.com/kdhan) (community)
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $2.00 / 1,000 document records

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

## Federal Register Search - Rules, Notices & Presidential Documents

Search US **Federal Register** documents - final rules, proposed rules, notices and presidential
documents - by keyword, agency, document type and publication date. Data comes straight from the
official **federalregister.gov API** (OFR/GPO). No scraping, no API key, no personal data.

### What you get (one row per document)

| Field | Meaning |
|---|---|
| `documentNumber` | Federal Register document number, e.g. `2026-20849` |
| `title`, `type` | Title and type (Rule, Proposed Rule, Notice, Presidential Document) |
| `agencies[]` | `name` and `slug` of each issuing agency |
| `publicationDate` | Date published in the Federal Register |
| `abstract` | First 500 characters of the abstract (may be empty) |
| `effectiveOn`, `commentsCloseOn` | Effective date and public-comment deadline when the document has them, otherwise `null` |
| `cfrReferences[]` | Affected CFR parts, e.g. `40 CFR 112` |
| `htmlUrl`, `pdfUrl` | Links to the document on federalregister.gov / the official PDF on govinfo.gov |
| `totalMatches` | How many documents matched your filters (the API reports at most 10,000) |
| `dataSource`, `dataAsOf`, `disclaimer` | Source, time of the query (UTC) and the legal-status note |

Results are sorted newest first. Documents scheduled for publication in the next few days can appear
with a future `publicationDate`.

### Input

```json
{
  "searchTerms": "artificial intelligence",
  "agencies": ["federal-trade-commission"],
  "documentTypes": ["RULE", "PRORULE"],
  "publishedAfter": "2026-01-01",
  "publishedBefore": "2026-06-30",
  "maxResults": 100
}
```

- `searchTerms` - keywords; wrap in double quotes for an exact phrase.
- `agencies` - agency slugs (the last part of `federalregister.gov/agencies/<slug>`).
- `documentTypes` - any of `RULE`, `PRORULE`, `NOTICE`, `PRESDOCU`; empty = all.
- `publishedAfter` / `publishedBefore` - `YYYY-MM-DD`, both inclusive.
- `maxResults` - 1 to 1000 (default 25). You are charged per document returned.

With no input the Actor returns the 25 newest documents.

### Behaviour you can rely on

- Unknown document types, malformed slugs or dates and out-of-range `maxResults` stop the run with a clear
  error; nothing is silently corrected.
- A filter combination with no match returns one `found: false` row (not charged).
- If the Federal Register cannot be reached, the run **fails** - it never reports "no results". If a later
  page fails, the rows already fetched carry `sectionErrors.pagination`.
- Your spending limit is respected: no more documents are returned than your budget allows.

### Source and legal note

Data: `https://www.federalregister.gov/api/v1/documents.json`. Federal Register content is a work of
the US Government. FederalRegister.gov states: "It is not an official legal edition of the Federal
Register ... those relying on it for legal research should verify their results against an official
edition of the Federal Register." This Actor is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Office of the
Federal Register, GPO or NARA, and is not legal advice.

# Actor input Schema

## `searchTerms` (type: `string`):

Keywords; use double quotes for an exact phrase.

## `agencies` (type: `array`):

Agency slugs from federalregister.gov/agencies, e.g. environmental-protection-agency.

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

RULE, PRORULE, NOTICE and/or PRESDOCU. Empty means all types.

## `publishedAfter` (type: `string`):

Date YYYY-MM-DD (inclusive).

## `publishedBefore` (type: `string`):

Date YYYY-MM-DD (inclusive).

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

Upper limit of documents returned. You are charged per document returned.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "maxResults": 25
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `documents` (type: `string`):

Document number, title, type, agencies, dates, abstract, CFR references, links, data freshness and disclaimer.

# 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("kdhan/federal-register-search").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("kdhan/federal-register-search").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 kdhan/federal-register-search --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,kdhan/federal-register-search"
        }
    }
}
```

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/d4xYdcylYbBHzcbaT/builds/ms5zGsiOj1CH8gb57/openapi.json