Public Reference Finder — TruthFinder Alternative

Find public-reference candidates for authorized name-and-location research. Export source URLs, collection times, and route outcomes in a privacy-scoped report for source review and follow-up research. For authorized researchers, each dataset report provides a privacy-scoped public-reference result with sources and route status.

Workflow: put the results to work

Choose an authorized research purpose and provide the name-and-location queries you can justify. Review each public reference at its source before drawing conclusions. This is a public-reference discovery step, not a criminal-record, background-check, or identity-verification service.

Best fit

Choose this Actor when you need a transparent, source-linked starting point for your own information, a consented subject, or lawful public-interest research. Use it for public-reference discovery, then hands a small, reviewable dataset to the next authorized research step.

The Actor accepts only a broad name and optional city, region, or country. It returns candidate references from public Wikimedia indexes and preserves each source URL and collection time. A regulated verification workflow is the right next step for employment, housing, credit, insurance, eligibility, or law-enforcement decisions.

TruthFinder alternative comparison

This is a workflow alternative for a narrow public-reference job, rather than a claim of full-suite replacement. TruthFinder is presented as a broader consumer people-search and report workflow; this Actor focuses on structured, source-linked collection and readback.

Decision dimension	This Actor	TruthFinder workflow
Scope and workflow	Bounded public-reference discovery through two public Wikimedia routes	Broader consumer people-search and report workflow
Billing and current cost	Pay per event for a persisted source report, plus platform usage; use the live Pricing tab for current cost	Current consumer pricing is outside this same-job comparison
Effective efficiency	One compact report per authorized query, with a small source cap and dataset readback	Same-workload usable-output timing has not been measured here
Input boundary	Requires authorized-use attestation, broad name, and optional broad location	Consumer people-search flow
Output and provenance	Source URL, collection time, route evidence, and terminal outcome per persisted report	Report-oriented consumer workflow
API and automation	Structured Apify API execution, dataset export, and key-value outcome readback	No TruthFinder API compatibility claim is made in this comparison

This Actor is not affiliated with, associated with, or endorsed by TruthFinder. TruthFinder is a trademark of its owner.

Use case workflow

A researcher starts with one consented name and a broad location. The Actor then checks the public Wikidata and Wikipedia reference routes sequentially, records the available source candidates, and writes one compact dataset row per completed query. Next, the researcher reviews the source URLs, confirms relevance independently, and passes only the necessary public reference into their authorized downstream process.

Input

Set the authorized-use attestation, then submit one to three broad name-and-location queries. The location hint is a recall-preserving fallback qualifier: the Actor begins with the name alone and consults the name-plus-location variant only when both public routes return no candidate.

{
  "queries": [
    {
      "fullName": "Ada Lovelace",
      "locationHint": "London, UK"
    }
  ],
  "authorizedUseConfirmed": true,
  "purpose": "self_lookup",
  "maxResultsPerQuery": 5,
  "responseFormat": "concise"
}

Purpose supports self lookup, consented research, and public-interest research. The smallest useful batch is one query; keeping batches small makes source review and cost readback straightforward.

Output and outcome contract

Each completed query creates one dataset record. Raw name and location input stay in the request input and are represented in output only by a non-reversible query hash.

Field	Meaning
queryHash	SHA-256 reference for the normalized query, without duplicating raw input
sourceResults	Bounded candidate references from Wikidata and Wikipedia
sourceUrl	Canonical public source URL for independent review and attribution
retrievedAt	UTC collection time for the report and each source candidate
sourceAttempts	Route-level availability, retry count, and query-variant evidence
safeUseNotice	Responsible-use boundary carried with each record

{
  "queryHash": "c7f7d9d3b15da3d5d21831d57c1a9f2d8ed5e058aa8c6d79bdf0d39912c58ef2",
  "retrievedAt": "ISO-8601 UTC timestamp",
  "purpose": "self_lookup",
  "responseFormat": "concise",
  "matchesFound": 2,
  "sourcesSucceeded": 2,
  "sourcesFailed": 0,
  "sourceResults": [
    {
      "source": "wikidata",
      "matchType": "knowledge_graph_entity",
      "title": "Ada Lovelace",
      "description": null,
      "sourceUrl": "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7259",
      "relevanceRank": 1,
      "retrievedAt": "ISO-8601 UTC timestamp"
    }
  ],
  "sourceAttempts": [
    {
      "source": "wikidata",
      "status": "SUCCEEDED",
      "attempts": 1,
      "matchesFound": 1,
      "queryVariant": "name_only"
    }
  ],
  "warnings": [],
  "safeUseNotice": "Use only for your own information, a consented subject, or lawful public-interest research.",
  "_note": "Candidate references require independent relevance review."
}

Read the OUTPUT key first. COMPLETE means every requested report persisted with both source routes available; PARTIAL preserves successful reports alongside route warnings; VALID_EMPTY means the sources responded without a retained candidate. INVALID_INPUT provides a safe correction message before any public-source request begins.

Use the Apify API

$curl -sS -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/khadinakbar~truthfinder-alternative/runs?token=$APIFY_TOKEN" -H "content-type: application/json" -d '{"queries":[{"fullName":"Ada Lovelace","locationHint":"London, UK"}],"authorizedUseConfirmed":true,"purpose":"self_lookup","maxResultsPerQuery":5,"responseFormat":"concise"}'

After execution reaches a terminal status, retrieve the default dataset and the OUTPUT key. That readback separates a persisted public-source report from an invocation that only started.

AI agent and MCP workflow

This regular Apify Actor can sit inside an AI agent or MCP-enabled workflow that is authorized to submit the stated input.

Invoke TruthFinder Alternative for one authorized public-reference query. Read OUTPUT before the dataset. When the outcome is COMPLETE or PARTIAL, return only the candidate title, source URL, collection time, and scope notice; treat every candidate as a lead for independent review and report the billable report count.

For an agent, the reliable handoff is the terminal outcome first, then dataset readback, then source-URL provenance. Keep one query per decision when a human needs to evaluate relevance.

Responsible use

Submit a query only with legal authority, the subject's consent where appropriate, and respect for applicable law and source terms. The output is designed for public-reference discovery and source review; high-impact screening belongs in a regulated process with documented governance.

TruthFinder is a trademark of its owner. This independent Actor is not affiliated with, associated with, or endorsed by TruthFinder.

Builder's note

I built this around a deliberately small output contract: two public reference routes, sequential polite requests, bounded retries, source URLs, and terminal key-value outcomes. In my implementation work, that made the result easier for a person or agent to read back, cite, and route into a review step without turning a broad people-search task into opaque data enrichment.

Pricing and run costs

This Actor uses Pay per event plus Apify platform usage. The Pricing tab lists the current event rates and billing terms.

Event	Billing unit	When it applies
apify-actor-start	Actor Start	Charged when the Actor starts running. Number of events charged depends on Actor memory (one event per GB, minimum one event).
source-search-completed	Completed public-source search report	Charged once for each validated persisted public-source report after at least one required Wikimedia route responded. Apify platform usage is additional.

Run cost combines the charged events and Apify platform usage. Review the run charge limit and requested result count before starting.

Connect an AI agent

Use the Apify MCP configurator to choose an available client connection. Inspect this Actor’s current input schema and required credentials before running it.