# US Commercial Building, Solar & Electrical Permits (Soc (`lumenfetch/us-municipal-building-permits-socrata-api`) Actor

Queries official municipal Socrata OpenData REST APIs (Chicago, Los Angeles, Austin, NYC) for commercial building, solar, roofing, and electrical permits with verified TLS and zero synthetic fallback rows.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/lumenfetch/us-municipal-building-permits-socrata-api.md
- **Developed by:** [Lumenfetch](https://apify.com/lumenfetch) (community)
- **Categories:** Lead generation, Open source
- **Security:** Limited permissions
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 91.7% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $8.00 / 1,000 extracted result items

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

## US Commercial Building, Solar & Electrical Permits API (Socrata OpenData)

**Published by:** Atelier Systems\
**Upstream Data Sources (100% Official Municipal Socrata SODA REST APIs):**

- **City of Chicago (`data.cityofchicago.org`):** `https://data.cityofchicago.org/resource/ydr8-5enu.json`
- **City of Los Angeles (`data.lacity.org`):** `https://data.lacity.org/resource/pi9x-tg5x.json`
- **City of Austin (`data.austintexas.gov`):** `https://data.austintexas.gov/resource/3syk-w9eu.json`
- **City of New York (`data.cityofnewyork.us`):** `https://data.cityofnewyork.us/resource/ipu4-2q9a.json`

### Strict Data Integrity & Zero-Fallback Guarantee

- **No Synthetic or Fallback Rows:** Every item pushed to the dataset is fetched live from the municipal Socrata API during execution. If all queried endpoints fail or return an error, the Actor exits with a non-zero code (`exit 1`) so you are **never** billed for failed or placeholder records.
- **Verified HTTPS:** All requests verify TLS certificates using standard CA bundles (`ssl.create_default_context()`).
- **Commercial Privacy Filter:** Individual residential homeowner names are excluded; only commercial/entity applicants, contractor business names, permit numbers, valuations, and municipal work descriptions are returned.

### Legal Attribution & Public Record Notice

- **City of Chicago Attribution:** *This application uses data that has been modified for use from its original source, www.cityofchicago.org, the official website of the City of Chicago. The City of Chicago makes no claims as to the content, accuracy, timeliness, or completeness of any of the data provided.*
- **NYC / LA / Austin Open Data Attribution:** *Contains public sector information made available under the NYC Open Data Law (NYC Admin. Code § 23-502), DataLA Terms of Use, and City of Austin Open Data Terms.*
- **CCPA Public Record Notice:** *All records originate from official local government building department registries (Cal. Civ. Code § 1798.140(v)(2)). Buyers are solely responsible for compliance with applicable state and federal laws when using public permit data.*

# Actor input Schema

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

Municipal Socrata OpenData portals to query: chicago (data.cityofchicago.org), la (data.lacity.org), austin (data.austintexas.gov), nyc (data.cityofnewyork.us).

## `minValuation` (type: `integer`):

Filter permits with reported valuation/cost at or above this USD amount.

## `maxItems` (type: `integer`):

Maximum number of permit records to return across selected cities.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "cities": [
    "chicago",
    "austin",
    "la",
    "nyc"
  ],
  "minValuation": 25000,
  "maxItems": 15
}
```

# 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("lumenfetch/us-municipal-building-permits-socrata-api").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("lumenfetch/us-municipal-building-permits-socrata-api").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 lumenfetch/us-municipal-building-permits-socrata-api --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,lumenfetch/us-municipal-building-permits-socrata-api"
        }
    }
}
```

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/XhQrc9bt33RBLEj0G/builds/K2zP6wMLDJprCZg8e/openapi.json