African Economic Stress Monitor — API (Standby)

A lightweight HTTP API that serves the latest ../african-economic-stress-monitor snapshots as JSON — built to sit behind RapidAPI.

This actor runs in Apify Standby mode (a persistent HTTP server). It runs no scrapers: it reads the snapshots that the producer actor writes to a shared key-value store and returns them instantly.

Two-actor architecture

Actor A  (producer)                         shared named KVS                Actor B  (this actor)
 african-economic-stress-monitor   ── writes ──▶  "stress-monitor-state"  ── reads ──▶  …-api  (Standby HTTP)
 • scrapes + scores, on a SCHEDULE                └ LAST_RUN { savedAt,                 • serves JSON
 • pay-per-event on the Apify Store                  byCountry: {…} }                    • RapidAPI proxies here

• A is unchanged — it keeps producing the snapshots (and is sold per-event on the Apify Store).
• B (this actor) only reads A's latest output and serves it over HTTP — fast and cheap, decoupled from request volume.
• They share a versioned schema contract (src/_contract/README.md): A is the single source of truth; B vendors A's Snapshot schema and a test pins the schema version so the two can't silently diverge.

Endpoints

Method · Path	Returns
GET /crisis-scan	All 11 covered countries, ranked most-stressed first, each a full snapshot
GET /country/{code}	One country (ISO alpha-2, e.g. /country/GH); also /country?code=GH
GET /health	Readiness + freshness of the underlying snapshot

Every payload carries a freshness envelope — { schemaVersion, generatedAt, ageSeconds, delayed: true } — so consumers always see how delayed the data is. Before the producer has ever run, the data endpoints return 503 warming_up.

A machine-readable OpenAPI 3.0 spec for these endpoints (modelled from the Snapshot contract, with a real example response) lives in openapi.yaml — use it to create the RapidAPI listing.

Example — GET /country/GH

{
  "schemaVersion": 8,
  "generatedAt": "2026-06-07T11:00:00.000Z",
  "ageSeconds": 3600,
  "delayed": true,
  "country": { /* the full schema-8 Snapshot: verdict, stressScore, signals,
                  vulnerabilityScore, vulnerabilitySignals, attributed details, … */ }
}

Configuration

Env var

Purpose

RAPIDAPI_PROXY_SECRET

The X-RapidAPI-Proxy-Secret value from your RapidAPI Provider Dashboard (Security/Gateway). When set, B rejects any request that doesn't carry it — so nobody can bypass RapidAPI and hit this endpoint directly. If unset, the API is OPEN (handy for testing; the actor logs a loud warning). Set it before publishing the listing. Wired via the CLI: apify secrets add rapidapi-proxy-secret <value> + the environmentVariables mapping in .actor/actor.json (@rapidapi-proxy-secret), then apify push — or set it in Console → Settings → Environment variables.

Operational notes

• This actor needs Full permissions (Console → Settings → Actor permissions). It reads a named key-value store created by Actor A, and Apify's default Limited permissions cannot access another actor's named storage — without it every data request fails and the endpoints return 503 (the log explains the fix). Change the setting, then restart the Standby run so it picks up a full-scope token.
• Actor A must run on a schedule. B only serves what A last wrote, so set an Apify Schedule on A (e.g. daily) to keep LAST_RUN fresh. The data is delayed by design, so a cached snapshot is the correct model. B reports ageSeconds so a stalled schedule is visible.
• B caches the snapshot in memory for 60s, so it serves instantly without reading the KVS on every request.
• Not investment advice; delayed data. Each signal in a snapshot carries its own source attribution and license note (World Bank CC-BY, IMF, national statistics offices / central banks). See Actor A's README for source legality.

Develop

npm install
npm run sync-contract   # re-vendor A's Snapshot schema (run after A's schema changes)
npm run build
npm test                # serve logic, auth guard, and the contract drift pin