CourtListener RSS Scraper

Scrape public CourtListener RSS and Atom feeds into a clean Apify dataset for legal-research monitoring, docket updates, citation alerts, and case-law discovery.

What it extracts

Each item includes its stable feed ID, title, item URL, publication/update timestamps, author, summary, optional feed content, categories, feed metadata, and scrape timestamp. The Actor reads the feed itself; it does not fetch full opinions, PACER documents, or authenticated alerts.

Inputs

Use one or more of these modes:

{
  "feedUrls": ["https://www.courtlistener.com/feed/court/all/"],
  "searchQueries": ["privacy"],
  "docketIds": ["4112546"],
  "maxResults": 100,
  "includeContent": true
}

CourtListener documents search feeds at /feed/search/?q=..., docket feeds at /docket/{docket-id}/feed/, and jurisdiction opinion feeds under /feed/court/. Direct feedUrls are recommended when you already have a feed-reader URL.

Output

{
  "itemId": "tag:courtlistener.com,2026:opinion/1",
  "title": "Example v. State",
  "url": "https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/1/example-v-state/",
  "publishedAt": "2026-08-21T00:00:00Z",
  "updatedAt": "2026-08-21T00:00:00Z",
  "author": "CourtListener",
  "summary": "A summary.",
  "content": null,
  "categories": ["Supreme Court"],
  "feedTitle": "All case law",
  "feedUrl": "https://www.courtlistener.com/feed/court/all/",
  "feedType": "atom",
  "scrapedAt": "2026-08-21T00:00:00.000Z"
}

Pricing and limits

The Actor uses Pay per event: one small start event plus one event per unique dataset item. At the default result price, 100 items cost about $0.10005 before any account-level platform details. maxResults is capped at 5,000 and the Actor makes at most 50 feed requests per run.

Reliability and compliance

Requests use CourtListener’s public feed endpoints with bounded retries and a descriptive user agent. Failed feeds are recorded in OUTPUT; valid feeds continue. An empty feed is reported as an empty result, not as fabricated data. Respect CourtListener’s terms, robots/access policies, feed maintenance constraints, and applicable legal requirements. Do not use this Actor to bypass authentication, rate limits, or access controls.

Use cases

• Schedule repeatable collection and export results to downstream workflows.
• Run a one-off research job and export the structured result as JSON, CSV, Excel, XML, or RSS from Apify.
• Schedule the same input to monitor changes over time and send completed datasets to a webhook or integration.
• Feed schema-shaped records into a database, spreadsheet, BI tool, or AI workflow with the source URL retained for verification.

Run CourtListener RSS Scraper with the Apify API

import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

const client = new ApifyClient({ token: process.env.APIFY_TOKEN });
const run = await client.actor('muhammadafzal/courtlistener-rss-scraper').call({
  "feedUrls": [],
  "searchQueries": [],
  "docketIds": [],
  "jurisdictionUrls": [],
  "maxResults": 100,
  "includeContent": true,
  "maxRequestRetries": 2
});
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
console.log(items);

You can also run the Actor from Apify Console, schedules, webhooks, the REST API, Make, Zapier, n8n, or the hosted Apify MCP server.

Support

When reporting a problem, include the Actor run ID, a redacted input, the expected result, and a small public example URL when applicable. Do not post API tokens, cookies, credentials, or personal data in an issue.

Frequently asked questions

Can I schedule CourtListener RSS Scraper?

Yes. Use an Apify schedule to run the same saved input at a chosen interval, then connect a webhook or integration to process the dataset when the run finishes.

How should I test a new input?

Begin with the prefilled example or a small limit. Confirm that the output fields, source coverage, runtime, and live charges match your workflow before increasing the scope.

How do I export the results?

Open the run's default dataset in Apify Console and export JSON, CSV, Excel, XML, or RSS. Applications can retrieve the same records through the Apify API client or REST dataset endpoint.

Can an AI agent call this Actor?

Yes. Add muhammadafzal/courtlistener-rss-scraper through the hosted Apify MCP server or call it through the API. The Actor's input and dataset schemas help agents construct valid requests and interpret returned records.

Recommended workflow

1. Define the smallest useful scope. Choose a representative public URL, query, identifier, or filter and keep the first result limit low.
2. Run and inspect. Check the run log, dataset item count, field coverage, source URLs, and live event or usage charges.
3. Validate downstream assumptions. Confirm nullable fields, deduplication keys, timestamps, and any locale-specific formats before importing records into another system.
4. Scale gradually. Increase limits or scheduling frequency only after the small run behaves as expected. Use Apify's maximum-cost and timeout controls to bound large jobs.
5. Monitor changes. Keep a small known-good input as a canary. If the source layout or API changes, compare the new dataset with a previously validated run and report the run ID when requesting support.

For recurring workflows, store the exact Actor input with your pipeline configuration. This makes runs reproducible and helps distinguish a source-data change from an input change.