# Harris County Court Records — Official Dataset Importer (`muhammadafzal/harris-county-court-records`) Actor

Import public Harris County District Clerk bulk court datasets. Use for civil and criminal filing monitoring; not interactive record searches, CAPTCHA flows, or document downloads.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/muhammadafzal/harris-county-court-records.md
- **Developed by:** [Muhammad Afzal](https://apify.com/muhammadafzal) (community)
- **Categories:** Automation, Developer tools
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $1.00 / 1,000 official court records

This Actor is paid per event and usage. You are charged both the fixed price for specific events and for Apify platform usage.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/platform/actors/running/actors-in-store#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

Actors are a software tools running on the Apify platform, for all kinds of web data extraction and automation use cases.
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.
Actors are written with capital "A".

## 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.
The best way to integrate Actors is as follows.

In JavaScript/TypeScript projects, use official [JavaScript/TypeScript client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md):

```bash
npm install apify-client
```

In Python projects, use official [Python client library](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md):

```bash
pip install apify-client
```

In shell scripts, use [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md):

````bash
# MacOS / Linux
curl -fsSL https://apify.com/install-cli.sh | bash
# Windows
irm https://apify.com/install-cli.ps1 | iex
```bash

In AI frameworks, you might use the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/mcp.md).

If your project is in a different language, use the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md).

For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below.

For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt).


# README

## Harris County Court Records — Official Dataset Importer

Import public bulk court datasets published by the Harris County District Clerk into an Apify dataset. Use it for lawful, repeatable civil and criminal filing monitoring, reporting, and research workflows.

This actor deliberately uses the District Clerk's public dataset directory rather than automating the interactive record-search application. The District Clerk asks commercial customers using data-scraping scripts to use its public datasets to avoid congestion. It does not authenticate, solve CAPTCHAs, search by person or case number, access sealed information, or download court documents.

### When to use it

Use this actor when you need the newest official bulk feed for criminal filings, criminal dispositions, civil case summaries, civil parties, or civil filings. It is useful for legal operations teams monitoring daily activity, journalists building source-attributable datasets, and data teams loading official exports into a warehouse.

Do not use it for background checks, employment, housing, insurance, credit, or other high-impact decisions about people. Do not use it to seek confidential, sealed, juvenile, or account-protected records. This actor does not provide legal advice.

### Input

`datasetFamilies` chooses official source families. The default is `criminalFilings`. `maxItems` caps saved rows and therefore costs; begin with 25. Leave `sourceDate` blank for the newest listed data file, or pass a date currently shown in the official directory. Keep `includeHistorical` disabled unless you intentionally need older, weekly, or monthly source files.

```json
{ "datasetFamilies": ["criminalFilings"], "maxItems": 25 }
````

### Output

One dataset item is emitted per source row. `sourceDataset` and `sourceUrl` preserve provenance. `fields` contains header-normalized columns from the official file, because column layouts vary by dataset family.

```json
{
  "sourceDataset": "CrimFilingsDaily_withHeadings.txt",
  "sourceDate": "2026-07-21",
  "recordType": "criminalFilings",
  "fields": { "case_number": "…" },
  "sourceUrl": "https://www.hcdistrictclerk.com/…",
  "scrapedAt": "2026-07-22T00:00:00.000Z"
}
```

### Pricing

The actor charges $0.00005 when a run starts and $0.001 for each saved official source row. `maxItems` is a hard cap, so a 100-row run has a maximum record-event cost of $0.10 plus the start event. Apify usage-based compute and proxy billing also applies where enabled.

### Responsible use

Court records can be sensitive and may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrectly indexed at the source. Retain only data you are authorized to hold, follow applicable law and source conditions, validate before acting, and do not attempt to use this actor to bypass any access control.

# Actor input Schema

## `datasetFamilies` (type: `array`):

Official District Clerk bulk-data families to import. Enter only 'civilCaseSummary', 'civilParties', 'civilFilings', 'criminalFilings', or 'criminalDispositions'. Defaults to the current criminal-filings file. This is NOT a case-number, party-name, attorney-name, or document search.

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

Hard cap on rows written to the Apify dataset. Enter an integer such as 25 for a small validation run. Defaults to 100 and cannot exceed 100000. This is NOT a source-portal page-size setting.

## `sourceDate` (type: `string`):

Optional date of a file currently listed by the District Clerk, formatted YYYY-MM-DD such as '2026-07-21'. Leave blank to import the newest listed file for each family. The value must match the public listing exactly. This is NOT a court filing-date filter.

## `includeHistorical` (type: `boolean`):

Whether the importer may select historical, weekly, or monthly bulk files when they are listed. Use false for the newest daily feed and predictable runs. Defaults to false. This does NOT permit access to the interactive court-record search system.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "datasetFamilies": [
    "criminalFilings"
  ],
  "maxItems": 25,
  "sourceDate": "",
  "includeHistorical": false
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (type: `string`):

Dataset containing imported official court-record rows.

## `summary` (type: `string`):

Dataset source and final record-count summary.

# 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 = {
    "datasetFamilies": [
        "criminalFilings"
    ],
    "maxItems": 25,
    "sourceDate": "",
    "includeHistorical": false
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("muhammadafzal/harris-county-court-records").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 = {
    "datasetFamilies": ["criminalFilings"],
    "maxItems": 25,
    "sourceDate": "",
    "includeHistorical": False,
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("muhammadafzal/harris-county-court-records").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print("💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/" + run["defaultDatasetId"])
for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "datasetFamilies": [
    "criminalFilings"
  ],
  "maxItems": 25,
  "sourceDate": "",
  "includeHistorical": false
}' |
apify call muhammadafzal/harris-county-court-records --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": [
                "mcp-remote",
                "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=muhammadafzal/harris-county-court-records",
                "--header",
                "Authorization: Bearer <YOUR_API_TOKEN>"
            ]
        }
    }
}

```

## OpenAPI specification

```json
{
    "openapi": "3.0.1",
    "info": {
        "title": "Harris County Court Records — Official Dataset Importer",
        "description": "Import public Harris County District Clerk bulk court datasets. Use for civil and criminal filing monitoring; not interactive record searches, CAPTCHA flows, or document downloads.",
        "version": "1.0",
        "x-build-id": "RcTo8hZz7TV8c9YH0"
    },
    "servers": [
        {
            "url": "https://api.apify.com/v2"
        }
    ],
    "paths": {
        "/acts/muhammadafzal~harris-county-court-records/run-sync-get-dataset-items": {
            "post": {
                "operationId": "run-sync-get-dataset-items-muhammadafzal-harris-county-court-records",
                "x-openai-isConsequential": false,
                "summary": "Executes an Actor, waits for its completion, and returns Actor's dataset items in response.",
                "tags": [
                    "Run Actor"
                ],
                "requestBody": {
                    "required": true,
                    "content": {
                        "application/json": {
                            "schema": {
                                "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema"
                            }
                        }
                    }
                },
                "parameters": [
                    {
                        "name": "token",
                        "in": "query",
                        "required": true,
                        "schema": {
                            "type": "string"
                        },
                        "description": "Enter your Apify token here"
                    }
                ],
                "responses": {
                    "200": {
                        "description": "OK"
                    }
                }
            }
        },
        "/acts/muhammadafzal~harris-county-court-records/runs": {
            "post": {
                "operationId": "runs-sync-muhammadafzal-harris-county-court-records",
                "x-openai-isConsequential": false,
                "summary": "Executes an Actor and returns information about the initiated run in response.",
                "tags": [
                    "Run Actor"
                ],
                "requestBody": {
                    "required": true,
                    "content": {
                        "application/json": {
                            "schema": {
                                "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema"
                            }
                        }
                    }
                },
                "parameters": [
                    {
                        "name": "token",
                        "in": "query",
                        "required": true,
                        "schema": {
                            "type": "string"
                        },
                        "description": "Enter your Apify token here"
                    }
                ],
                "responses": {
                    "200": {
                        "description": "OK",
                        "content": {
                            "application/json": {
                                "schema": {
                                    "$ref": "#/components/schemas/runsResponseSchema"
                                }
                            }
                        }
                    }
                }
            }
        },
        "/acts/muhammadafzal~harris-county-court-records/run-sync": {
            "post": {
                "operationId": "run-sync-muhammadafzal-harris-county-court-records",
                "x-openai-isConsequential": false,
                "summary": "Executes an Actor, waits for completion, and returns the OUTPUT from Key-value store in response.",
                "tags": [
                    "Run Actor"
                ],
                "requestBody": {
                    "required": true,
                    "content": {
                        "application/json": {
                            "schema": {
                                "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema"
                            }
                        }
                    }
                },
                "parameters": [
                    {
                        "name": "token",
                        "in": "query",
                        "required": true,
                        "schema": {
                            "type": "string"
                        },
                        "description": "Enter your Apify token here"
                    }
                ],
                "responses": {
                    "200": {
                        "description": "OK"
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    },
    "components": {
        "schemas": {
            "inputSchema": {
                "type": "object",
                "properties": {
                    "datasetFamilies": {
                        "title": "Official dataset families",
                        "type": "array",
                        "description": "Official District Clerk bulk-data families to import. Enter only 'civilCaseSummary', 'civilParties', 'civilFilings', 'criminalFilings', or 'criminalDispositions'. Defaults to the current criminal-filings file. This is NOT a case-number, party-name, attorney-name, or document search.",
                        "items": {
                            "type": "string"
                        },
                        "default": [
                            "criminalFilings"
                        ]
                    },
                    "maxItems": {
                        "title": "Maximum records",
                        "minimum": 1,
                        "maximum": 100000,
                        "type": "integer",
                        "description": "Hard cap on rows written to the Apify dataset. Enter an integer such as 25 for a small validation run. Defaults to 100 and cannot exceed 100000. This is NOT a source-portal page-size setting.",
                        "default": 100
                    },
                    "sourceDate": {
                        "title": "Exact source date (optional)",
                        "type": "string",
                        "description": "Optional date of a file currently listed by the District Clerk, formatted YYYY-MM-DD such as '2026-07-21'. Leave blank to import the newest listed file for each family. The value must match the public listing exactly. This is NOT a court filing-date filter.",
                        "default": ""
                    },
                    "includeHistorical": {
                        "title": "Include historical, weekly, or monthly files",
                        "type": "boolean",
                        "description": "Whether the importer may select historical, weekly, or monthly bulk files when they are listed. Use false for the newest daily feed and predictable runs. Defaults to false. This does NOT permit access to the interactive court-record search system.",
                        "default": false
                    }
                }
            },
            "runsResponseSchema": {
                "type": "object",
                "properties": {
                    "data": {
                        "type": "object",
                        "properties": {
                            "id": {
                                "type": "string"
                            },
                            "actId": {
                                "type": "string"
                            },
                            "userId": {
                                "type": "string"
                            },
                            "startedAt": {
                                "type": "string",
                                "format": "date-time",
                                "example": "2025-01-08T00:00:00.000Z"
                            },
                            "finishedAt": {
                                "type": "string",
                                "format": "date-time",
                                "example": "2025-01-08T00:00:00.000Z"
                            },
                            "status": {
                                "type": "string",
                                "example": "READY"
                            },
                            "meta": {
                                "type": "object",
                                "properties": {
                                    "origin": {
                                        "type": "string",
                                        "example": "API"
                                    },
                                    "userAgent": {
                                        "type": "string"
                                    }
                                }
                            },
                            "stats": {
                                "type": "object",
                                "properties": {
                                    "inputBodyLen": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 2000
                                    },
                                    "rebootCount": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "restartCount": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "resurrectCount": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "computeUnits": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    }
                                }
                            },
                            "options": {
                                "type": "object",
                                "properties": {
                                    "build": {
                                        "type": "string",
                                        "example": "latest"
                                    },
                                    "timeoutSecs": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 300
                                    },
                                    "memoryMbytes": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 1024
                                    },
                                    "diskMbytes": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 2048
                                    }
                                }
                            },
                            "buildId": {
                                "type": "string"
                            },
                            "defaultKeyValueStoreId": {
                                "type": "string"
                            },
                            "defaultDatasetId": {
                                "type": "string"
                            },
                            "defaultRequestQueueId": {
                                "type": "string"
                            },
                            "buildNumber": {
                                "type": "string",
                                "example": "1.0.0"
                            },
                            "containerUrl": {
                                "type": "string"
                            },
                            "usage": {
                                "type": "object",
                                "properties": {
                                    "ACTOR_COMPUTE_UNITS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "DATASET_READS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "DATASET_WRITES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "KEY_VALUE_STORE_READS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "KEY_VALUE_STORE_WRITES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 1
                                    },
                                    "KEY_VALUE_STORE_LISTS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "REQUEST_QUEUE_READS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "REQUEST_QUEUE_WRITES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "DATA_TRANSFER_INTERNAL_GBYTES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "DATA_TRANSFER_EXTERNAL_GBYTES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "PROXY_RESIDENTIAL_TRANSFER_GBYTES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "PROXY_SERPS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    }
                                }
                            },
                            "usageTotalUsd": {
                                "type": "number",
                                "example": 0.00005
                            },
                            "usageUsd": {
                                "type": "object",
                                "properties": {
                                    "ACTOR_COMPUTE_UNITS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "DATASET_READS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "DATASET_WRITES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "KEY_VALUE_STORE_READS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "KEY_VALUE_STORE_WRITES": {
                                        "type": "number",
                                        "example": 0.00005
                                    },
                                    "KEY_VALUE_STORE_LISTS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "REQUEST_QUEUE_READS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "REQUEST_QUEUE_WRITES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "DATA_TRANSFER_INTERNAL_GBYTES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "DATA_TRANSFER_EXTERNAL_GBYTES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "PROXY_RESIDENTIAL_TRANSFER_GBYTES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "PROXY_SERPS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    }
                                }
                            }
                        }
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    }
}
```