# Job Link Checker — Is the Job Still Open? Closed & Expired Jobs (`northbell/job-link-checker`) Actor

Check job links and get open, closed or unknown for each, with the evidence: the ATS API (Greenhouse, Lever, Ashby, Workday and 5 more), LinkedIn, or the page (404, expired, "no longer accepting"). Re-run daily: only links whose status changed. No login.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/northbell/job-link-checker.md
- **Developed by:** [Northbell](https://apify.com/northbell) (community)
- **Categories:** Jobs, Developer tools
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $0.80 / 1,000 link checkeds

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.
Since this Actor supports Apify Store discounts, the price gets lower the higher subscription plan you have.

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

## Job Link Checker — Is the Job Still Open?

**You have a list of job links — on your job board, in a spreadsheet, in yesterday's scraper run — and some of them closed since.** Give this Actor the links and get back, for each one, **open**, **closed** or **unknown**, with how it was decided and the evidence quoted. Run it again tomorrow on the same list and get only the links whose status changed (every link is still checked and charged, so the saving is in rows to handle, not in cost). No login.

**$1 per 1,000 links checked**, plus $0.01 per run.

### How each link is checked

The strongest check available is used, and named in `how`:

| `how` | links | closed when |
|---|---|---|
| `ats` | Greenhouse, Lever, Ashby, Workday, SmartRecruiters, Workable, Recruitee, Personio, Breezy — also Greenhouse jobs shown on a company's own domain (`?gh_jid=`) | the ATS's public API has no such open job. Greenhouse, Lever, SmartRecruiters and Workday answer per job; for the others the job is looked up among **all** of the board's open roles, read once per run |
| `linkedin` | `linkedin.com/jobs/view/…` | the public job page is gone (404) or says *No longer accepting applications* |
| `page` | any other job page | the page answers 404 or 410; its JobPosting data has a `validThrough` in the past; it says the job is closed (English, German, French, Dutch, Spanish wording); or the job page sends you to the site's front page or job list |

**`unknown` is an answer, not a guess.** A page with none of those signals, a site that refuses automated readers, or a request that fails comes back `unknown` with the reason. A page that carries JobPosting data and no closed signal is `open`.

**Measured on 11 October 2026 on 163 job links that our own scrapers collected 6 to 11 days earlier: 23 had closed, none came back unknown.** Workday 14 of 40 closed in 11 days (we searched the board for two of them by requisition number: not there), Greenhouse 5 of 40, Lever 3 of 40, LinkedIn 1 of 43.

### Run it again and again

- **On a schedule** — save your input as a task and add a **Schedule**: the same list of links every morning, or right after your job scraper's scheduled run. Send each run to Google Sheets, Slack or email with an integration on the task.
- **Watch for changes** — Turn on **Return only links whose status changed**: from the second run you receive only the jobs that closed (or reopened) since the last check, each with the evidence.
- **In bulk** — Put every link in **Job links**, or pick every scraper run in **Datasets from your job scraper runs**: up to 20,000 links in one run.

### What you get

One row per link:

| field | |
|---|---|
| `status` | `open`, `closed` or `unknown` |
| `how`, `reason` | e.g. `ats` / `not-on-board`, `page` / `expired`, `linkedin` / `closed-notice`, `page` / `http-404` |
| `evidence` | what the decision rests on, quoted: the API answer, the closed sentence from the page, the `validThrough` date |
| `previousStatus`, `statusChanged`, `statusSince` | the last check of this link, whether the status changed, and since when the current status holds |
| `title`, `company` | carried over from your dataset rows |
| `provider`, `board`, `jobId`, `httpStatus`, `finalUrl` | the details behind the check |

### Input

- **Job links** (`urls`): one per line, any mix of sites.
- **Datasets from your job scraper runs** (`datasetIds`): the link is read from `jobUrl`, `url`, `link`, `applyUrl` and similar fields on each row.
- Up to 20,000 links per run. The same link given twice is checked once.

### Pricing

**$1 per 1,000 links checked**, plus $0.01 per run. With **Return only links whose status changed** on, every link is still checked (and charged), but you only receive the ones that changed. If a run reaches your **Maximum total charge**, it stops there and remembers the links it checked; the others keep their earlier result until the next run.

### For AI agents

Call with `{"urls": ["<job link>", "..."]}`. Each row has `type: "link"`, `status` (`open` / `closed` / `unknown`) and `evidence` as text.

### Related

Score the jobs that are still open for staleness and reposting: [Ghost Job Detector](https://apify.com/northbell/ghost-job-detector).
Every open role of a company, from its website: [Careers Page Jobs Scraper](https://apify.com/northbell/careers-page-jobs-scraper).
LinkedIn jobs with applicant counts: [LinkedIn Jobs Scraper with Applicant Counts](https://apify.com/northbell/linkedin-jobs-applicants-scraper).

# Actor input Schema

## `urls` (type: `array`):

One job link per line, from any site: Greenhouse, Lever, Ashby, Workday, SmartRecruiters, Workable, Recruitee, Personio, Breezy, LinkedIn, or a company careers page. Up to 20,000 per run, together with the datasets below.

## `datasetIds` (type: `array`):

Datasets of earlier runs of any job scraper: pick them here, or pass their IDs (defaultDatasetId) through the API. The Actor gets read access to the datasets you pick and nothing else. The link is read from jobUrl, url, link, applyUrl (and similar) on each row; title and company are carried over. Summary and error rows are skipped.

## `onlyChanged` (type: `boolean`):

For a daily check of the same list: from the second run, return only the links that went from open to closed (or back) since the last check. The first run returns every link. Every link checked is still charged.

## `remember` (type: `boolean`):

Keep each link's last status in your account (a key-value store named job-link-checker-history), so each row says the previous status and since when the current one holds. Links not checked for 90 days are forgotten.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "urls": [
    "https://boards.greenhouse.io/cloudflare/jobs/5390243",
    "https://stripe.com/jobs/search?gh_jid=5416444",
    "https://jobs.lever.co/spotify/2193db3f-77c5-43b8-b030-8f92c9882bf1",
    "https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/3000000001/"
  ],
  "onlyChanged": false,
  "remember": true
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `links` (type: `string`):

Each link with its status and evidence.

# 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 = {
    "urls": [
        "https://boards.greenhouse.io/cloudflare/jobs/5390243",
        "https://stripe.com/jobs/search?gh_jid=5416444",
        "https://jobs.lever.co/spotify/2193db3f-77c5-43b8-b030-8f92c9882bf1",
        "https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/3000000001/"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("northbell/job-link-checker").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 = { "urls": [
        "https://boards.greenhouse.io/cloudflare/jobs/5390243",
        "https://stripe.com/jobs/search?gh_jid=5416444",
        "https://jobs.lever.co/spotify/2193db3f-77c5-43b8-b030-8f92c9882bf1",
        "https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/3000000001/",
    ] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("northbell/job-link-checker").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 '{
  "urls": [
    "https://boards.greenhouse.io/cloudflare/jobs/5390243",
    "https://stripe.com/jobs/search?gh_jid=5416444",
    "https://jobs.lever.co/spotify/2193db3f-77c5-43b8-b030-8f92c9882bf1",
    "https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/3000000001/"
  ]
}' |
apify call northbell/job-link-checker --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,northbell/job-link-checker"
        }
    }
}
```

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/A9cY3l5MtiFgBWX5z/builds/dCMTfGWwaPT3zTskc/openapi.json