Federal Court Docket Monitor — New Filings via PACER RSS

What it does

Every federal district and bankruptcy court running CM/ECF publishes a free, public RSS feed of its docket activity from the last 24 hours: case number, case title (the parties), the docket entry text, the document number with a link, and the filing time. This Actor reads those feeds for the courts you pick, normalizes every entry into the same JSON shape, filters them by party name, case number, case type, entry type, keyword or bankruptcy chapter, and in monitor mode flags only what is new since your last run. You get new complaints naming a company, new Chapter 11 petitions in Delaware or the Southern District of New York, every motion and order in a case you are watching, or a district's whole day of filings, within an hour of docketing and without a PACER account.

It is built for litigation-intelligence and legal-marketing teams, journalists, insurers, lenders, credit and compliance teams, and AI agents that need federal docket activity as structured data. Results land in an Apify dataset you can download as JSON, CSV or Excel, read over the API, push to a webhook, or query from an agent through the Apify MCP server.

The feeds are the courts' own public endpoints (https://ecf.<court>.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/rss_outside.pl). No login, no PACER fees, no proxies, no browser. Documents are linked, never downloaded.

How to use

1. Enter the Courts to watch: CM/ECF codes such as nysd (S.D.N.Y.), deb (Bankr. D. Del.), txwd, or all, all-district, all-bankruptcy, or a state code like NY. The coverage table below lists all 188 courts.
2. Optionally narrow with Party / case title keywords (company or person names), Case numbers, Case types, Entry types, Entry text keywords, Bankruptcy chapters or New cases only. With no filter you get every entry in the feed, newest first.
3. Click Start, or save the input as a Schedule (hourly works well) with Only new since last run on and a Webhook URL to get alerts.

Input

Field	Type	Required	Description
courts	string[]	yes	CM/ECF court codes (nysd, deb, txsb …), all, all-district, all-bankruptcy, or two-letter state codes. Explicitly named courts are always tried; the all and state aliases expand to courts whose feed was live at the last sweep
partyKeywords	string[]	no	Keep entries whose case title contains any of these (case-insensitive substring, or /regex/flags)
caseNumbers	string[]	no	Keep entries in these cases; 1:26-cv-03810, 26-cv-3810 and 26-11511 all work
caseTypes	string[]	no	civil, criminal, bankruptcy, adversary, multidistrict, other
entryTypes	string[]	no	complaint, petition, answer, motion, order, judgment, notice, appeal, discovery, hearing, plan, claim, brief, other (heuristic, see FAQ)
entryKeywords	string[]	no	Keep entries whose docket text contains any of these (substring or /regex/)
bankruptcyChapters	string[]	no	7, 9, 11, 12, 13, 15
newCasesOnly	boolean	no	Keep only document number 1 of a case (complaint, petition, indictment, notice of removal)
maxEntriesPerCourt	integer	no	Cap per court per run, newest first, after filtering (default 5000)
maxResults	integer	no	Cap across all courts per run (default 100000)
onlyNewSinceLastRun	boolean	no	Monitor mode: emit only entries not seen in a previous run, flagged isNew (default false)
stateStoreName	string	no	Named key-value store holding the seen-entry memory (default federal-court-docket-monitor-state)
webhookUrl	string	no	POST target for the run summary, emitted entries (max 1,000) and error items
notifyOnlyOnResults	boolean	no	Call the webhook only when something was produced (default true)

Filter groups are combined with AND; values inside a group with OR. partyKeywords: ["Acme"] with entryTypes: ["complaint"] and newCasesOnly: true means "a new case was opened against or by Acme".

Output example

One dataset item per docket entry:

{
  "recordType": "docket-entry",
  "entryId": "nysd:663583:517",
  "entryKey": "nysd:663583:517#5f1c0d3a",
  "court": "nysd",
  "courtName": "U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York",
  "courtType": "district",
  "state": "NY",
  "caseNumber": "1:26-cv-03810",
  "caseNumberShort": "26-cv-3810",
  "caseTitle": "First-Citizens Bank & Trust Company v. Patriot Bank, N.A.",
  "caseType": "civil",
  "caseTypeCode": "cv",
  "defendantNumber": null,
  "judgeInitials": null,
  "bankruptcyChapter": null,
  "trustee": null,
  "office": null,
  "entryText": "Certificate of Service Other",
  "entryCategory": "notice",
  "documentNumber": 153,
  "documentUrl": "https://ecf.nysd.uscourts.gov/doc1/127140563915?caseid=663583&de_seq_num=517",
  "docketUrl": "https://ecf.nysd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/DktRpt.pl?663583",
  "caseId": "663583",
  "entrySequence": 517,
  "guid": "https://ecf.nysd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/DktRpt.pl?663583&517",
  "filedAt": "2026-10-17T07:34:33.000Z",
  "pubDateRaw": "Sat, 17 Oct 2026 07:34:33 GMT",
  "likelyNewCase": false,
  "matchedFilters": ["party:Patriot Bank"],
  "isNew": true,
  "fetchedAt": "2026-10-17T10:22:00.283Z"
}

Bankruptcy entries additionally carry what the court publishes in front of the entry text: bankruptcyChapter (7, 9, 11, 12, 13 or 15), trustee and office; adversary proceedings have caseType: "adversary". matchedFilters is present only when filters are set, isNew only in monitor mode. documentUrl opens the document on PACER (PACER's own fees apply there); docketUrl opens the case docket. filedAt is null when a court publishes an impossible timestamp (a few do); pubDateRaw keeps the original string.

Error items look like { "recordType": "error", "court": "cacd", "error": "HTTP_503", "errorMessage": "…", "feedUrl": "…" } with codes UNKNOWN_COURT, FEED_UNREACHABLE, HTTP_<status>, FEED_EMPTY, FEED_MALFORMED or COURT_FAILED. They are charged at the court-feed rate, because the request was made; the run itself succeeds.

The run's SUMMARY record (default key-value store) lists, per court, the HTTP status, the entry types the feed advertises, entries in the feed, new/seen/matched/emitted counts and any error.

Pricing

Pay per event. You only pay for what the Actor produces; set a maximum cost per run in the run options to cap spend.

Event	Price	Notes
Court feed checked	$0.005	Per court feed fetched per run, whether or not anything matched; error items for failing courts are charged at this rate instead
Docket entry scraped	$0.001	Per docket entry saved when no filter is set
Matching filing found	$0.003	Per docket entry saved when filters are set; charged instead of the docket-entry event
Actor start	$0.00005	Apify platform event

Examples: 1,000 unfiltered entries from one court ≈ $1.005. Watching 20 courts every hour for new filings naming your clients, with about 30 matches a day ≈ 20 × 24 × $0.005 + 30 × $0.003 ≈ $2.49/day. In monitor mode the first run is a baseline and is charged for every entry it emits; later runs charge only new entries.

Limits and fair use

• Each feed covers the trailing 24 hours only. Schedule the Actor at least daily to miss nothing; hourly is a good default (the courts regenerate feeds every 30–60 minutes). Requests more often than every 15 minutes are discouraged.
• One request per court per run, 20 s timeout, one retry on 429/5xx. Five courts are fetched in parallel; a run over all live courts takes about a minute plus up to 45 s for each court that does not answer.
• Coverage differs per court: 94 courts publish every entry type, 41 publish a subset (typically complaints, motions and orders), 23 answer with no entries and 30 do not answer datacenter requests (mostly California, Oklahoma, Nevada, Minnesota and Missouri). The table below is from the sweep of 2026-10-17; the Actor still tries every court you name and reports what happened.
• Nature of suit, party lists, judges and the full docket text are not in the feeds. The case title carries the lead parties ("Smith v. Acme Corp et al"), so a party that is not first-named may be missing; the docket link has the rest.
• entryTypes is a heuristic over the entry text (courts label the same event differently); for precision use entryKeywords.
• The seen-entry memory keeps 72 hours per court (up to 30,000 entries), enough because a feed never carries anything older than a day.
• Memory: a run over all courts fits in 512 MB.

Court coverage (sweep of 2026-10-17)

Live feeds: 135 of 188 (94 full, 41 partial); 23 answer with no entries; 30 unreachable from datacenter IPs. Entries in the trailing 24 h at probe time: 86,956.

State	District court feeds	Bankruptcy court feeds
AK	akd (unreachable)	akb all
AL	Middle almd all · Northern alnd (no entries) · Southern alsd all	Middle almb answer, appeal, court, motion, order, caseupld, … · Northern alnb (unreachable) · Southern alsb all
AR	Eastern ared order, order-cr, motion · Western arwd all	Eastern areb all · Western arwb all
AZ	azd all	azb all
CA	Central cacd (unreachable) · Eastern caed (unreachable) · Northern cand (unreachable) · Southern casd (unreachable)	Central cacb (unreachable) · Eastern caeb all · Northern canb all · Southern casb all
CO	cod motion, order	cob all
CT	ctd all	ctb (unreachable)
DC	dcd all	dcb all
DE	ded all	deb all
FL	Middle flmd all · Northern flnd (no entries) · Southern flsd all	Middle flmb answer, appeal, court, motion, order, misc, … · Northern flnb all · Southern flsb all
GA	Middle gamd order, order-cr · Northern gand (no entries) · Southern gasd (no entries)	Middle gamb answer, appeal, court, motion, order · Northern ganb (unreachable) · Southern gasb order
GU	gud (no entries)	gub (no entries)
HI	hid cmp, order, order-cr	hib appeal, motion, order, misc
IA	Northern iand motion · Southern iasd all	Northern ianb answer, appeal, court, motion, order · Southern iasb all
ID	idd allx, motion	idb answer, appeal, court, motion, order
IL	Central ilcd all · Northern ilnd order, order-cr, motion, cmp · Southern ilsd motion, order, order-cr, cmp, charge-cr	Central ilcb all · Northern ilnb (unreachable) · Southern ilsb all
IN	Northern innd all · Southern insd adr, answer, appeal, appeal-cr, charge-cr, cmp, …	Northern innb answer, appeal, motion, notice, order, plan · Southern insb all
KS	ksd all	ksb all
KY	Eastern kyed (no entries) · Western kywd all	Eastern kyeb all · Western kywb all
LA	Eastern laed (unreachable) · Middle lamd (unreachable) · Western lawd all	Eastern laeb answer, appeal, court, misc, motion, order · Middle lamb all · Western lawb (unreachable)
MA	mad answer, appeal, appeal-cr, charge-cr, cmp, detention-cr, …	mab answer, appeal, caseupld, claims, cmp, crbatch, …
MD	mdd (no entries)	mdb all
ME	med order, order-cr	meb (no entries)
MI	Eastern mied answer, appeal, appeal-cr, charge-cr, cmp, motion, … · Western miwd order, order-cr, motion	Eastern mieb (unreachable) · Western miwb (no entries)
MN	mnd (unreachable)	mnb (unreachable)
MO	Eastern moed (unreachable) · Western mowd order, order-cr, motion	Eastern moeb all · Western mowb (unreachable)
MP	nmid (no entries)	nmib (no entries)
MS	Northern msnd (no entries) · Southern mssd all	Northern msnb (unreachable) · Southern mssb (unreachable)
MT	mtd all	mtb answer, appeal, court, motion, order
NC	Eastern nced all · Middle ncmd all · Western ncwd all	Eastern nceb (no entries) · Middle ncmb all · Western ncwb answer, appeal, court, motion, order
ND	ndd (no entries)	ndb all
NE	ned (unreachable)	neb all
NH	nhd all	nhb answer, appeal, court, motion, order, auditor, …
NJ	njd all	njb answer, appeal, court, motion, order, misc, …
NM	nmd (no entries)	nmb (unreachable)
NV	nvd (unreachable)	nvb (unreachable)
NY	Eastern nyed (no entries) · Northern nynd cmp, order, order-cr, motion · Southern nysd adr, answer, appeal, appeal-cr, charge-cr, cmp, … · Western nywd (no entries)	Eastern nyeb all · Northern nynb all · Southern nysb all · Western nywb answer, appeal, court, motion, order, misc, …
OH	Northern ohnd cmp, order, order_cr, motion, charge_cr · Southern ohsd all	Northern ohnb all · Southern ohsb all
OK	Eastern oked (unreachable) · Northern oknd (no entries) · Western okwd (unreachable)	Eastern okeb (unreachable) · Northern oknb (unreachable) · Western okwb (unreachable)
OR	ord all	orb answer, appeal, court, motion, order, trustee, …
PA	Eastern paed all · Middle pamd (no entries) · Western pawd order, order-cr, motion, cmp	Eastern paeb all · Middle pamb all · Western pawb all
PR	prd all	prb all
RI	rid all	rib all
SC	scd all	scb all
SD	sdd all	sdb all
TN	Eastern tned all · Middle tnmd order, order-cr, motion · Western tnwd all	Eastern tneb all · Middle tnmb all · Western tnwb all
TX	Eastern txed all · Northern txnd order, order-cr, charge-cr, cmp, answer · Southern txsd all · Western txwd all	Eastern txeb answer, appeal, auditor, caseupld, claims, cmp, … · Northern txnb all · Southern txsb all · Western txwb all
UT	utd order, order-cr, motion	utb all
VA	Eastern vaed (no entries) · Western vawd all	Eastern vaeb (unreachable) · Western vawb answer, appeal, court, motion, order
VI	vid order, order-cr	vib (no entries)
VT	vtd all	vtb all
WA	Eastern waed all · Western wawd all	Eastern waeb all · Western wawb all
WI	Eastern wied all · Western wiwd all	Eastern wieb answer, appeal, court, misc, motion, order, … · Western wiwb all
WV	Northern wvnd all · Southern wvsd (no entries)	Northern wvnb all · Southern wvsb all
WY	wyd all	wyb all

"all" means the court publishes every docket entry type; a list shows the CM/ECF entry types it publishes; no entries means the endpoint exists but was empty; unreachable means it did not answer from a datacenter IP. Courts in the last two groups are left out of the all and state aliases but can be named explicitly.

Related Actors

Other pay-per-event Actors from the same account, all limited-permission and agent-friendly:

• US Government Grants & Contract Opportunities Feed — the same "new since last run" feed pattern for Grants.gov and SAM.gov.
• US Professional License Lookup & Verification API — verify the licenses of parties and professionals you find in dockets.
• Website Change Monitor — Sitemap & Page Content Diff — watch a court's or a company's website for changes alongside its docket.

FAQ

Does this need proxies, a PACER account or an API key? No. The RSS feeds are public, unauthenticated endpoints that the courts publish for anyone, and they answer datacenter requests (except the courts marked unreachable above). Nothing is downloaded from PACER itself.

How is cost controlled? Set maxEntriesPerCourt, maxResults and the run's maximum total charge. Each entry is charged the moment it is saved and the run stops cleanly when a limit is reached; in monitor mode, entries held back by a cap are emitted on the next run instead of being lost.

How does "only new since last run" work? Per court the Actor remembers the id of every entry it has processed (docket entry plus event label) in the named key-value store. On the next run only unseen entries are emitted, flagged isNew: true. The first run is a baseline. Delete the store, or use a new stateStoreName, to start over.

Can I run it on a schedule or call it from an AI agent? Yes — Apify Schedules with onlyNewSinceLastRun and a webhookUrl is the intended setup, and the Apify MCP server can call it directly. Example prompts: "Which new lawsuits were filed in the Southern District of New York today naming a bank?", "Alert me to every new Chapter 11 petition in Delaware and SDNY Bankruptcy", "List every motion and order filed in case 1:26-cv-03810 since yesterday".

What happens when a court's feed is down or empty? The court produces one error item (FEED_UNREACHABLE, HTTP_503, FEED_EMPTY, FEED_MALFORMED) and the run continues with the other courts; the run does not fail.

Why does the same docket entry appear twice? Some courts attach two event labels to one entry (for example "Order" and "~Util - Set Hearings" on the same document). Both are published, with the same entryId and different entryText; entryKey tells them apart.

Why is caseNumber sometimes missing a type code, or carrying extra letters? Bankruptcy courts number cases "26-11511" without a code and several append judge initials or the chapter ("26-44611-elm13"). The Actor keeps the number as published, puts a normalized form in caseNumberShort, and reads the chapter from the suffix when no "Chapter:" prefix is given.

Can it tell me the nature of suit, the judge, or all the parties? Not from the feed. Use docketUrl to open the docket on PACER for those details.

Legal

This Actor reads only the public, unauthenticated RSS feeds the United States federal courts publish for their CM/ECF dockets; it does not log in to PACER, download documents, or bypass any access control. The data is public court record metadata. The Actor and its output are not legal advice and do not establish an attorney-client relationship; docket text is published by the courts as entered by filers and clerks and may contain errors. Case titles contain the names of individuals: this Actor is not a consumer reporting agency, its output must not be used for employment, credit, insurance, housing or tenant screening decisions (FCRA), and it is not a background-check tool. Use the data in compliance with applicable law and the courts' terms.