# Austin Commercial Building Permits & Contractor Activity (`purple_beep_boop/austin-commercial-permits`) Actor

Search Austin's official issued construction permits by inclusive issue dates, source commercial classification, permit type, trade, description, and contractor presence; export permit records and a run-local contractor activity summary. Records are not qualified leads or project confirmations.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/purple_beep_boop/austin-commercial-permits.md
- **Developed by:** [Purple Beep Boop](https://apify.com/purple_beep_boop) (community)
- **Categories:** Lead generation, Business
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

$3.00 / 1,000 delivered permit records

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

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

## Austin Commercial Building Permits & Contractor Activity

Find recently issued commercial building permits in Austin's official public [Issued Construction Permits dataset](https://data.austintexas.gov/d/3syk-w9eu). It is intended first for construction suppliers researching contractor activity.

The Actor returns source permit records; a permit is not a distinct construction project, a qualified lead, or evidence of demand. It does not enrich records, infer commercial use from address text, or claim exclusivity, guaranteed freshness, or complete territory coverage.

### What it does

- Verifies the official Austin Socrata schema before querying.
- Filters by inclusive issue-date calendar window, source commercial/residential classification, permit type, contractor trade, description keywords, and presence of a contractor company name.
- Delivers permit records to the run's default dataset in JSON or CSV export formats.
- Writes `RUN_SUMMARY`, `SCHEMA_METADATA`, and an optional `CONTRACTOR_SUMMARY` to the run's default key-value store.
- Limits a run to 1–5,000 delivered permit records. Reaching the cap is a successful, explicitly truncated result; request, record, duplicate, or pagination errors are reported as incomplete.

The contractor summary groups the exact source company and trade values found in delivered records. Its counts describe activity within those delivered permit records and are not counts of distinct projects or leads. The summary has no separate charge.

### Pricing

Launch pricing is `$0.003` per delivered permit record (`$3 per 1,000`). Only visible permit records use the `permit-record` pay-per-event. Platform usage and the contractor activity summary are included; there is no separate summary charge. Source counts, discarded duplicates, and diagnostics are not charged. Customer spending limits can stop a run after a partial delivery; `RUN_SUMMARY` preserves the delivered count and reason.

### Example input

```json
{
  "startDate": "2026-09-30",
  "endDate": "2026-10-06",
  "permitClass": "Commercial",
  "permitTypes": ["BP", "MP"],
  "contractorTrades": ["General Contractor"],
  "requireContractor": true,
  "includeContractorSummary": true,
  "maxResults": 100
}
```

`issue_date` is a source date-only value. The dates are inclusive calendar boundaries interpreted in `America/Chicago`; the Actor does not claim UTC timestamp precision. Defaults are the latest seven calendar dates and `Commercial` with a 100-record cap.

### Small real output sample

```json
{
  "source_record_id": "2025-143684 BP",
  "issue_date": "2026-10-05T00:00:00.000",
  "source_permit_type": "BP",
  "source_class": "Commercial",
  "work_description": "Adding a Ramp to Interior Area for Staff Personal for Existing Grocery Store",
  "project_address": "2400 S CONGRESS AVE",
  "contractor_name": "Trusted General Contracting",
  "contractor_trade": "General Contractor",
  "project_valuation": null
}
```

This is a small observation sample, not a promise that every future record has the same completeness. Missing source values remain `null`.

### Exports and interpretation

Open the run's default dataset and choose JSON, CSV, or another Apify-supported export. Open `RUN_SUMMARY` for source counts, delivered rows, truncation, errors, pagination, and resource diagnostics. Open `CONTRACTOR_SUMMARY` for run-local contractor activity. Compare contractor names and supporting permit IDs as activity indicators, not as project counts or qualified leads.

For a step-by-step workflow, see [TUTORIAL.md](TUTORIAL.md). For release status and private verification, see [LAUNCH_READINESS.md](LAUNCH_READINESS.md).

# Actor input Schema

## `startDate` (type: `string`):

Inclusive YYYY-MM-DD source date. If omitted, defaults with endDate to the most recent seven America/Chicago calendar dates.

## `endDate` (type: `string`):

Inclusive YYYY-MM-DD source date. Source issue_date is date-only; no timezone is inferred.

## `permitClass` (type: `string`):

Source permit class filter. Commercial is the default and uses permit_class_mapped exactly.

## `permitTypes` (type: `array`):

Optional source permit type codes. Allowed values: BP, EP, MP, PP, DS.

## `contractorTrades` (type: `array`):

Optional source contractor trade filters.

## `descriptionKeywords` (type: `string`):

Optional comma-separated, case-insensitive OR terms matched against description server-side.

## `requireContractor` (type: `boolean`):

Only return records with a non-empty contractor company name.

## `maxResults` (type: `integer`):

Maximum delivered permits. The actor never returns more than 5,000.

## `includeContractorSummary` (type: `boolean`):

Write a separate activity-within-delivered-records summary artifact/dataset.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "permitClass": "Commercial",
  "requireContractor": false,
  "maxResults": 100,
  "includeContractorSummary": true
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `permitResults` (type: `string`):

Issued permit records delivered by this run.

## `runSummary` (type: `string`):

Machine-readable run status, counts, errors, pagination, and resource diagnostics.

## `contractorSummary` (type: `string`):

JSON artifact isolated to this run; counts describe activity within delivered permit records, not distinct construction projects.

# 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 = {};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("purple_beep_boop/austin-commercial-permits").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 = {}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("purple_beep_boop/austin-commercial-permits").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 '{}' |
apify call purple_beep_boop/austin-commercial-permits --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,purple_beep_boop/austin-commercial-permits"
        }
    }
}
```

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/g32YlfG1SeYV9ctKK/builds/aHA3Ib9CQYkNM4pcu/openapi.json