# Federal Register Documents Scraper (`xtracto/federal-register-documents`) Actor

Scrape US Federal Register rules, proposed rules, notices and presidential documents: title, abstract, agencies, dockets, CFR references, comment deadlines and full-text links. Keyless public API, no login.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/xtracto/federal-register-documents.md
- **Developed by:** [Farhan Febrian Nauval](https://apify.com/xtracto) (community)
- **Categories:** Other
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $2.00 / 1,000 results

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

## Federal Register Documents Scraper — US Rules, Notices & Presidential Documents

Scrape the US Federal Register: final and proposed rules, notices and presidential documents, with
titles, abstracts, agencies, docket and RIN numbers, CFR references, comment deadlines, page
citations and links to the full text in HTML, XML, plain text and PDF.

Keyless public government API. No login, no browser, and **no proxy needed** — there is no
anti-bot layer on this source.

### Input

Every field is optional, but you must give at least one of a search term, an agency, a document
type or a date bound.

| Field | Type | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| `searchTerms` | array | — | One full-text search per entry |
| `agencies` | array | — | Agency slugs, e.g. `securities-and-exchange-commission` |
| `documentTypes` | array | — | `RULE`, `PRORULE`, `NOTICE`, `PRESDOCU` |
| `publishedFrom` / `publishedTo` | string | — | `YYYY-MM-DD` bounds |
| `order` | string | `newest` | `newest`, `oldest` or `relevance` |
| `maxItemsPerSearch` | integer | `500` | Capped by the API at 10,000 |
| `pageSize` | integer | `1000` | Up to 2000 |

Searching by filters alone is a first-class use: leave `searchTerms` empty and ask for everything
one agency published in a date range.

### Output

```jsonc
{
  "_input": "climate disclosure",
  "_source": "S1-federalregister-api",
  "_scrapedAt": "2026-09-09T12:04:18Z",

  "documentNumber": "2026-18317",
  "title": "Updated Definition of \"Waters of the United States\"",
  "type": "Proposed Rule", "subtype": null,
  "abstract": "…", "action": "Proposed rule.",

  "publicationDate": "2026-09-09",
  "signingDate": null, "effectiveOn": null,
  "commentsCloseOn": "2026-10-09",
  "datesText": "Comments must be received on or before October 9, 2026.",

  "agencyNames": ["Defense Department", "Engineers Corps", "Environmental Protection Agency"],
  "agencySlugs": ["defense-department", "engineers-corps", "environmental-protection-agency"],
  "presidentName": "Donald Trump", "presidentId": "donald-trump",

  "docketId": "EPA-HQ-OW-2025-0117",
  "docketIds": ["…"], "regulationIdNumbers": ["2040-AGngs"],
  "cfrReferences": [{ "title": 33, "part": "328", "chapter": null, "citation_url": null }],
  "topics": ["Water pollution control"], "significant": true,

  "citation": "91 FR 57284", "volume": 91,
  "startPage": 57284, "endPage": 57310, "pageLength": 27,

  "htmlUrl": "…", "pdfUrl": "…", "jsonUrl": "…",
  "rawTextUrl": "…", "fullTextXmlUrl": "…", "bodyHtmlUrl": "…",
  "publicInspectionPdfUrl": "…",

  "commentsCount": 0,
  "regulationsDotGovDocumentId": "EPA-HQ-OW-2025-0117-0001",

  "correctionOf": "https://www.federalregister.gov/api/v1/documents/2026-16628",
  "correctionOfDocumentNumber": "2026-16628",
  "corrections": [], "imageCount": 3
}
```

### Three things worth knowing

**Past the last page, the API silently serves page 1 again.** With `per_page=20` the response
reports `total_pages: 50`, and pages 51, 52, 100, 200 and 500 all returned the *identical first
page* — HTTP 200, no error, no warning. A crawler that pages until it sees an empty response will
re-emit the same documents forever and count them as new. This actor stops at `total_pages` and
also de-duplicates by document number. (At `per_page=2000` the same overrun returns an honest
HTTP 400 instead, so the behaviour depends on page size.)

**A `count` of exactly 10,000 means "at least 10,000".** The API clamps it: unrelated broad
searches all report exactly that number, while narrow ones report real totals — 2,005 for a single
month, 8,560 for presidential documents. Paging is capped at the same 10,000. The actor logs
`at least N` rather than `N` when it sees the ceiling, and tells you to narrow the search; a date
range is the most effective way to do that.

**`correctionOf` is a URL, not a document number.** Correction `C1-2026-16628` carries
`…/api/v1/documents/2026-16628`. The bare number is provided as `correctionOfDocumentNumber` so
corrections can be joined to what they correct without every consumer parsing the URL.

### Errors

| `_error` | Meaning |
|---|---|
| `no_results` | The search ran and matched no documents |
| `unexpected_shape` | 200 without the `results` list — the API changed |
| `blocked` | Every TLS profile was refused |
| `network_error` | The ladder never reached the server — DNS, timeout, reset |

If every search fails, the run itself fails rather than reporting success over an empty dataset.

# Actor input Schema

## `searchTerms` (type: `array`):

One full-text search per entry. Leave empty to search by filters alone, e.g. everything one agency published in a date range.

## `agencies` (type: `array`):

Filter by agency, e.g. securities-and-exchange-commission, environmental-protection-agency. Slugs are the URL form of the agency name.

## `documentTypes` (type: `array`):

RULE (final rules), PRORULE (proposed rules), NOTICE, PRESDOCU (presidential documents). Leave empty for all.

## `publishedFrom` (type: `string`):

Earliest publication date, YYYY-MM-DD. Also the practical way past the 10,000-document ceiling.

## `publishedTo` (type: `string`):

Latest publication date, YYYY-MM-DD.

## `order` (type: `string`):

How results are ordered.

## `maxItemsPerSearch` (type: `integer`):

The API serves at most 10,000 documents for any one search, however many matched.

## `pageSize` (type: `integer`):

Up to 2000. Larger pages mean fewer requests.

## `proxyConfiguration` (type: `object`):

Optional. This is a keyless public government API with no anti-bot layer, so a proxy is not needed.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "searchTerms": [
    "climate disclosure"
  ],
  "order": "newest",
  "maxItemsPerSearch": 500,
  "pageSize": 1000
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `overview` (type: `string`):

Dataset items shown in the 'Documents' view.

## `items` (type: `string`):

Every record this run produced, with all fields, as JSON.

# 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 = {
    "searchTerms": [
        "climate disclosure"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("xtracto/federal-register-documents").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 = { "searchTerms": ["climate disclosure"] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("xtracto/federal-register-documents").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 '{
  "searchTerms": [
    "climate disclosure"
  ]
}' |
apify call xtracto/federal-register-documents --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,xtracto/federal-register-documents"
        }
    }
}
```

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/oJ8orWTFVaQ4aGbdk/builds/7ZepPXbgVcDjvEN12/openapi.json