Scott Helvick

Apify Actors for AI agents — design notes and reference docs.

I build Apify Actors designed to be called by AI agents: callable via MCP, billable per call through x402 USDC on Base or Skyfire managed tokens, with input/output schemas tight enough that an LLM can construct correct calls from the tool description alone.

This site collects the design notes — the reasoning behind the tools, what they refuse, the tradeoffs that aren’t visible from a Store page.

Tools

See the full list at /tools/, or jump directly to:

• Stealth Browser Agent — Send a URL and a task in plain language. An LLM-driven stealth browser clicks, types, navigates, and extracts structured JSON from bot-defended sites.

• Smart Page Fetcher — Fetch a batch of URLs adaptively. Picks the cheapest method that works per URL (plain HTTP, JS render, or stealth + residential proxy). You pay per realized tier.

• Structured Extractor — Send a list of URLs and one JSON Schema. A single stealth fetch pass plus per-page LLM extraction returns schema-validated JSON per URL, with the fetch setup amortized across the batch.

• Opportunity Scout — Market research and idea validation for a new Apify Actor idea: scores a candidate niche against demand and supply across nine sources, with an Apify Store competition analysis. Returns PURSUE / CONSIDER / SKIP with rationale.

• Discoverability Audit — Grades any Apify Actor against an evidence-grounded rubric for AI-agent discoverability. Returns a punch list with copy-paste fixes.

• SEC Financials Normalizer — Give a ticker or CIK; get a standardized income statement, balance sheet, and cash flow as clean JSON, each line citing its source XBRL tag and checked against accounting identities.

• Local Market Saturation Analyzer — Give a business category and a location; get an aggregated Google Maps competitive landscape — competitor count, rating/review/price distributions, incumbent strength, and a transparent 0-1 saturation score. Aggregate-only, not a lead list.

• SEC Insider Trades — Give a ticker or CIK; get recent SEC Form 4/3/5 insider transactions as clean JSON — who traded (officer, director, 10% owner), buy or sell, shares, price, value, shares held after, and dates, with SEC transaction codes decoded.

• Businesses For Sale Scraper API — Scrape BizBuySell, BizQuest, BusinessesForSale and DealStream in one call; business-for-sale and small-M&A listings merged into one normalized, deduplicated deal feed — USD-normalized asking price, revenue, cash flow, sector, location, broker, and a source link per listing.

• US County Property Records — Give an address, parcel ID, or owner name; get normalized US property records from public county assessor/recorder data — owner, parcel ID, assessed & market value, tax and sales history, and company/LLC portfolio rollups. A property records API with one schema across 1,626 county and county-equivalent routes in 47 states.

• Property Deed & Lien Records Search — Search public recorder indexes for every deed, mortgage, release, lien, satisfaction, assignment, and easement recorded for a company or LLC across 306 jurisdictions in 30 states and territories, plus address search where the owner of record resolves and NYC BBL search. Normalized index data only; never document images.

• Secretary of State Business Search API + UCC Lien Search — 45 States — Give a company name; verify it across US state business registries — legal name, ID, type, status, formation date, agent — with each entity joined to the UCC lien filings against it. One schema, for KYB and diligence.

• Global Company Registry Search — Give a company name or an official registration number; search the official company registers of 11 countries in one call — Companies House, Annuaire des Entreprises, Brønnøysundregistrene, PRH, Zefix, the e-Business Register, Uzņēmumu reģistrs, ARES, KRS, the Australian Business Register, ACRA — plus GLEIF LEI enrichment. One normalized record per matched entity, officers where the register publishes them, and a citation URL on every record. For cross-border KYB and supplier verification.

• Early Vote & Mail Ballot Tracker — County-level US election data as one normalized sweep: daily early-vote and mail-ballot returns by county and party, voter registration statistics, and county presidential results 2000–2024 — fresh in-season, with honest per-state coverage. For election-forecasting agents.

• Tennis Data API — ATP, WTA & ITF Results, Stats & H2H — Live scores for today’s ATP and WTA singles matches (ITF opt-in) with the set score, the game in progress and the server, plus completed ATP, WTA and ITF matches queried by player, tournament, and date window: match results, serve/return statistics where the tour published them, head-to-head records, player aggregates and ranking snapshots from one cross-tour index — plus name lookup for IDs, a revision feed for keeping a local copy in step, and free coverage notices instead of silent empty results. A board, not a point feed; no odds or doubles.

• Property Owner Portfolio — Owner name and state to one public-record asset profile: full-match-set parcel totals by county, matching business entities, and recorded documents where covered. Batches of 1-50 owners.

Where else to find me

• Apify Store: apify.com/shelvick — live list of published Actors with current pricing, stats, and the input forms you’d use to try each one.