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 — Scores an Actor-build idea against demand and supply across nine sources. 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.
• Business For Sale Aggregator — Merge business-for-sale and small-M&A listings from multiple broker marketplaces 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 or parcel ID; get a normalized US property record from public county assessor/recorder data — owner, parcel ID, assessed & market value, tax history, and sale history — one schema across many counties.

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.