apify-utils-mcp

Four small utilities behind one MCP server: PDF text, tables and OCR, YouTube thumbnail URLs and files, sports scores and standings, and ATP/WTA tennis.

Each tool is a thin client over a public Apify Actor. Runs are billed by Apify to your own account — see Pricing. This server never proxies a call, never sees your token or your results, and never pays for a run on your behalf.

Install

Requires uv and a free Apify token.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "apify-utils": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["--from", "git+https://github.com/moonie0201/apify-utils-mcp", "apify-utils-mcp"],
      "env": { "APIFY_TOKEN": "apify_api_..." }
    }
  }
}

Related MCP server: PDF Tools MCP Server

Tools

Filters (page_range, teams, status, max_pages_per_pdf) are applied before billing, so a narrow query is cheap rather than a big response you post-filter. The spend-cap argument is required on every paid tool — there is no way to start an unbounded run from here.

Pricing

No Actor here charges a start fee, so a run that fails or finds nothing costs nothing.

Worked examples: a 2-page invoice is $0.0006, a 100-page manual $0.03, 20 scanned pages with OCR $0.06, 100 videos $0.50, today's NBA slate of 8 games $0.016, 500 game summaries $2.00.

Billing lands on the Apify account behind your own APIFY_TOKEN. The spend-cap argument is not just documentation: the server turns it into the run's maxTotalChargeUsd, so Apify enforces the dollar ceiling itself and stops the run when it is reached. Because OCR pages draw on the same max_pages budget at ten times the price, max_pages=1000 means $0.30 with ocr off and $3.00 with it on, and the ceiling sent to Apify follows whichever applies. Apify refuses a ceiling below an Actor's own minimum ($0.05 for extract_pdf, $0.10 for the rest), so very small runs ask for that floor — a ceiling, not a charge: a two-page PDF still costs $0.0006.

The run is also started with timeout=290, inside Apify's 300 s synchronous window, so a run can never outlive the call and keep charging in the background.

Sports data: read this first

Unofficial. Not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by ESPN, The Walt Disney Company or any league. Data comes from the unauthenticated JSON feeds that espn.com itself uses; they are undocumented, Disney's Terms of Use for espn.com restrict automated access, and ESPN may change or block access without notice — if that happens the Actor fails the run and charges nothing, and we stop within 48 h of any notice from ESPN or Disney. Scores, schedules and standings are facts; ESPN's articles, video and images are ESPN's copyrighted content and are not included. Odds are one sportsbook's pregame line shown on ESPN, for information only — not for wagering. Team and league names and logos are trademarks of their owners. Removal requests: TAKEDOWN.md — honoured in 48 h.

include_odds defaults to off here, unlike the Actor. Turn it on only if you want the pregame line copied into the row. timezone defaults to UTC and only affects the dateLocal field; feed dates are UTC either way.

Availability. All four Actors are public: acotr_moonie/pdf-text-extractor, acotr_moonie/youtube-thumbnail-downloader, acotr_moonie/espn-sports-scraper and acotr_moonie/tennis-scores-scraper (the two sports listings since 2026-08-28). Every tool was verified end to end against its live Actor.

leagues accepts: nfl, ncaaf, nba, wnba, ncaab, ncaaw, mlb, nhl, mls, nwsl, epl, championship, fa-cup, la-liga, serie-a, bundesliga, ligue-1, eredivisie, primeira-liga, liga-mx, saudi-pro-league, wsl, ucl, uel, uecl, nations-league, world-cup, copa-libertadores, atp, wta, pga, f1, ufc — or any raw ESPN path such as soccer/bra.1, which comes back as a free error row if unknown.

YouTube

Nominative reference only: this reads the public i.ytimg.com thumbnail CDN and YouTube's public oEmbed endpoint. Not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by YouTube or Google; the YouTube name and logo are trademarks of Google LLC. Thumbnails are the copyright of the uploader or their licensors — the tool retrieves them, it does not grant you a licence to republish them.

What it will not do

• Nothing is inferred. Where a value cannot be determined the field is null.

• extract_pdf reads PDFs you point it at with a plain GET, no proxy and no login. You are responsible for the hosting site's terms and robots rules. PDFs whose owner disabled text copying are always skipped, with a free error row and no override.

• Markdown headings and paragraphs are heuristics over font size and line gaps, not a layout model. Table extraction finds tables drawn with ruling lines; borderless tables stay in the text.

• youtube_thumbnails does not expand playlist or channel URLs, and does not download video.

• The sports tools carry no news, articles, rosters, injuries, athlete bios, play-by-play or video, and no ITF or Challenger tennis.

Development

uv venv && uv pip install -e ".[dev]"
python -m pytest tests -q       # offline: httpx is monkeypatched, nothing is billed
ruff check . && ruff format --check .
python -m apify_utils_mcp --list-tools

Links

• Actor source, MIT: https://github.com/moonie0201/apify-utils

• Privacy policy: https://github.com/moonie0201/apify-utils/blob/main/PRIVACY.md

• Takedown policy: https://github.com/moonie0201/apify-utils/blob/main/TAKEDOWN.md

Disclosure

I built this, and the four Actors behind it are paid. The adapter code is open and MIT licensed.