Follow new federal rules and Code of Federal Regulations changes

The problem

New federal regulations are published first as documents in the Federal Register, the daily journal of the U.S. government, and are then incorporated into the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR). Compliance and policy teams need both views: what was just published, and which CFR titles actually changed.

This guide pairs two monitors. One follows the newest final and proposed rules in the Federal Register. The other reads the eCFR's status for all 50 CFR titles, so you see the day a title's latest amendment date moves.

What the source contains

Federal Register rules and proposed rules · Office of the Federal Register (National Archives)

New final rules and proposed rules published in the U.S. Federal Register, as structured records: document number, title, type, issuing agency, publication date, abstract and links to the web and PDF editions.

8 typed fields · 20 records in SourceFinch's latest run on October 12, 2026 · publisher updates: each federal business day · full source page

What a change means

• Federal Register: a new document_number is a newly published rule or proposed rule. type, agency and abstract say what it is, and pdf_url links the official edition.
• eCFR: a change to latest_amended_on for a title is the earliest structured signal that a regulation in that title changed. up_to_date_as_of is the date the title is current through, so expect it to move as the eCFR is updated.

Set it up in the console

1. Open the Verified recipe. Open the Federal Register rules and proposed rules recipe in the console. It keeps the reviewed URL, fields and record key (document_number), and shows the latest captured sample. Open in the console
2. Create the monitor. Name the monitor, keep the daily schedule or pick another (the console shows the monthly run cost), confirm that you have the right to monitor the source, and choose Create monitor.
3. Run the baseline. The first run is the baseline: every record is new. From the second run on, the monitor reports what was added, changed or removed, field by field, with the evidence behind each value.
4. Choose how you hear about changes. In Alerts, choose immediate change emails or a daily or weekly digest; each monitor can override that on its own page. For your own systems, add a signed webhook in Destinations. Alerts and team
5. Add the CFR title status monitor. Open the eCFR title status recipe the same way. On the Changes page you can then filter by monitor and period to look at title amendments on their own.

The other recipe: Code of Federal Regulations title currency status.

The same through the REST API, CLI or MCP

Every surface creates the same monitor from the same Verified recipe. You confirm you have the right to collect the source (rights: true).

Federal Register rules and proposed rules

# the Verified entry (fields, recipe, sample, terms) as JSON
curl https://sourcefinch.com/v1/catalog/federal-register-rules -H "Authorization: Bearer $SOURCEFINCH_API_KEY"

# create the monitor from source.json (below)
curl -X POST https://sourcefinch.com/v1/sources \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SOURCEFINCH_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Idempotency-Key: $(uuidgen)" \
  -d @source.json

# then run it now (later runs follow the schedule)
curl -X POST https://sourcefinch.com/v1/sources/$SOURCE_ID/runs \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SOURCEFINCH_API_KEY" \
  -H "Idempotency-Key: $(uuidgen)"

sourcefinch login
sourcefinch catalog get federal-register-rules --source-json > source.json
sourcefinch sources create --file source.json
sourcefinch runs create $SOURCE_ID --wait
sourcefinch records $SOURCE_ID

claude mcp add --transport http sourcefinch https://sourcefinch.com/mcp

# then ask your agent:
"Use SourceFinch to monitor Federal Register rules and proposed rules: get_catalog_source federal-register-rules,
then create_source with its create_source_args (dry run first), then run_source."

{
  "name": "Federal Register rules and proposed rules",
  "url": "https://www.federalregister.gov/api/v1/documents.json?per_page=20&order=newest&conditions%5Btype%5D%5B%5D=RULE&conditions%5Btype%5D%5B%5D=PRORULE",
  "recipe": {
    "mode": "http",
    "format": "json",
    "items": "results[*]",
    "fields": {
      "type": "type",
      "title": "title",
      "agency": "agencies[0].name",
      "pdf_url": "pdf_url",
      "abstract": "abstract",
      "html_url": "html_url",
      "document_number": "document_number",
      "publication_date": "publication_date"
    },
    "required": [
      "document_number",
      "title",
      "type",
      "publication_date"
    ]
  },
  "key_field": "document_number",
  "schedule": "daily",
  "rights": true,
  "catalog": {
    "slug": "federal-register-rules",
    "version_id": "b9ea4bb6-06fd-453c-92c7-4c314226b006"
  }
}

# the Verified entry (fields, recipe, sample, terms) as JSON
curl https://sourcefinch.com/v1/catalog/ecfr-title-status -H "Authorization: Bearer $SOURCEFINCH_API_KEY"

# create the monitor from source.json (below)
curl -X POST https://sourcefinch.com/v1/sources \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SOURCEFINCH_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Idempotency-Key: $(uuidgen)" \
  -d @source.json

# then run it now (later runs follow the schedule)
curl -X POST https://sourcefinch.com/v1/sources/$SOURCE_ID/runs \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SOURCEFINCH_API_KEY" \
  -H "Idempotency-Key: $(uuidgen)"

sourcefinch login
sourcefinch catalog get ecfr-title-status --source-json > source.json
sourcefinch sources create --file source.json
sourcefinch runs create $SOURCE_ID --wait
sourcefinch records $SOURCE_ID

claude mcp add --transport http sourcefinch https://sourcefinch.com/mcp

# then ask your agent:
"Use SourceFinch to monitor Code of Federal Regulations title currency status: get_catalog_source ecfr-title-status,
then create_source with its create_source_args (dry run first), then run_source."

{
  "name": "Code of Federal Regulations title currency status",
  "url": "https://www.ecfr.gov/api/versioner/v1/titles.json",
  "recipe": {
    "mode": "http",
    "format": "json",
    "items": "titles[*]",
    "fields": {
      "name": "name",
      "reserved": "reserved",
      "title_number": "number",
      "up_to_date_as_of": "up_to_date_as_of",
      "latest_amended_on": "latest_amended_on",
      "latest_issue_date": "latest_issue_date"
    },
    "required": [
      "title_number",
      "name"
    ],
    "types": {
      "reserved": "boolean",
      "title_number": "string",
      "up_to_date_as_of": "date",
      "latest_amended_on": "date",
      "latest_issue_date": "date"
    }
  },
  "key_field": "title_number",
  "schedule": "daily",
  "rights": true,
  "catalog": {
    "slug": "ecfr-title-status",
    "version_id": "159ddf66-7adf-4cab-8469-51f2b7c326f6"
  }
}

Alerts and evidence

Both sources change on federal business days. An immediate change email suits the CFR title monitor, which changes rarely; a daily digest suits the Federal Register monitor, which has new documents most business days.

Every run keeps the publisher's exact response with its SHA-256 hash and a signed manifest, and every value points back to where it was read. How that works is in the docs:

• Review changes and receipts
• Alerts: change emails and digests
• Evidence and export: what a run keeps, bundles, CSV/JSON/XLSX
• Checking an evidence bundle offline
• Verifying signed webhooks
• Rights and acceptable use

Limitations

• Each run reads the 20 newest rules and proposed rules. Notices, presidential documents and public inspection filings are not included.
• FederalRegister.gov's web edition is not the official legal edition; the official edition is the PDF on govinfo.gov, linked from every record as pdf_url.
• The eCFR is not the official legal edition of the CFR; the annual edition on govinfo.gov is. Only the eCFR's titles summary is read, never regulation text.
• Title 35 is reserved and carries no dates.
• The records say what was published and when. They are not legal advice about what a rule means for you.

Usage rights, terms posture and reliability for each source are on its source page. They are our documented understanding of each publisher's stated terms, not legal advice.

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