feat(actor): Docling Actor on Apify infrastructure

[vancura]

Dear Docling maintainers,

I have wrapped Docling as an Apify Actor by adding the Actor definition in the .actor directory and published the Docling Actor on Apify Store. I've also added the Actor status badge and a brief usage description to the README, including the “Run on Apify” button.

For the full description of the Actor, please see the README file in the .actor directory.

Docling can now be used in the cloud without installation, free of charge. Users can avoid managing Python, OCR libraries, and ML model dependencies locally. The Actor can be used either from Apify Console, API, or CLI locally:

apify call vancura/docling -i '{
    "documentUrl": "https://arxiv.org/pdf/2408.09869.pdf",
    "outputFormat": "json",
    "ocr": true
}'

The Actor processes documents and stores the results in Apify's key-value store under the OUTPUT_RESULT key. It supports multiple output formats:

• Markdown
• JSON
• HTML
• Plain text
• Doctags (structured format)

Technical implementation

The Actor provides:

• Cloud-based document processing through Apify's infrastructure
• API access for easy integration
• Support for multiple output formats
• OCR capabilities for scanned documents
• Integration potential with other Apify Actors
• Clean error handling and input validation

I've packaged Docling's environment (~6GB Docker image) with all necessary dependencies:

• Python 3.11
• OCR libraries
• ML models
• Node.js 20.x
• All required system binaries

Apify will sponsor your project

All the links to Apify in this PR are affiliate links under the Apify open source fair share program with id docling in the passive tier of the program. In the passive tier, Apify commits to sending a monthly commission via the GitHub Sponsor button from all new sign-ups that come through your link. The only action required on your part is to accept the pull request and ensure your GitHub Sponsor button is set up.

You can earn a larger commission and gain insights into traffic by registering directly with Apify, claiming ownership of the Actor on the Apify Store, and maintaining the Actor yourself. Simply contact support after signing up and pass the ownership challenge. The Actor will then be transferred, e.g., to ds4sd/docling, and you’ll see it under your Apify account.

To further increase your income from Apify, you can convert your Actor on Apify Store to the pay-per-event pricing model and join the active developer tier. We offer an individual competitive advantage for the active developer tier in the form of either a significantly reduced Apify margin or discounted compute unit pricing. Feel free to ask for it!

Benefits of the Actor Programming Model

The Web Actor Programming Model is a new concept for building serverless microapps, which are easy to develop, share, integrate, and build upon. Actors are a reincarnation of the UNIX philosophy for programs running in the cloud. Actors are web automation scripts that are easy to integrate and scale up. The main benefit is that even a small piece of software can be turned into a public cloud service in a heartbeat.

Apify is the largest ecosystem where developers build, deploy, and publish data extraction, web automation tools, and AI agents. With over 3,000 Actors on Apify Store and 10 years of experience in the market, Apify makes Docling accessible to over 250,000 developers using the platform monthly. This also enables integration with other Actors on Store, custom Actors, and platform integrations that can create much more powerful workflows than just individual parts.

Full disclosure

I work at Apify. Apify doesn’t sell your software, but we sell the computing resources needed to run your software in the cloud to the end users. Your project is one of the first we selected to pilot Apify's open source fair share program. Please let me know if there’s anything I can do to help you accept this PR! If you do, we’d be pleased to feature your project in our marketing communication.

If you have any questions or need assistance, don’t hesitate to reach out to me (@vancura) or @netmilk, the Apify VP of DX, or just write us to [email protected].

[mergify]

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