Philadelphia City Council Events — Browser Skill

Purpose

Extract Philadelphia City Council meeting events (City Council + all standing/joint committees) from the Legistar calendar — returning each event's name (meeting body), date, time, location, agenda/minutes status, and Legistar detail-page URL. Filterable by year and/or by specific body. Read-only — never opens agenda PDFs in write-mode, never modifies state.

The output is a Zod-validated array of event records. A reference Zod schema is included in Expected Output.

When to Use

• Building a roster of upcoming or historical City Council and committee meetings for a given year.
• Backfilling a database of Philadelphia legislative meetings (the catalog goes back to 2000).
• Cross-referencing agenda packets / minutes URLs with a specific meeting date + body.
• Anywhere you'd otherwise scrape phila.legistar.com/Calendar.aspx HTML — the public Granicus Legistar WebAPI is faster, cheaper, paginatable, and structurally more reliable.

Workflow

The phila.legistar.com Calendar.aspx page is a Telerik RadGrid built on top of an unauthenticated, public Granicus Legistar WebAPI at https://webapi.legistar.com/v1/phila/. The browser UI is a thin client over this API — every record visible in the grid is queryable directly via OData. Lead with the API; the browser flow is the fallback for when the API is unreachable from your network sandbox (no auth, no anti-bot — but some sandboxes block raw DNS for webapi.legistar.com).

Recommended — Legistar WebAPI

1. Endpoint discovery. The Philadelphia tenant slug is phila. The Events endpoint is:

   GET https://webapi.legistar.com/v1/phila/Events
   

   No API key, no cookies, no Referer required. Verified 2026-05-20 — Microsoft IIS/10.0 + Granicusserver: gasmp-legapi1/2, ASP.NET WebAPI OData v3.

2. Filter by year. OData v3 $filter syntax — the field is EventDate (datetime, midnight UTC):

   GET https://webapi.legistar.com/v1/phila/Events
       ?$filter=EventDate ge datetime'2025-01-01' and EventDate lt datetime'2026-01-01'
       &$orderby=EventDate
       &$top=200
   

   URL-encode the $ as %24 and the apostrophes/spaces as needed; literal + for spaces works inside $filter. The datetime'YYYY-MM-DD' literal is the supported OData v3 form (NOT datetimeoffset'...' — that 400s).

3. Filter by body. Each meeting carries EventBodyId (integer) and EventBodyName (string). To restrict to "CITY COUNCIL" only (no committees), add:

   and EventBodyId eq 10
   

   Bodies discovered 2026-05-20 (sample): BodyId=10 → "CITY COUNCIL", 4 → "Committee on Public Health and Human Services", 39 → "Committee of the Whole", 44 → "Committee on Legislative Oversight", 50 → "Committee on Law and Government". The full body list is at GET https://webapi.legistar.com/v1/phila/Bodies (filter on BodyActiveFlag eq 1 for currently-meeting bodies).

4. Paginate. Default page size for the Events endpoint is large but you should still cap with $top and step with $skip when iterating multi-year ranges:

   &$top=1000&$skip=0     # batch 1
   &$top=1000&$skip=1000  # batch 2
   

   2025 has 154 records (verified against the browser grid). A single $top=1000 covers a full year safely.

5. Parse the response. Default content-type is XML (application/xml; charset=utf-8) — the OData $format query option is rejected ("Query option 'Format' is not allowed"), and the Accept: application/json header is silently ignored on this tenant (still returns XML). Parse the XML envelope <ArrayOfGranicusEvent> → <GranicusEvent> elements with these fields:

   XML element	Type	Maps to
   EventId	int	Stable meeting ID (e.g. 6115)
   EventGuid	UUID	Alternate stable ID
   EventBodyId	int	See body-id table above
   EventBodyName	string	Meeting body / committee name
   EventDate	ISO datetime (date-only, midnight)	Meeting date
   EventTime	string	Display time, e.g. "10:00 AM", "2:00 PM"
   EventLocation	string	e.g. "Room 400, City Hall"
   EventAgendaFile	URL or nil	Agenda PDF (may be i:nil="true")
   EventAgendaStatusName	string	"Final" / "Draft"
   EventMinutesFile	URL or nil	Minutes PDF
   EventMinutesStatusName	string	"Final" / "Draft"
   EventComment	string or nil	Free-text annotations (cancellations, tabled-until notes)
   EventInSiteURL	URL	Legistar detail page: https://phila.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?LEGID={EventId}&GID=30&G=...
   EventVideoStatus	string	"Public" etc.
   EventVideoPath	URL or nil	Recorded-video URL

6. Zod-validate. See the schema in Expected Output. Coerce EventDate to Date, parse EventTime separately, treat any element with i:nil="true" attribute as null.

Browser fallback

Only use this when the WebAPI is blocked at the network layer (e.g. some sandboxes refuse outbound DNS for webapi.legistar.com). The same browse cloud fetch proxy path that works for phila.legistar.com also works for webapi.legistar.com — so 99% of the time the API path is reachable.

1. Session setup. A bare session is sufficient — no Akamai, no Cloudflare. --proxies adds resilience if your egress is rate-limited; --verified is not required.

   sid=$(browse cloud sessions create --keep-alive --proxies | node -e "let s='';process.stdin.on('data',c=>s+=c).on('end',()=>process.stdout.write(JSON.parse(s).id))")
   export BROWSE_SESSION="$sid"
   

2. Open the calendar.

   browse open "https://phila.legistar.com/Calendar.aspx" --remote
   browse wait load --remote
   browse wait timeout 2000 --remote
   

   Default state: Calendar Year = "This Month", Body = "City Council and All Committees". The page is a Telerik RadGrid (ctl00_ContentPlaceHolder1_gridCalendar) inside an ASP.NET WebForms postback model.

3. Open the Year dropdown by clicking the cell: select next to the year combobox (ref ~117 on a fresh snapshot — refs are NOT stable across postbacks, always re-snapshot):

   browse snapshot --remote
   browse click "@<select-cell-ref-next-to-year>" --remote
   browse wait timeout 1500 --remote
   

4. Click the target year. Options: All Years, 2026, 2025, ..., 2000, Last Year, Last Month, Last Week, This Year, This Month, This Week, Today, Next Week, Next Month, Next Year. Use browse snapshot to locate the listitem ref for the target year, then click. The page does a full ASP.NET postback — wait for load and an extra 3000ms before re-snapshotting.

5. Extract the grid. Each grid row is a [1-X] row containing 11 cells in order: BodyName, MeetingDate, ExportToCalendar (iCal), MeetingTime, MeetingLocation, MeetingDetails (link), Agenda (link or "Not available"), AccessibleAgendaHTML, AgendaPacket, Minutes, AccessibleMinutesHTML. Iterate [1-X] cell: children inside each row. Read the record-count header (menuitem: NNN records) to validate completeness before parsing.

6. Paginate. The grid defaults to 100 rows per page. If the record count > 100, click the pager's "Next page" button at the bottom and re-snapshot. 2025 = 154 records = 2 pages.

7. Body filter (optional). Same pattern as year: click the body combobox select cell, click the desired body in the dropdown list. The body dropdown is ~115 options long.

8. Release the session.

   browse cloud sessions update "$sid" --status REQUEST_RELEASE
   

Site-Specific Gotchas

• No JSON. $format=json query option is explicitly rejected by the Granicus WebAPI ("Query option 'Format' is not allowed" 400). The Accept: application/json header is silently ignored. Parse XML. Don't waste time looking for a JSON toggle — there isn't one.
• $inlinecount=allpages is rejected on Events. To get a total count, fetch with $top=1000 and count entries in the response (or scrape the browser grid's menuitem: NNN records header). Verified 2026-05-20 — $inlinecount returns 200 but the count metadata is not present in the XML output.
• OData v3 datetime literal form. Use datetime'2025-01-01' (no time portion, no Z, no offset). datetimeoffset'...' 400s. ISO-8601 raw strings 400.
• EventDate is date-only (midnight UTC). The actual meeting wall-clock time is in EventTime as a display string ("10:00 AM"). To produce a single canonical timestamp, combine EventDate + EventTime in America/New_York (Philadelphia's timezone) — do NOT add EventTime to EventDate as UTC.
• i:nil="true" attribute = null. Any GranicusEvent field can be empty; the API marks empties with <EventAgendaFile i:nil="true" /> rather than omitting the element. Map to null in your Zod schema.
• Browser refs are NOT stable across postbacks. Every Telerik RadComboBox interaction is a full ASP.NET __doPostBack, which regenerates the entire a11y tree (the grid re-snapshot grew from [1-940] to [1-5306] after a single year-filter click). Always re-browse snapshot before each browse click in the fallback flow.
• Default page state is "This Month". First page load returns 2 records (the current week's meetings). Don't conclude "the calendar is empty" — change the year filter to All or a specific year first.
• Body dropdown is ~115 entries including standing committees, joint committees ("Joint Committees on X and Y"), and special committees. The full enum is in the RadComboBox itemData array embedded in Calendar.aspx HTML; the WebAPI Bodies endpoint is the canonical list (filter BodyActiveFlag eq 1, BodyMeetFlag eq 1 for currently-meeting bodies).
• Cookie-based settings. Calendar.aspx persists filter state in cookies (Setting-30-Calendar Year, Setting-30-Calendar Body, Setting-30-Calendar Options). These travel across page reloads in the same session. Useful if you want to lock a year selection without re-clicking the dropdown — but irrelevant when using the WebAPI.
• EventInSiteURL includes session-bound parameters. The G=A5947DFE-... GUID is a tenant-static identifier, NOT a per-user session token — safe to cache and reuse across runs. The LEGID= parameter is the canonical EventId.
• EventComment carries meeting-state metadata. Look for strings like "No Calendar for Today", "Council President tabled meeting until ...", "CANCELLED". The grid UI displays these as inline notes. Surface them in the output schema so consumers can distinguish a scheduled-but-cancelled meeting from one that actually occurred.
• Joint committees have free-text names in the dropdown but normalized names in the API. The Calendar.aspx itemData has explicit text overrides like "Joint Committees on Children & Youth and Education" for some joint bodies; the WebAPI returns the same string in EventBodyName. Treat EventBodyName as the source of truth.
• Catalog depth. Years 2000 through 2026 are queryable. Pre-2000 events return empty.

Expected Output

A Zod-validated array of event records:

import { z } from "zod";

export const PhilaCouncilEventSchema = z.object({
  eventId: z.number().int(),
  eventGuid: z.string().uuid(),
  bodyId: z.number().int(),
  bodyName: z.string(),                    // e.g. "CITY COUNCIL", "Committee on Law and Government"
  date: z.coerce.date(),                   // EventDate, midnight UTC
  time: z.string(),                        // EventTime display string, e.g. "10:00 AM"
  location: z.string(),                    // e.g. "Room 400, City Hall"
  agendaFile: z.string().url().nullable(),
  agendaStatus: z.enum(["Draft", "Final"]),
  minutesFile: z.string().url().nullable(),
  minutesStatus: z.enum(["Draft", "Final"]),
  comment: z.string().nullable(),          // e.g. "CANCELLED", "tabled until ..."
  videoStatus: z.string(),                 // e.g. "Public"
  videoPath: z.string().url().nullable(),
  detailUrl: z.string().url(),             // EventInSiteURL
});

export const PhilaCouncilEventsSchema = z.array(PhilaCouncilEventSchema);

Example output (2 records from year=2025):

[
  {
    "eventId": 6115,
    "eventGuid": "0C3EC3DE-5220-4E73-8D14-47FA1D2C4EFA",
    "bodyId": 50,
    "bodyName": "Committee on Law and Government",
    "date": "2025-01-22T00:00:00.000Z",
    "time": "10:00 AM",
    "location": "Room 400, City Hall",
    "agendaFile": "https://philadelphia.legistar1.com/philadelphia/meetings/2025/1/6115_A_Committee_on_Law_and_Government_25-01-22_Public_Hearing_Notice.pdf",
    "agendaStatus": "Final",
    "minutesFile": null,
    "minutesStatus": "Draft",
    "comment": null,
    "videoStatus": "Public",
    "videoPath": null,
    "detailUrl": "https://phila.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?LEGID=6115&GID=30&G=A5947DFE-5A17-435B-A57D-5F0923C2343D"
  },
  {
    "eventId": 6093,
    "eventGuid": "BCAFB815-DC0D-4423-AAFE-44150A03BBFA",
    "bodyId": 10,
    "bodyName": "CITY COUNCIL",
    "date": "2025-01-23T00:00:00.000Z",
    "time": "10:00 AM",
    "location": "Room 400, City Hall",
    "agendaFile": "https://philadelphia.legistar1.com/philadelphia/meetings/2025/1/6093_A_CITY_COUNCIL_25-01-23_City_Council_Calendar.pdf",
    "agendaStatus": "Final",
    "minutesFile": "https://philadelphia.legistar1.com/philadelphia/meetings/2025/1/6093_M_CITY_COUNCIL_25-01-23_Meeting_Minutes_%28Long%29.pdf",
    "minutesStatus": "Final",
    "comment": null,
    "videoStatus": "Public",
    "videoPath": null,
    "detailUrl": "https://phila.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?LEGID=6093&GID=30&G=A5947DFE-5A17-435B-A57D-5F0923C2343D"
  }
]

If the requested year has no events (e.g., a year before 2000), return [].