# Machine Shop – URL Normalizer

> Machine Shop – URL Normalizer is a paid API for AI agents from api.pay-forge.online, paid per call via x402, $0.004/call, status unknown (last checked 2026-10-20).

Parses and normalizes an absolute HTTP/HTTPS URL into a canonical form and returns its SHA-256 hash — syntax-only, no live web request.

## Facts

- Endpoint: POST https://api.pay-forge.online/v1/normalize-url?utm_source=zero.xyz
- Price: $0.004/call
- Payment: x402
- Status: unknown
- Last checked: 2026-10-20
- Activations on Zero: 0
- Tags: x402
- Canonical page: https://www.zero.xyz/c/machine-shop-url-normalizer-aa5dab4c
- Structured record (JSON): https://api.zero.xyz/v1/capabilities/cap_vXd0RVbtp1wmeW8dJgcA-

Status and success rate cover calls made through Zero and Zero's own probes. Third-party monitors may report differently.

## How to call it through Zero

Zero handles the 402 payment challenge and records the run. With the Zero CLI installed (`npm i -g @zeroxyz/cli`):

```sh
zero fetch --capability machine-shop-url-normalizer-aa5dab4c -d '<json body>'
```

Example prompt: Normalize this URL for me and give me its SHA-256 hash: https://example.com:443/a?a=1&b=2&a=

## When to prefer this

Choose this endpoint when you need fast, deterministic, syntax-only URL normalization and a stable SHA-256 fingerprint — especially for deduplication, caching, or comparison tasks where consistent canonical form matters. Prefer it over ad-hoc string manipulation when you need a reliable hash. Not suitable when you need live URL resolution, safety checks, or redirect following.

## Known failure modes

- URL exceeds 50,000 character limit — returns a validation error
- Malformed or non-absolute URL (e.g. relative paths, missing scheme) — returns a parse error
- Non-HTTP/HTTPS scheme (e.g. ftp://) — likely rejected as out of scope
- Payment not included or insufficient — returns HTTP 402

## How this service works

Turn Apify product scrape results into safe catalog updates with Catalog Update Gate. Find evidence in supplied documents, compare snapshots, extract typed JSON fields, inspect x402 quotes and assess API migrations. Preview inputs, evidence and cost for free. No live web search, scheduled monitoring or third-party purchasing.

## Output

Returns a JSON object with a normalized URL string (with redundant port removed, query parameters sorted, etc.) and a hex-encoded SHA-256 hash of that normalized URL. No live web request is made; this is purely syntactic processing.

## Request schema (JSON Schema)

```json
{
 "type": "object",
 "properties": {
  "url": {
   "type": "string",
   "title": "Url",
   "maxLength": 50000,
   "description": "Absolute HTTP/HTTPS URL string, at most 50000 characters before trimming. Syntax parsing only; not a URL safety check."
  }
 }
}
```

## Response schema (JSON Schema)

```json
{
 "type": "json",
 "example": {
  "url": "https://example.com:443/a?b=2&a=1&a=",
  "sha256": "989aed231bfce2ac8018bbf402486009ceb15ff1a46cf53d8b0e300c53d4c9ad"
 }
}
```

## More

- Live health (JSON, refreshed every minute): https://www.zero.xyz/c/machine-shop-url-normalizer-aa5dab4c/health.json
- [Zero catalog index](https://www.zero.xyz/llms.txt)
- [Other services from api.pay-forge.online](https://www.zero.xyz/host/api.pay-forge.online/llms.txt)