guns

If you're looking for US built, then PSA has been the most recent company giving making AKs from scratch a shot, and from what I've heard succeeding where past US attempts have failed.

If you just want something that's on the market, then you've more or less got to look around and see what's for sale and crosscheck it against the reputation and specific pitfalls to inspect for and about what a good price looks like. Even rifles like WASRs or InterArms AKs have mixed reviews depending on when they were imported, due to differences in quality of things like pressing the front sight block on. Those are things you'd have to inspect for in-person, and therefore something to check out at a gunshop rather than ordering online to an FFL. Or you just get dumb lucky with somebody trying to get rid of their worthless Chinese knockoff rifles (buy the AK for any reasonable price if this happens).

but with modern amenities such as optic mounting, rails

I'd say look for the gun not the rails. You can add the rails later. For a 7.62mm AK, I generally wouldn't even think about adding a vertical grip and just keeping unrailed wood or polymor lower handguards so that the space in front of the mag is as free as possible. For optics rails onto common AKs, there are three entry level ways I think to go about it. First is an Ultimak gastube with a rail. It really only works for red dots, it doesn't support magnified optics or magnifier for red dots. But if you're going with 7.62mm specifically, I'd figure a simple red dot probably fits the realistic ranges. Ultimak doesn't disrupt the silhouette much and is completely reversible. Second option is a hinged dust cover like a TWS. It can fit magnifiers or magnified optics on the longer and closer section of rail. Something really heavy and long like a LPVO is going to make it concerningly flex while open and the optic can bump against the receiver. It also means removing the rear sight and effectively losing any way to use the front iron sight as the provided railed backup iron sight isobscured by even the smallest optics. The third way is to pick up an AK with a Warsaw side rail installed. From that you can get an adaptor from companies like Midwest Industries that use that side rail as a mounting point to put a Picatinny rail or scope rings over the dust cover. A really solid option for heavier magnified optics especially ring mounted ones.

It's been a while since I shopped for AK mags, but do check the reputation of certain mags on sale, as so many are made and the quality of feeding really does variety. I don't trust fully polymer AK mags with the grudging exception of Magpul. Something like a Tapco mag is just a waste.

You're going to want an AK sight adjustment tool, the cheapo Tapco one is fine for this, a cleaning kit, and a solid cleaning rod is the rifle didn't come with one (specifically a solid rod for popping out stuck brass), and a cleaning kit.