GroundRules - US Law Text

Resolve an address or lat/lon to its full jurisdiction stack: federal, state, county, place, each with its code sources (name, publisher, official URL, current-through, whether we host its text). Unincorporated areas get the county code with no city code; about half of US municipalities publish no code online, and the answer says so and points at where the code lives if anywhere.

{
  "type": "object",
  "properties": {
    "address": {
      "description": "One-line street address",
      "type": "string"
    },
    "lat": {
      "type": "number"
    },
    "lon": {
      "type": "number"
    }
  }
}

Search original law by topic, question, or citation. Exact citations resolve directly. Scoped by jurisdiction or source ids (e.g. us, us-tx; us-cfr scopes to the CFR alone, us covers both the US Code and the CFR) or by an address (the address is resolved first, then the search covers exactly its stack's hosted sources). Results are verbatim snippets with citation, official source URL, retrieval time, and a current-through or vintage label adjacent to every snippet; a hit whose source has fallen behind its upstream carries stale:true. Vintage-labeled text is a dated snapshot, not current law. Requested ids we do not host are named in the response note; law_coverage lists what is hosted.

{
  "type": "object",
  "properties": {
    "address": {
      "description": "One-line street address to auto-scope the search; pass this or jurisdictions, not both",
      "type": "string"
    },
    "include_text": {
      "description": "Include full text for up to this many top results (0 by default; sections over 64KB require get).",
      "maximum": 3,
      "minimum": 0,
      "type": "integer"
    },
    "jurisdictions": {
      "description": "Comma-separated jurisdiction or source ids from law_coverage, e.g. us,us-tx (us-cfr = CFR only)",
      "type": "string"
    },
    "limit": {
      "type": "integer"
    },
    "mode": {
      "description": "auto combines word and semantic retrieval when available; keyword avoids model inference.",
      "enum": [
        "auto",
        "keyword"
      ],
      "type": "string"
    },
    "offset": {
      "type": "integer"
    },
    "q": {
      "description": "Topic, question, or citation",
      "type": "string"
    },
    "sources": {
      "description": "Exact comma-separated source IDs; us = US Code only here. Use instead of jurisdictions/address.",
      "type": "string"
    }
  },
  "required": [
    "q"
  ]
}

Fetch full verbatim text by id or citation, or pass references for a batch of up to 10. Each batch item has its own result/error. Includes provenance (official source URL, current-through or vintage label, retrieval time), parent path, and prev/next siblings. The text is reproduced exactly as published by the official source; nothing is added or removed except publisher editorial matter, which we never carry.

{
  "type": "object",
  "properties": {
    "citation": {
      "description": "Full citation, e.g. California Civil Code 1950.5",
      "type": "string"
    },
    "id": {
      "description": "Section id returned by search",
      "type": "string"
    },
    "references": {
      "description": "Batch of section ids or complete citations",
      "items": {
        "type": "string"
      },
      "maxItems": 10,
      "minItems": 1,
      "type": "array"
    }
  }
}

Per-source coverage: what we host, section counts, current-through or vintage, last_verified, and a stale flag for any source the recurring verify has proven behind its upstream. Machine-generated from the build manifest; never hand-typed. Absence from this list means we do not host that jurisdiction's text, not that no law exists there.

{
  "type": "object",
  "properties": {}
}