Corpus Types

The Vaquill statutes corpus is one index of US primary law, split into 11 named slices. The corpusType filter on POST /statutes/search tells the API which slice to search. Omit it and you search everything; set it and you narrow to one body of law (federal statutes, state regulations, a constitution, and so on). Corpus types come in two scopes. Federal corpora live under the single federal jurisdiction. State corpora are keyed by jurisdiction, so you pair them with a state filter (a 2-letter lowercase code like ca or tx) to search one jurisdiction’s data.

The 11 tokens

Federal-scoped

Token	Contains	Scope	~Size
`USC`	United States Code (federal statutes)	federal	54,855
`CFR`	Code of Federal Regulations	federal	219,745
`CONSTITUTION`	U.S. Constitution (Articles + Amendments)	federal	74
`FEDERAL_RULES`	Federal Rules of Procedure (FRCP, FRCrP, FRE, FRAP, FRBP)	federal	526
`EXECUTIVE_ACTION`	Presidential documents (executive orders, proclamations, memos)	federal	3,593
`FEDERAL_REGISTER`	Federal Register agency rules, final and proposed	federal	121,214
`AGENCY_GUIDANCE`	Agency guidance (SSA rulings, IRS notices, revenue rulings and procedures)	federal	2,509

State-scoped

Token	Contains	Scope	~Size
`STATE`	State statutory codes	state	1.62M across 51 jurisdictions
`REGULATION`	State administrative regulations	state	176K across 12 states
`STATE_CONSTITUTION`	State constitutions	state	7.6K across 50 jurisdictions
`STATE_RULES`	State court rules (civil, criminal, appellate, local)	state	8K across 7 states

These are approximate totals and expand weekly. The exact per-jurisdiction counts are always live via GET /statutes/coverage.

Scoping a search

corpusType alone

A federal corpus needs only corpusType. This searches the whole US Code:

{"query": "civil rights under color of law", "corpusType": "USC"}

corpusType plus state

A state corpus needs both corpusType and state. This searches only California’s statutory code:

{"query": "security deposit return", "corpusType": "STATE", "state": "ca"}

Omit state on a state-scoped corpus and the search spans every jurisdiction that has that corpus ingested.

titleNumber is only valid alongside corpusType USC or CFR. Sending it with any other corpus returns a 422.

Example: state regulations

A REGULATION search paired with a state returns that state’s administrative rules. Here is Washington’s environmental regulations:

curl -X POST https://api.vaquill.ai/api/v1/statutes/search \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer vq_key_..." \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"query": "stormwater discharge permit", "corpusType": "REGULATION", "state": "wa", "limit": 5}'

import requests

resp = requests.post(
    "https://api.vaquill.ai/api/v1/statutes/search",
    headers={"Authorization": "Bearer vq_key_..."},
    json={
        "query": "stormwater discharge permit",
        "corpusType": "REGULATION",
        "state": "wa",
        "limit": 5,
    },
)
data = resp.json()
for r in data["results"]:
    print(r["citation"], "-", r["title"])

const resp = await fetch("https://api.vaquill.ai/api/v1/statutes/search", {
  method: "POST",
  headers: {
    Authorization: "Bearer vq_key_...",
    "Content-Type": "application/json",
  },
  body: JSON.stringify({
    query: "stormwater discharge permit",
    corpusType: "REGULATION",
    state: "wa",
    limit: 5,
  }),
});
const data = await resp.json();
for (const r of data.results) {
  console.log(r.citation, "-", r.title);
}

Not every corpus type exists for every state. Before you scope a state search, call GET /statutes/coverage and read that jurisdiction’s corpora keys to see which tokens actually have data. This avoids empty results from guessing.

Jurisdictions & State Codes

The 51 jurisdictions, state codes, and how to discover live coverage.

API Coverage

The full per-jurisdiction matrix with current section counts.

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The 11 tokens

Federal-scoped

State-scoped

Scoping a search

Example: state regulations

Jurisdictions & State Codes

API Coverage

​The 11 tokens

​Federal-scoped

​State-scoped

​Scoping a search

​Example: state regulations

​Related

Jurisdictions & State Codes

API Coverage

The 11 tokens

Federal-scoped

State-scoped

Scoping a search

Example: state regulations

Related