Section Identifiers

Every section in the Vaquill corpus has one canonical identifier: its actId. It is stable, unique, and the key you use to fetch a section’s metadata and full text. You never construct an actId by hand. You get it from search results and pass it back to the section endpoints.

What an actId looks like

actId values encode the section’s place in the source hierarchy. A few examples:

actId	Points to
`USC_T42_C21_S1983`	42 U.S.C. Chapter 21, Section 1983
`CFR_T17_P240_S240_10b5_1`	17 CFR Part 240, Section 240.10b5-1
`USC_T15_C1_S1`	15 U.S.C. Chapter 1, Section 1

State sections follow the same idea, encoding the state’s code and section structure. Treat the whole string as an opaque key: read it from a result, store it, and pass it back unchanged.

The workflow

Search to get an actId

POST /statutes/search returns result objects, each with an actId.

Fetch section metadata

GET /statutes/section/{actId} returns the full result object for that one section (citation, hierarchy, source URLs).

Fetch full text

GET /statutes/section/{actId}/body returns the section’s full text. Returned only when text is available.

Result and hierarchy fields

Search results and the section object share the same shape. Alongside actId, these fields describe where a section sits and how to cite it:

Field	Meaning
`titleNumber`	The title or code number (may be alphanumeric, e.g. `13A`)
`titleName`	The title’s name
`chapter`	The chapter number
`chapterName`	The chapter’s name
`sectionNumber`	The section number within the chapter
`displayPath`	A human-readable path through the hierarchy
`breadcrumb`	An array of hierarchy levels, from broadest to the section
`citation`	The full legal citation
`citationShort`	A compact citation form

titleNumber can be alphanumeric (some states use ids like 13A), so treat it as a string, not an integer.

Example: search, then fetch

This walks the full path: run a search, take the first actId, fetch its metadata, then fetch its body.

# 1. Search
curl -X POST https://api.vaquill.ai/api/v1/statutes/search \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer vq_key_..." \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"query": "civil action for deprivation of rights", "corpusType": "USC", "limit": 1}'

# 2. Fetch metadata for the returned actId
curl https://api.vaquill.ai/api/v1/statutes/section/USC_T42_C21_S1983 \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer vq_key_..."

# 3. Fetch full text
curl https://api.vaquill.ai/api/v1/statutes/section/USC_T42_C21_S1983/body \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer vq_key_..."

import requests

headers = {"Authorization": "Bearer vq_key_..."}

# 1. Search
search = requests.post(
    "https://api.vaquill.ai/api/v1/statutes/search",
    headers=headers,
    json={
        "query": "civil action for deprivation of rights",
        "corpusType": "USC",
        "limit": 1,
    },
).json()
act_id = search["results"][0]["actId"]

# 2. Fetch metadata
section = requests.get(
    f"https://api.vaquill.ai/api/v1/statutes/section/{act_id}",
    headers=headers,
).json()["section"]
print(section["citation"], "-", section["displayPath"])

# 3. Fetch full text
body = requests.get(
    f"https://api.vaquill.ai/api/v1/statutes/section/{act_id}/body",
    headers=headers,
).json()
print(body["plain"][:500] if body["available"] else "text unavailable")

const headers = { Authorization: "Bearer vq_key_..." };

// 1. Search
const search = await (
  await fetch("https://api.vaquill.ai/api/v1/statutes/search", {
    method: "POST",
    headers: { ...headers, "Content-Type": "application/json" },
    body: JSON.stringify({
      query: "civil action for deprivation of rights",
      corpusType: "USC",
      limit: 1,
    }),
  })
).json();
const actId = search.results[0].actId;

// 2. Fetch metadata
const section = (
  await (
    await fetch(
      `https://api.vaquill.ai/api/v1/statutes/section/${actId}`,
      { headers },
    )
  ).json()
).section;
console.log(section.citation, "-", section.displayPath);

// 3. Fetch full text
const body = await (
  await fetch(
    `https://api.vaquill.ai/api/v1/statutes/section/${actId}/body`,
    { headers },
  )
).json();
console.log(body.available ? body.plain.slice(0, 500) : "text unavailable");

A 404 on either section endpoint means no section was found, and the /body endpoint returns text only when it is available. Check available before reading html or plain.

Response Formats

The text formats and source URLs a section can carry.

Corpus Types

The corpusType tokens you filter a search by.

Get Started

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Use Cases

Resources

What an actId looks like

The workflow

Result and hierarchy fields

Example: search, then fetch

Response Formats

Corpus Types

​What an actId looks like

​The workflow

​Result and hierarchy fields

​Example: search, then fetch

​Related

Response Formats

Corpus Types

What an actId looks like

The workflow

Result and hierarchy fields

Example: search, then fetch

Related