Vaquill
Search US and Indian statutes, regulations, constitutions, and court rules.
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Search US and Indian statutes, regulations, constitutions, and court rules.
Server tool list (26)
Raw names from tools/list. Only developers need these.
| count_statute_sections | How many sections sit in a jurisdiction, corpus, code, title, chapter or part. **Cost**: 1 credit. A scope that matches nothing is refunded, because an empty answer here is usually a wrong filter rather than a finding. Use it to size a job before you run it. Walking a container with `/us/statutes/divisions` and hydrating what you find is cheap per call and adds up across 52 jurisdictions, so this is the call that tells you what you are about to spend before you spend it. **There is no `query` parameter, on purpose.** Search ranks over a bounded window, so "how many sections match this query" has no answer beyond the size of that window. This counts a SCOPE, which is exact. Pair the two: count the scope here, enumerate it with `/us/statutes/divisions`, then rank within it using `/us/statutes/search`. The figure counts SECTIONS. Long sections are stored as several passages and are counted once. |
| create_watch | Subscribe to a board so a change to that source notifies you. Delivery is by webhook (HMAC-SHA256 signed) or email, fired when the source's existing refresh finds real changes -- nothing is crawled on your behalf and there is no real-time trigger. channel is immutable once set; to change it, delete and recreate. Free. |
| delete_watch | Delete a watch you own. Immediate and permanent, and its delivery history goes with it. To stop notifications without losing the config or history, prefer update_watch with isActive false. Free. |
| fetch | Fetch the full text of one US law section by the `id` from a `search` result, returning `{id, title, text, url, metadata}`. Also accepts a citation URL, a bare path, or a Bluebook citation such as '42 U.S.C. 1983'. Present for clients that require the standard search/fetch pair; prefer `get_us_statute_section_text` if available. Charged as a section lookup plus a body read. |
| get_pricing | Current API credit pricing: per-endpoint credit costs and the credit-to-currency conversion rate (1 credit = $0.01 USD). Free, and no authentication required. Use to check what a call will cost before making it. |
| get_section_changes | What our refreshes have observed changing on one section over time: when it was added, amended or removed, newest first. This is our capture history, not the publisher's -- an empty list means we recorded no change, never that the section was never amended. For the publisher's own history, read amendmentHistory on the section. Cost: 1 credit. |
| get_section_cited_by | The USC and CFR sections whose text cross-references a given section: the inverse of the crossReferences already returned on a section lookup. Use to find where a definition or requirement is actually invoked, or to gauge how load-bearing a provision is across the code. Cost: 2 credits. |
| get_section_cross_state | Provisions in OTHER states that address the same subject as a given state statute section, ranked by similarity. State statutes only. Use for fifty-state surveys, multi-jurisdiction compliance, or to check whether a client's home-state rule is typical or an outlier. Cost: 6 credits. |
| get_section_definitions | The term definitions that govern a section, parsed from its chapter's definitions section. Use whenever a provision turns on a term of art ('covered entity', 'security', 'employer') and you need the statute's own definition rather than the ordinary meaning. Cost: 4 credits. |
| get_section_neighbors | The sections immediately before and after a given section within its own chapter or code, in statutory order. Use to read a provision in context, to find a definitions or penalties sibling, or to check whether the operative language continues into the next section. Cost: 2 credits. |
| get_sections_batch | Metadata for up to 50 sections in one call, by a list of act_ids. Same fields as get_us_statute_section. Use instead of looping that tool when you already hold several act_ids, for example every result of one search. Sections that are not found are skipped and not charged. Cost: 2 credits. |
| get_us_statute_section | Metadata for one US statute, regulation or rule section by act_id: citation, title hierarchy, breadcrumb, amendment history, and links to HTML, PDF and XML. Does NOT include the section text -- use get_us_statute_section_text for that. Good for confirming you have the right section before paying for its full body. Cost: 2 credits. |
| get_us_statute_section_text | The full text of a US statute, regulation or rule section by act_id. Returns styled HTML (with cross-references and paragraph numbering as officially published) and plain text. Use when you need the actual statutory language to quote, draft against, or analyze rather than just cite. Cost: 6 credits. |
| get_watch_change_diff | The full text of a changed section BEFORE and AFTER one specific change, as whole documents ready to diff. Only meaningful where hasDiff is true on the change list. A missing side is not an error: hasBefore and hasAfter say which text is present, so render 'diff unavailable' rather than treating null as a failure. Unlike the rest of the law-change tools this one returns section text, so check its cost before looping over a change list. Cost: 4 credits. |
| list_boards | List every watchable board: a tracked corpus source such as the Federal Register, the CFR, or one state's statutes, with its refresh cadence. A board is identified by corpusType plus state (state is null for federal). Use to discover what can be subscribed to before calling create_watch. Free. |
| list_statute_divisions | Walk the statutory hierarchy: list the child divisions (titles, chapters, parts, or sections) under any level, in statutory order. Use to browse a code structurally when you do not yet know the section number, or to enumerate everything under a chapter. Cost: 1 credit. |
| list_statutes_coverage | Self-describing coverage matrix: every corpusType we hold and its per-jurisdiction section counts. Use before answering a jurisdiction question to check whether we actually cover that state and that body of law, so you can say so instead of searching a corpus that does not exist. Free. |
| list_watch_changes | What a watched source added, amended or removed: section identifier, citation, title and detection time, newest first. Metadata only, never section text. Covers the board's whole captured history, not just since you subscribed. Safe to poll: it writes nothing and cannot suppress or double-fire a delivery. Page with sinceId and the returned cursor. Free. |
| list_watch_deliveries | Per-attempt delivery log for one watch: status code, error and attempt number, retained 90 days. Webhook watches only -- an email-only watch always returns an empty list, because email sends are not logged per attempt. Use to debug a webhook that is not arriving. Free. |
| list_watches | List the board watches you own, with their board, channel, destination, active state and the outcome of the last delivery attempt. Use to find a watchId for the other watch tools. Free. |
| resolve_statute_citation | Resolve a Bluebook citation string ('42 U.S.C. 1983', '16 C.F.R. 444.1', 'Cal. Code Regs. tit. 22, 76227') to the exact section, confirmed, with an official source link and the act_id. Use this whenever the user gives you a citation rather than a question -- it is far more reliable than searching for the citation text. Cost: 2 credits. |
| resolve_statute_citations_batch | Resolve up to 50 Bluebook citations in one call, returning the same confirmed section, official source link and act_id as the single-citation tool. Use when a document or answer cites several provisions: one call is far cheaper in both credits and latency than looping the single-citation tool. Cost: 2 credits. |
| search | Generic corpus search over US primary law, returning `{id, title, url}` records for citation. Present so this server works in clients that require the standard search/fetch pair. If you can call `search_us_statutes`, prefer it: it filters by jurisdiction, corpus, date and status, which this cannot. Pair with `fetch` to read a result. |
| search_us_statutes | Semantic + keyword search across US primary law: the United States Code (USC), the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), and all 50 states' statutes, regulations, constitutions and court rules. Use for any 'what does the law say' question. Filter by corpusType and titleNumber. Returns sections with citation, hierarchy and official source links. The returned act_id (e.g. 'USC_T42_C21_S1983') feeds every other statute tool -- do not hand-build one, they usually 404. Cost: 4 credits. |
| test_watch | Send a synthetic notification to a watch's destination to verify signing, outbound auth and reachability before relying on it. Test deliveries are deliberately not persisted, so they never appear in list_watch_deliveries and never move the watch's last-notified timestamp. Rate limited by a short cooldown. Free. |
| update_watch | Change a watch's destination, signing secret, outbound auth, or active state. Set isActive false to pause notifications while keeping the watch's config and history. The channel itself cannot be changed. Free. |