> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.policymate.io/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Documents

> Retrieve notices, agendas, minutes, and staff reports, with their text, publishers, and events.

Documents are everything a government source publishes outside of a bill's own record: rulemaking notices, agendas, minutes, staff reports, and press releases. Each document is issued by a publisher, such as an agency, a board, or a council.

## Retrieving Documents

To retrieve a list of documents, send a `GET` request to the `/documents` endpoint. For example, the following request retrieves Maryland documents published since October that mention data centers:

```http theme={null}
GET /api/v0/documents?jurisdiction=US-MD&q=%22data%20center%22&published_after=2026-10-01
```

The `/documents` endpoint accepts the `jurisdiction`, `publisher`, `category`, `q`, `published_after`, `published_before`, `topic`, and `updated_since` query parameters. They behave just like their [bill counterparts](https://docs.policymate.io/reference/bills.md#filtering-bills).

## The Document Object

A document looks like the following. The values below are illustrative:

```json theme={null}
{
  "id": "c27a9e04-1b6d-4f3a-9e8c-2a5b7d1f0e63",
  "type": "document",
  "title": "Notice of Public Hearing: Zoning Text Amendment for Data Center Uses",
  "description": "The Planning Board will hear a proposed amendment setting setbacks, noise limits and power-supply rules for data centers in industrial zones.",
  "published_date": "2026-10-28",
  "publisher": {
    "id": "0f8e...",
    "name": "Fairview County Planning Board",
    "category": "government",
    "jurisdiction": { "id": "US-MD", "name": "Maryland" }
  },
  "url": "https://planning.fairviewcounty.example/...",
  "categories": [ { "id": "5d21...", "label": "Land use and planning" } ],
  "files": [
    { "name": "ZTA-26-05 staff report.pdf", "mime_type": "application/pdf", "url": "https://..." }
  ],
  "text_url": "https://app.policymate.io/api/v0/documents/c27a9e04-.../text",
  "text_method": "ocr",
  "mentions": [ { "type": "bill", "id": "4d1c...", "name": "ZTA 26-05" } ],
  "events": [
    {
      "id": "71b0...",
      "type": "meeting",
      "name": "Planning Board public hearing on ZTA 26-05",
      "starts_at": "2026-11-20T18:30:00-05:00",
      "location": "County Office Building, Hearing Room 1"
    }
  ],
  "updated_at": "2026-10-29T04:02:11Z"
}
```

## Document Text

The `GET /documents/{id}/text` endpoint returns a document's plain text. Depending on the source, this is either the text the publisher released or the text we extracted from its files, using OCR for scans. As with [bill texts](https://docs.policymate.io/reference/bills.md#bill-texts), the `text_method` attribute tells you which.

## Publishers

The `GET /publishers` endpoint returns the sources your account may access, along with the jurisdiction each one belongs to. You may pass a publisher's `id` to the `publisher` parameter of the `/documents` endpoint.

## Events

When a document announces a meeting, a hearing, or a comment deadline, PolicyMate records it as an event linked to that document. The `GET /events` endpoint accepts the `jurisdiction`, `type`, `starts_after`, and `starts_before` query parameters. An event's `type` is one of `meeting`, `vote`, `deadline`, `consultation`, or `other`.


This documentation is built and hosted on [Mintlify](https://mintlify.com), a developer documentation platform.