> ## 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.

# People and Organisations

> Look up legislators, officials, agencies, committees, and parties, with their roles, sponsored bills, and mentions.

People and organisations are the actors behind the record: the legislators who sponsor bills, the officials who sign rules, and the agencies, committees, and parties they belong to. PolicyMate builds them from official records, such as a parliament's member list, where one exists, and from the documents that name them otherwise. Roles are only known for members of the legislatures whose records PolicyMate reads, so most people have none.

## People

To search for people, send a `GET` request to the `/people` endpoint. For example, the following request retrieves the current members of a legislative chamber:

```http theme={null}
GET /api/v0/people?organisation=4e0a...&current=true
```

The `/people` endpoint accepts the following query parameters:

| Parameter | Example | Description |
| - | - | - |
| `q` | `Jane Doe` | Search by name, including alternative spellings |
| `organisation` | an organisation `id` | Only people who hold, or held, a role in this organisation |
| `party` | a political group `id` | Only people who hold, or held, a role in this party or parliamentary group |
| `current` | `true` | Combined with `organisation` or `party`, only people whose role in that organisation is current. With both, the person must currently hold both roles. |
| `updated_since` | `2026-11-04T00:00:00Z` | Only people who changed since this time |

To retrieve a single person, send a `GET` request to `/people/{id}`. A person looks like the following:

```json theme={null}
{
  "id": "5c1d8e2a-...",
  "type": "person",
  "name": "Jane Doe",
  "aliases": ["Jane A. Doe"],
  "roles": [
    {
      "title": "Member",
      "organisation": { "id": "4e0a...", "name": "European Parliament", "kind": "other" },
      "start_date": "2024-07-16",
      "end_date": null,
      "verification": { "status": "official", "sources": [ ... ] }
    },
    {
      "title": "Member",
      "organisation": { "id": "9d3f...", "name": "Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance", "kind": "political_group" },
      "start_date": "2024-07-16",
      "end_date": null,
      "verification": { "status": "official", "sources": [ ... ] }
    }
  ],
  "verification": { "status": "official", "sources": [ ... ] },
  "links": {
    "official": "https://www.europarl.europa.eu/meps/...",
    "app": "https://app.policymate.io/entity/5c1d8e2a-..."
  },
  "updated_at": "2026-10-02T03:14:55Z"
}
```

A role's `end_date` is `null` when the record gives no end date, which is how a current role is recorded. A role that ended without the record saying so may therefore still look current. A party membership is a role like any other, held in an organisation whose `kind` is `political_group`, so when a person changes party during a term, each membership is listed as its own role, with its own dates.

The [`verification`](https://docs.policymate.io/verification) object at the top level tells you whether the person comes from an official record, such as a legislature's member list, or was assembled by AI from documents that name them (`inferred`). Each role carries its own verification: `official` when it comes from the legislature's record, or `reference` when it comes from a public reference database such as Wikidata.

### Sponsored Bills and Mentions

The `GET /people/{id}/bills` endpoint returns the bills a person [sponsored](https://docs.policymate.io/reference/bills.md#sponsors), latest milestone first. It accepts the same query parameters as the [`/bills`](https://docs.policymate.io/reference/bills#filtering-bills) endpoint. The `GET /people/{id}/mentions` endpoint returns every [mention](https://docs.policymate.io/reference/mentions.md) of the person, newest first.

## Organisations

Organisations include legislatures and their committees, agencies, regulators, local governments, political parties, companies, and associations. To search for organisations, send a `GET` request to the `/organisations` endpoint. It accepts the `q`, `kind`, and `updated_since` query parameters. For example, the following request lists political parties and parliamentary groups:

```http theme={null}
GET /api/v0/organisations?kind=political_group
```

To retrieve a single organisation, send a `GET` request to `/organisations/{id}`. An organisation looks like the following:

```json theme={null}
{
  "id": "b81f2c40-...",
  "type": "organisation",
  "name": "Public Utility Commission of Texas",
  "short_name": "PUC",
  "aliases": ["Texas PUC"],
  "kind": "other",
  "verification": { "status": "inferred", "sources": [] },
  "links": {
    "official": "https://www.puc.texas.gov",
    "app": "https://app.policymate.io/entity/b81f2c40-..."
  },
  "updated_at": "2026-09-18T11:40:02Z"
}
```

The `kind` attribute is `political_group` for parties and parliamentary groups, and `other` for every other organisation. You may pass a political group's `id` to the `party` parameter of the `/people` endpoint. As PolicyMate learns to tell committees, agencies, and other bodies apart, new kinds will be added to this list, so your code should treat a kind it does not recognise as `other`.

Unlike `type`, which is `organisation` for every organisation, as it is `bill` for every bill, `kind` tells organisations apart from one another.

### Members, Mentions, and Bills

The `GET /organisations/{id}/members` endpoint returns the people who hold, or held, a role in the organisation, as person objects ordered by name. You may pass `current=true` to only retrieve current members. The `GET /organisations/{id}/mentions` endpoint returns every [mention](https://docs.policymate.io/reference/mentions.md) of the organisation, newest first.

Organisations may also sponsor bills, such as a government filing its own bill. The `GET /organisations/{id}/bills` endpoint returns them, and accepts the same query parameters as the [`/bills`](https://docs.policymate.io/reference/bills#filtering-bills) endpoint.


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