> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://firecrawl-capy-docs-factual-copy-fixes.mintlify.site/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Firecrawl Government Index

> Search statutes, regulations, codes, court opinions, and other government publications

Firecrawl Government Index searches US federal, state, and local statutes, regulations, codes, court opinions, and other government publications. It helps an agent find the legal or regulatory text behind a question. Ranked matches can also include historical versions, bill text, agency guidance, and third-party reproductions; a match is not a guarantee of current governing law.

* Find the regulation that sets a labeling, reporting, or licensing requirement
* Read the statute or code section behind a compliance question
* Locate a court opinion that interprets a rule
* Pull the government publication an agency issued on a topic

## Choose and verify sources

Include the jurisdiction, agency or citation, and relevant date when known. Ask for a missing jurisdiction before identifying the governing rule. If the user supplies a source URL, read it directly with [`scrape`](/features/scrape) instead of searching again.

Before answering a current-law question, verify the source's issuer, jurisdiction, enacted/effective status, and version. Read the source behind a match when the snippet cannot establish the rule. Check a bill's status and effective date rather than inferring them from its title or digest. Cite the controlling section and supporting passage, and only give a page, section, or effective-date detail that the evidence supports.

The index focuses on US material. Use general search for other jurisdictions or missing coverage; no hits does not establish that no applicable law exists.

## Endpoints

| Task | Endpoint |
| - | - |
| Search the Government Index | [`GET` or `POST /search/gov`](/api-reference/endpoint/gov-search) |

## Search the Government Index

Send a natural-language question and get back ranked results from legal and regulatory sources. Results come back in the standard `web` group, each with `url`, `title`, `description`, and `position`, the same shape as a web result from [`/search`](/features/search).

Government Index searches are free and use no credits, with or without zero data retention. No API key is needed to get started; add one for higher rate limits.

The SDK examples use the Gov methods available in `firecrawl@4.44.1` and `firecrawl-py==4.49.2`. Set `FIRECRAWL_API_KEY` for the authenticated SDK examples; use the HTTP examples for keyless requests. If an installed client lacks the method, upgrade the SDK. In Python, call `gov_search` on the initialized client instance; class-only reflection may not list methods assigned during initialization.

<CodeGroup>
  ```bash cURL theme={null}
  # No API key needed to get started; add -H "Authorization: Bearer $FIRECRAWL_API_KEY" for higher rate limits:
  curl -s "https://api.firecrawl.dev/v2/search/gov?query=food%20labeling%20requirements%20for%20allergens&k=10"
  ```

  ```bash CLI theme={null}
  firecrawl gov "food labeling requirements for allergens" --limit 10
  ```

  ```python Python theme={null}
  import os
  from firecrawl import Firecrawl

  client = Firecrawl(api_key=os.environ["FIRECRAWL_API_KEY"])

  result = client.gov_search("food labeling requirements for allergens", k=10)
  print(result)
  ```

  ```js Node theme={null}
  import { Firecrawl } from "firecrawl";

  const client = new Firecrawl({
    apiKey: process.env.FIRECRAWL_API_KEY,
  });

  const result = await client.govSearch(
    "food labeling requirements for allergens",
    {
      k: 10,
    },
  );
  console.log(result);
  ```
</CodeGroup>

`POST` is available on the same path with the same fields as a JSON body:

```bash cURL theme={null}
# No API key needed to get started; add -H "Authorization: Bearer $FIRECRAWL_API_KEY" for higher rate limits:
curl -X POST https://api.firecrawl.dev/v2/search/gov \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "query": "food labeling requirements for allergens",
    "k": 10
  }'
```

`query` is required. `k` sets how many results come back, from 1 to 100, defaulting to 10. Unknown fields are rejected with `400`. See the [Government Index search reference](/api-reference/endpoint/gov-search) for the full request and response schema.

The same search is also available on [`/search`](/features/search#gov-category-search) as `categories: ["gov"]`, with results in `data.web`.

<Note>
  The hosted [MCP server](/mcp-server) exposes this index as
  `firecrawl_gov_search`, and the [CLI](/sdks/cli#government) as `firecrawl
      gov`. Neither writes anything.
</Note>


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