A key asks the same questions you do
A key lets a program, or an assistant you trust, search, open a paper, and pin into an investigation you already keep on the site. It does not download the zip.
The key asks. The file stays on the site.A key is a way for a program, or an assistant you trust, to ask the same questions you ask when you are signed in. It is not a second index, and it is not a way to take the whole library home.
You still read on the site. You still keep an investigation there. The key can search, open a paper, and pin what it finds onto that same file. You see the pin when you next open the dashboard.
What you can ask
Three ordinary questions, in plain language.
- Search. Titles and a short extract. Ten papers at a time.
- Open a paper. The text we hold for that one file.
- How does this attach? A company number, a land title, a person, or a body, and the records that already share an official identifier with it.
A name in a paper is still only a name. A name in a paper is not a join. The key will not turn a similar name into a person for you.
How much
A trial key can search 200 times, open 20 papers, and ask how records attach 30 times, across the whole trial. A paid Researcher seat then has 2,000 searches, 150 papers, and 150 of those attachment questions a month. Practice and Newsroom have more. The figures are on pricing and on your API usage page once you are signed in.
Browsing the site does not use those numbers. Packs on the site are included. Asking for every paper a council has ever published is not what the key is for, and we can close a seat that tries.
Where the file stays
The key can list the investigations on your seat, open the pins and notes, and add a pin or a note. It cannot download the zip. That download is a button on the investigation, and it uses your export allowance, which is separate. The reason is simple: you should see the file before you take it.
The API page has the instructions if you are setting a key up. The FAQ is the short version. If you only want to read and keep notes, you do not need a key at all.
What to open next
An investigation is the file you keep is the other half of this picture. A pin is not a join is why a pin does not become evidence. Vale Civic, when we use it in other notes, is invented.