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

# Choose a research task

> Find the shortest path from an insurance research question to filings and supporting evidence.

Start with your question, then load the guide and API reference needed for that
step. All the research operations below read existing data. They do not acquire
missing documents, start extraction, or submit a filing.

| Your task | Start here | Expected result |
| - | - | - |
| Find filings by state, company, line, date, or native reference | [Find the right filings](/guides/search-filings) | Filing IDs and metadata; a continuation when more results are available |
| Find policy wording or an exclusion | [Search document text](/guides/search-filings#search-document-text) | Candidate filings and matching file IDs, with passages when available |
| Research a carrier, group, or MGA | [Research a carrier or MGA](/guides/carrier-filings) | Directory identities connected to relevant filings |
| Read a document, resume later, or cite evidence | [Read and cite document evidence](/guides/read-filing-documents) | Revision-bound text chunks or a pinned original download |
| Inspect forms or understand a filed rate change | [Interpret forms and rate impact](/guides/filing-research-data) | Stored extracted results with explicit coverage limits |
| Continue a list or recover a failed request | [Pagination and recovery](/guides/pagination-and-recovery) | A safe next request without mixing queries or text revisions |

## Connect once

Follow [Quickstart](/getting-started/quickstart), provide an ordinary user API key
through `EFFECTIVE_API_KEY`, and verify the returned user and tenant. Filing
research also requires permission to view SERFF filings; content reads enforce
file access and export policy.

Set `API_BASE` to the host for your key, without `/api/v2` or a trailing slash:

```bash theme={null}
export API_BASE='https://effectiveai.app'
curl --fail-with-body --silent --show-error \
  "$API_BASE/api/v2/users/me" \
  --header "Authorization: Bearer $EFFECTIVE_API_KEY"
```

The guides show short HTTP requests relative to this host. Send the same
`Authorization: Bearer` header on every API request and use
`Content-Type: application/json` for JSON bodies. Replace placeholders such as
`{fileId}` with returned IDs and URL-encode query values, including cursors.
Response fragments are abbreviated; opaque values shown in angle brackets are
illustrative. Keep your key out of saved request logs and send it only to your
API host.

## Load more context when needed

The guides explain workflows. The generated [API reference](/api-reference/users/get-current-user)
owns request fields, enums, response schemas, and operation-specific limits.
Use [the documentation index](/llms.txt) to find a page, append `.md` for readable
Markdown, or use [the API catalog](/.well-known/api-catalog) to retrieve OpenAPI.

For every research result, keep its source reference, returned IDs, filters and
observation time. State whether you read metadata, extracted text, or original
bytes. A complete traversal of available records does not establish complete
coverage of a regulator's filings.


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