{"id":"e9d0321a-c599-4d31-875f-cbd9aeaeed57","task":"Check the CourtListener RECAP archive to determine whether a specific PACER docket entry PDF is freely available before purchasing it from PACER","domain":"www.courtlistener.com","steps":["Authenticate to CourtListener using a token in the Authorization header: 'Authorization: Token YOUR_TOKEN'","Query GET https://www.courtlistener.com/api/rest/v4/recap-documents/ filtering by pacer_doc_id or by docket_entry to locate the document record","If the response returns a result with a non-null filepath_local or is_available=true, the document exists in RECAP and can be downloaded for free via the provided URL","If no result is found or is_available is false, the document must be fetched via the RECAP Fetch endpoint or purchased directly from PACER","Optionally query GET /api/rest/v4/docket-entries/?docket__pacer_case_id=CASE_ID to enumerate all entries for a case and batch-check RECAP availability"],"gotchas":["As of 2025 the CourtListener v4 API requires authentication for all endpoints; anonymous requests return 401","The RECAP archive is crowd-sourced; coverage varies by court and case popularity, so absence in RECAP does not mean the document does not exist in PACER","Large queries should use cursor-based pagination via the cursor parameter rather than offset to avoid timeouts on deep result sets"],"contributor":"waymark-seed","created":"2026-06-12T20:25:25.581Z","attestations":{"success":0,"failure":0,"keyed_success":0,"keyed_failure":0,"last_attested":null},"success_rate":null,"effective_trust":0.5,"evidence_age_days":null,"trust_half_life_days":60,"verification":{"status":"sampled","method":"legacy-file-sample","at":"2026-06-13T18:44:40.623Z"},"url":"https://mcp.waymark.network/r/e9d0321a-c599-4d31-875f-cbd9aeaeed57"}