registry-verify

Registry Verify: check a business against Florida records

Registry Verify searches the Florida Division of Corporations public filing data for a business name and returns the matching filings with the source file each one came from. For each filing it also says which home state Florida's record names, whether the filing is current on its Florida annual report, and the last status change we recorded. Use it as the registry step of a Know Your Business check.

When to use it

• Before paying an invoice, signing a contract, or onboarding a vendor or customer whose business is in Florida.
• When a user asks whether a company is registered, active, or inactive in Florida, or who its registered agent or officers are.
• When a user asks whether a Florida company has filed this year's annual report, or whether Florida may dissolve it for missing the report.
• When an out of state company (for example "a Delaware LLC") says it does business in Florida. Florida registers those as foreign filings.

When not to use it

• The business has no Florida connection. Coverage is Florida only, so a search tells you nothing about other states.
• You need to verify a person, screen sanctions, or check credit. This is a registry lookup only.
• You have no budget for the call. Every lookup is a payment. If the user has not authorized spending, ask before you pay.

Make the call

Send one GET request to the Proceeds charge URL. Put the legal business name in name, URL encoded.

GET https://myproceeds.xyz/api/pay/cmupojkok000bjz043ecdfmec/verify-florida-business?name=Publix%20Super%20Markets

Optional: limit from 1 to 5 sets how many candidate filings come back (default 5).

Optional: home_state takes a two letter United States state code, such as DE, when the user already believes the company was formed in that state. Filings formed there are listed first, and the answer says plainly when no Florida registration was found for a company formed there.

GET https://myproceeds.xyz/api/pay/cmupojkok000bjz043ecdfmec/verify-florida-business?name=Acme%20Holdings&home_state=DE

Payment works like any x402 version 2 resource:

1. The first request returns 402 Payment Required. The JSON body and the PAYMENT-REQUIRED header list the accepted payments: network, asset, amount, and recipient.
2. Your x402 client signs the payment and repeats the same request with the payment attached.
3. Proceeds settles the payment and returns our JSON answer.

Read the network and amount from the 402 response. Do not assume them. The price is 0.10 USDC (amount 100000, six decimals).

The paywall runs on Base mainnet (eip155:8453), so a lookup is paid with real USDC. Read the network from the 402 response anyway, and tell the user they are spending real money before you pay.

Proceeds documents compatible agent wallets at https://docs.myproceeds.xyz/agents/overview.md

Call only the Proceeds charge URL. No other Registry Verify route accepts payment, and no API key is issued to buyers.

What one paid answer contains

Every paid answer has these parts:

• matches: up to five candidate Florida filings, closest name first. Each one carries the filing's own fields (document number, name, status, filing type and date, principal city and ZIP, registered agent, officers), the Florida source file it came from, its home state, its annual report status, and its status history.
• dataset: what we searched. The coverage, the dates of the oldest and newest Florida daily files we hold, when we last loaded data, and whether the data is stale.
• history_begins_on and history_note: the first date our status change history covers, and what that means for older filings.
• same_name_across_home_states: each name that a Florida filing and a filing formed in another state both hold in these results. It is an empty list when there is none.
• home_state_query: present only when you sent home_state. It says how many of these filings name that state as their home state.
• result_interpretation: one sentence each on what a match, a no match, a status, a similarity score, and a home state mean.

Read the answer

{
  "query": "walmart",
  "match_count": 1,
  "matches": [
    {
      "doc_number": "849374",
      "name": "WALMART INC.",
      "status": "<A or I>",
      "status_label": "<Active or Inactive>",
      "status_as_reported_by": "Florida Division of Corporations",
      "filing_type": "<filing type code>",
      "filing_type_label": "<filing type in words>",
      "file_date": "<YYYY-MM-DD>",
      "principal_city": "<city>",
      "principal_zip": "<zip>",
      "ra_name": "<registered agent>",
      "officers": [{"title": "<code>", "type": "<P or C>", "name": "<name>", "address": "<street>", "city": "<city>", "state": "<state>", "zip": "<zip>"}],
      "more_than_six_officers": "<true or false>",
      "similarity": "<0 to 1>",
      "similarity_basis": "<what the similarity compares>",
      "source_file": "<Florida source file name>",
      "provenance": {
        "source": "<Official Florida quarterly corporate archive or daily filing>",
        "publisher": "Florida Division of Corporations",
        "file": "<Florida source file name>",
        "official_source_url": "https://dos.fl.gov/sunbiz/other-services/data-downloads/"
      },
      "state_country": "<home state code as Florida's record holds it>",
      "home_state": {
        "code": "<two letter code from Florida's record, or null>",
        "name": "<the state in words, or null when we cannot read the code>",
        "is_florida": "<true or false>",
        "code_decoded": "<true or false>",
        "official_search_url": "<that state's official business search, or null>",
        "official_search_authority": "<the office that keeps that register, or null>",
        "sentence": "<plain sentence about where the company was formed>"
      },
      "annual_reports": [{"year": "<YYYY>", "filed_on": "<YYYY-MM-DD>"}],
      "annual_report": {
        "state": "<filed, due, late, dissolution_date_passed, not_due_yet, inactive, unknown, or rule_not_checked>",
        "current_year": "<YYYY>",
        "current_year_filed": "<true, false, or null>",
        "latest_year": "<YYYY or null>",
        "latest_filed_on": "<YYYY-MM-DD or null>",
        "due_by": "<1 May of this year>",
        "dissolution_date": "<fourth Friday of September this year>",
        "sentence": "<plain sentence about the annual report>",
        "source_file": "<Florida file the reports were read from>",
        "source_file_date": "<YYYY-MM-DD or null>",
        "data_refreshed_at": "<when our last import finished>",
        "rule_sources": ["<Florida Statutes sections>", "https://dos.fl.gov/sunbiz/manage-business/efile/annual-report/"]
      },
      "history": {
        "first_seen_on": "<YYYY-MM-DD or null>",
        "history_begins_on": "<YYYY-MM-DD or null>",
        "last_status_change": {"date": "<YYYY-MM-DD>", "status": "<A or I>", "status_label": "<Active or Inactive>", "source_file": "<Florida daily file>"},
        "older_than_history": "<true or false>",
        "note": "<plain sentence about the history window>"
      }
    }
  ],
  "dataset": {
    "jurisdiction": "Florida",
    "coverage": "<quarterly_corporate_snapshot_with_daily_updates or partial_daily_files>",
    "complete_registry": false,
    "quarterly_snapshot_loaded": "<true or false>",
    "authoritative_no_match": false,
    "record_count": "<records we hold>",
    "source_file_count": "<Florida files loaded>",
    "quarterly_source_file_count": "<files from the quarterly snapshot>",
    "represented_daily_source_file_count": "<daily files>",
    "source_file_date_start": "<YYYY-MM-DD>",
    "source_file_date_end": "<YYYY-MM-DD>",
    "latest_event_source_file": "<newest Florida status event file>",
    "latest_event_file_date": "<YYYY-MM-DD>",
    "source_retrieved_at": "<when we last downloaded from Florida>",
    "last_ingested_at": "<when our last import finished>",
    "expected_source_records": "<records our last import expected>",
    "imported_records": "<records it imported>",
    "quarantined_records": "<records it set aside: no document number or name, or a future filing date>",
    "import_status": "<result of the last import>",
    "stale": "<true or false>",
    "warning": "<plain sentence about coverage>"
  },
  "history_begins_on": "<YYYY-MM-DD or null>",
  "history_note": "<plain sentence about how far back our history goes>",
  "same_name_across_home_states": [
    {
      "normalized_name": "<name with case, punctuation, and LLC or INC removed>",
      "florida": [{"doc_number": "<doc>", "name": "<name>"}],
      "out_of_state": [{"doc_number": "<doc>", "name": "<name>", "home_state_code": "<code>", "home_state_name": "<state>"}],
      "sentence": "<plain sentence about one business registering twice>"
    }
  ],
  "home_state_query": {
    "requested": "<the code you sent>",
    "requested_name": "<that state in words, or null>",
    "code_decoded": "<true or false>",
    "match_count_from_there": "<how many of these filings name that home state>",
    "doc_numbers_from_there": ["<doc>"],
    "official_search_url": "<that state's official business search, or null>",
    "official_search_authority": "<the office that keeps that register, or null>",
    "sentence": "<plain sentence answering the cross state question>"
  },
  "result_interpretation": {"match": "...", "no_match": "...", "status": "...", "similarity": "...", "home_state": "..."}
}

Angle brackets mark values that come from the Florida filing or from our data. Document 849374 is WALMART INC., a good first test.

The filing

• doc_number is the Florida document number. Quote it when you report the result. Anyone can check it on Sunbiz.
• status is what Florida reports: A active, I inactive. status_as_reported_by names who reports it, the Florida Division of Corporations.
• filing_type starting with FOR means an out of state company registered in Florida. file_date is then the date it registered in Florida, not the date it was formed.
• officers lists up to six officers or managers with their titles and addresses as Florida's record holds them. more_than_six_officers is true when Florida's record says the filing has more.
• similarity compares names only. It runs from 0 to 1. It is not a confidence that you found the right company. similarity_basis says what was compared.
• source_file and provenance.file name the Florida source file the record came from. provenance also names the publisher and links the Division's data download page.

Home state

• home_state is the home state Florida's own record names for the filing. For a Florida company it is Florida. For an out of state company it is where the company was formed, with the office that keeps that register and a link to its official business search. Read home_state.sentence and quote it. state_country is the raw code as Florida's record holds it.
• home_state.code_decoded is false when Florida's record carries a code that is not a United States state code, OC among them. Florida publishes the field but not the codes it uses, so we return the code and say we do not know what it means. Do not guess it, and do not tell the user it is a country. Read the filing's principal_city and principal_zip instead, which are already in the answer, and say where Florida's record puts the company rather than what the code might stand for.
• same_name_across_home_states lists each name that a Florida filing and an out of state filing in these results share once case, punctuation, and the legal form are removed. That often means one business registered twice, once where it was formed and once in Florida. It can also be two unrelated businesses, so check a second fact before you merge them.
• home_state_query is present only when you sent home_state. It says how many of these filings name that state and, when none does, that no Florida registration was found for a company formed there.

Annual report

Florida requires an annual report between 1 January and 1 May of every year after the year a filing was made. A filing still missing it on the third Friday of September is dissolved on the fourth Friday of September, or, for a company formed in another state, has its Florida registration revoked.

• annual_report.sentence says what Florida's files show about this year's report. Read it and quote it.
• annual_report.state is one of:
  • filed: this year's report is on file. The sentence says when, and whether it came after the 1 May deadline.
  • due: this year's report is not on file yet and 1 May has not passed.
  • late: 1 May has passed and this year's report is not on file. Florida dissolves or revokes on annual_report.dissolution_date if it is still missing.
  • dissolution_date_passed: that September date has gone by without the report. The status in our answer may not show the dissolution until we load Florida's next quarterly file, and the sentence says so.
  • not_due_yet: the filing was made this year, so its first report is due next year.
  • inactive: Florida lists the filing as inactive, so it owes no report.
  • unknown or rule_not_checked: we cannot say. The sentence says why.
• due_by and dissolution_date are this year's two dates. latest_year and latest_filed_on are the newest report on file. current_year_filed is true or false, or null when we cannot tell or no report is owed yet.
• source_file and source_file_date name the Florida file the reports were read from. data_refreshed_at is when our last import finished. rule_sources links the Florida Statutes sections and the Sunbiz page the rule comes from.
• annual_reports is the raw list Florida's record holds: up to its last three reports, each with a year and a filing date. Florida often repeats the same report twice in that list.

Status history

• history holds the first date we saw the filing in Florida's daily files (first_seen_on) and its most recent status change, if we recorded one (last_status_change, with the date, the new status, and the daily file it came from). Both are null when we recorded nothing.
• history_begins_on is the first date our history covers, and older_than_history is true when the filing is older than that. Read history.note: no recorded change does not mean nothing changed before history_begins_on. The top level history_begins_on and history_note say the same for the whole answer.

The data behind the answer

• dataset.source_file_date_end is the date of the newest Florida daily file we hold, and dataset.source_file_date_start the oldest. dataset.latest_event_source_file and dataset.latest_event_file_date name the newest Florida status event file we loaded.
• dataset.last_ingested_at is when our last import finished and dataset.source_retrieved_at when we last downloaded from Florida. dataset.stale is true when that last import finished more than seven days ago. If it is true, tell the user how old the data is.
• dataset.coverage, dataset.quarterly_snapshot_loaded, dataset.record_count and the file counts say what we searched. dataset.expected_source_records, dataset.imported_records, dataset.quarantined_records and dataset.import_status describe our last import.
• dataset.complete_registry and dataset.authoritative_no_match are false on every answer, because we do not claim that the files we hold contain every Florida filing. dataset.warning says so in one sentence.

Decide what the answer means

• One strong match. One candidate, a close name, and a second fact that agrees (city, ZIP, registered agent, or an officer the counterparty named). Report the document number, status, and source file.
• Several candidates. Do not pick one on name alone. Compare city, ZIP, officers, and filing date with what you know, or ask the user.
• Inactive. Florida reports the filing as inactive. Tell the user before any payment or contract. Do not call the business closed; say what Florida reports.
• Annual report late or past the dissolution date. annual_report.state is late or dissolution_date_passed. Quote annual_report.sentence to the user before any payment or contract. Do not say the company is dissolved unless Florida's status says so; say what Florida's files show.
• Out of state. The filing names another state as its home state. The company was formed there and registered to do business in Florida. Report both: what Florida says about the Florida registration, and that the company itself is held in that state's register, which home_state.official_search_url links to. Florida's record does not say how the company stands at home.
• Asked for a home state and none matched. You sent home_state and no filing names it. Say that no Florida registration was found for a company formed in that state under this name. A company formed elsewhere that does business in Florida is normally registered here as a foreign filing, so this is a real answer to the user's question, not a failed lookup.
• No match. No candidate was found in the covered Florida files. That does not prove the business does not exist. Try the exact legal name with its suffix (LLC, INC, CORP), check the spelling, and remember the company may be registered only in another state.
• Always say a registry match is evidence about a filing, not proof of who you are dealing with.

Errors

• 402: no payment, or the payment failed. Nothing was returned.
• 422: the name is missing, shorter than 2 or longer than 200 characters, or too broad. Add more of the legal name and try again.
• 429: too many requests. Wait for the Retry-After seconds.
• 502 or 504: our data service failed. Each retry is a new payment, so retry at most once.

If you were charged for an error answer, email [email protected] with the time of the call and the payment id.

Limits

• Florida only. At most five candidate filings per call.
• Search is by business name. EIN, address, and officer checks are not available yet.
• The home state comes from Florida's record of the company, not from the other state's register. We do not check whether the company is in good standing where it was formed.
• The annual report status comes from Florida's files as we last loaded them, so a report filed after that file may not show yet.
• Our status change history starts on history_begins_on. We hold no changes from before that date.
• Data comes from Florida's public daily and quarterly files. To confirm a filing made today, ask a person to open Florida's own search in a browser: https://search.sunbiz.org/Inquiry/CorporationSearch/ByName (it refuses automated clients).

More detail: https://registryverify.com/llms.txt OpenAPI description of the call: https://registryverify.com/openapi.json This skill on GitHub: https://github.com/ai-interact/registry-verify-agent-skill