Pre-filling a business

Pre-fill powers an as-you-type autocomplete. You send a partial business name, a business number (BN), or a registration number, and the API returns ranked, already-canonical candidate profiles you can use to auto-populate a business record — no manual data entry. It is the fast path: unlike /search, it does not run website analysis, sanctions screening, or report fetches. It is built to be called repeatedly as the user types.

How it works

The query is classified — a name, a BN, or a registration number
Multiple registries are queried in parallel, each with a short timeout
Results are deduplicated, merged, and ranked (exact identifier matches first)
A slow or unavailable source is simply omitted — it never blocks the response

Pre-fill responses typically return in under a second. Debounce input on the client (~300ms) and cancel in-flight requests as the query changes.

Request parameters

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
`query`	string	required	Business name, business number (BN), or registration number
`limit`	integer	`10`	Maximum number of candidates to return (1–25)

Examples

By name

{ "query": "Shopify" }

By business number or registration number

Identifier-shaped queries are auto-detected; the exact match is pinned to the top.

{ "query": "BC0871095", "limit": 5 }

What you get back

Each candidate is a canonical profile with legalName (upper-cased), operatingNames, registrationNumbers, entityType (normalized to a canonical set, with the registry’s original wording preserved in sourceEntityType), status, addresses, an incorporationDate when available, a matchScore (0–1), and the sources that contributed. status reports only the current state (e.g. Active) — pre-fill is a fast identity lookup, not a point-in-time verification, so there is no per-field timestamp. Use the response-level searchedAt if you need a freshness marker. The response also reports mode (how the query was read) and which sources responded (sourcesSucceeded) or were skipped (sourcesFailed).

{
  "query": "shopify",
  "mode": "name",
  "candidates": [
    {
      "legalName": "SHOPIFY INC.",
      "operatingNames": [],
      "registrationNumbers": [
        { "type": "federal", "value": "763251", "jurisdiction": "FED", "label": "Federal Corporation Number" },
        { "type": "business_number", "value": "453096922", "label": "Business Number (CRA)" }
      ],
      "entityType": "Corporation",
      "sourceEntityType": "Business corporation",
      "status": { "state": "Active" },
      "addresses": [{ "city": "Ottawa", "province": "Ontario", "country": "Canada" }],
      "matchScore": 1,
      "sources": ["business_registries", "federal_corporations"]
    }
  ],
  "sourcesSucceeded": ["business_registries", "federal_corporations", "regulatory"],
  "sourcesFailed": ["orgbook_bc"],
  "searchedAt": "2026-06-26T00:00:00.000Z"
}

Take the candidate the user selects and feed its fields straight into your create-business flow. When you need the full verified record (sanctions, website, people, report), follow up with /search or /verify.

For the full request and response schema, see the Pre-fill Business endpoint.

Overview

Guides

Concepts

API Reference

Changelog

Releases

How it works

Request parameters

Examples

By name

By business number or registration number

What you get back

​How it works

​Request parameters

​Examples

​By name

​By business number or registration number

​What you get back

How it works

Request parameters

Examples

By name

By business number or registration number

What you get back