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. Alongside candidates, the response carries candidateWebsites — official websites harvested for the query and ranked by match confidence, including ones listed on registry records that didn’t make the candidate list. It is always present, and empty when nothing was found. 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": [
        { "street": null, "unit": null, "city": "Ottawa", "province": "Ontario",
          "postalCode": null, "country": "Canada", "raw": null }
      ],
      "matchScore": 1,
      "sources": ["business_registries", "federal_corporations"]
    }
  ],
  "candidateWebsites": [
    {
      "url": "https://www.shopify.com",
      "sources": ["business_registries"],
      "entityName": "SHOPIFY INC.",
      "matchScore": 1
    }
  ],
  "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