A search is the core operation of the API. You submit a company name and optionally enable additional data sources. The API returns a unified response combining results from all enabled sources.
How it works
- The business registry search runs first (provincial + federal coverage)
- Regulatory registries are checked in parallel (charities, MSB, cannabis)
- If enabled, website analysis and sanctions screening run concurrently
- Results are deduplicated and merged into a single response
Searches typically take 20–40 seconds. The business registry lookup is the bottleneck. Save the searchId from the response to retrieve results via GET /search/{id} without re-running the search.
Request parameters
| Parameter | Type | Default | Description |
|---|
name | string | required | Company name to search |
website | string | — | Company website URL |
businessRegistry | boolean | true | Search provincial and federal business registries |
regulatoryRegistry | boolean | true | Search charity, MSB, and cannabis registries |
sanctionsScreening | boolean | false | Screen against global sanctions watchlists |
sanctionsThreshold | integer | 85 | Minimum match confidence score (70–100) |
websiteAnalysis | boolean | false | Scrape and extract structured data from the website |
Start with the defaults (businessRegistry and regulatoryRegistry only). Add sanctionsScreening and websiteAnalysis when you need them — each adds to the response time.
Common search patterns
Basic search
The minimum required request. Searches business and regulatory registries.
{
"name": "Shopify Inc"
}
With sanctions screening
{
"name": "Shopify Inc",
"sanctionsScreening": true,
"sanctionsThreshold": 85
}
With website analysis
Providing the website URL improves extraction quality. If omitted and websiteAnalysis is true, the API attempts to discover the website automatically.
{
"name": "Shopify Inc",
"website": "https://shopify.com",
"websiteAnalysis": true
}
Full search
All data sources enabled:
{
"name": "Shopify Inc",
"website": "https://shopify.com",
"businessRegistry": true,
"regulatoryRegistry": true,
"sanctionsScreening": true,
"sanctionsThreshold": 85,
"websiteAnalysis": true
}
What each source returns
| Source | Key in response | What you get |
|---|
| Business registry | businesses[] | Legal name, jurisdiction, status, registration numbers, addresses, entity type |
| Regulatory registries | regulatory | Charity registrations (CRA), MSB registrations (FINTRAC), cannabis licences (AGCO, Health Canada) |
| People | people | Directors, owners, officers — deduplicated across registry and website sources |
| Sanctions | sanctions | Match list with confidence scores and source watchlists |
| Website | website | Descriptions, addresses, people, contact info, industry classification |
