> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://developers.laws.africa/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://developers.laws.africa/get-started/choose-an-api.md).

# Choose Knowledge Bases or the Content API

Start with the API that matches what your product needs to do.

## When to use Knowledge Bases

Use Knowledge Bases when your product needs to find relevant legal context.

Knowledge Bases are best for:

* legal AI assistants;
* RAG systems;
* legal agents and tool calls;
* semantic legal search;
* workflow tools that need relevant legislation or case law;
* prototypes where you do not want to build ingestion and indexing pipelines.

With Knowledge Bases, Laws.Africa maintains the source collections, indexes and retrieval layer. Your application sends a search query and gets back matching legal content with metadata and public source URLs.

{% content-ref url="/pages/Ve6UZgqLViJNXjOUepzQ" %}
[Quick start](/knowledge-bases/quick-start.md)
{% endcontent-ref %}

## When to use the Content API

Use the Content API when your product needs full legislation content inside your own systems.

The Content API is best for:

* legal publishing systems;
* compliance infrastructure;
* internal legal databases;
* offline processing;
* analytics and classification pipelines;
* products that need XML, HTML, PDF or point-in-time legislation versions.

With the Content API, your system controls storage, processing and presentation. You can use webhooks to receive update notifications for subscribed legislation content.

{% content-ref url="/pages/xYokJYvpv0F9xDIBpI7g" %}
[Quick start](/content-api/quick-start.md)
{% endcontent-ref %}

## When to use both

Some products use both APIs:

1. Use Knowledge Bases to find relevant legislation or judgments for a user's query.
2. Use the Content API to fetch full legislation content when the product needs to render, store or process the complete document.

This is useful when a product starts as search or AI grounding, but later needs deeper content control.

## How pricing affects the choice

Knowledge Bases are available from the free Sandbox plan, which makes them the lowest-friction starting point for evaluation and prototypes.

Full Content API access is available on Scale and Enterprise plans. Use it when your product needs complete legislation collections, historical versions, structured formats or update webhooks.

{% content-ref url="/pages/D9LEe4mbSHxclVPFCZns" %}
[Pricing and plans](/get-started/pricing.md)
{% endcontent-ref %}


---

# Agent Instructions
This documentation is published with GitBook. GitBook is the documentation platform designed so that both humans and AI agents can read, navigate, and reason over technical content effectively. Learn more at gitbook.com.

## Querying This Documentation
If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question.

Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter:

```
GET https://developers.laws.africa/get-started/choose-an-api.md?ask=<question>
```

The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language.
The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation.

Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.