# Quick start

This quick start guide will get you started with fetching legislation from the Laws.Africa Content API. It includes:

1. Signing up for a Laws.Africa account
2. Listing available legislation
3. Fetching the HTML for a piece of legislation
4. Displaying the HTML

{% hint style="info" %}
This guide uses the Cape Town by-laws as example content, which is free and doesn't require an API subscription. Other content such as national laws require a subscription.

Find out more about API subscriptions and licensing terms at <https://laws.africa/api/detail>.
{% endhint %}

### Create an account

To get started, you'll need a free Laws.Africa account and API token.

1. Sign up for a free Laws.Africa account at <https://platform.laws.africa/>
2. Get your API token from <https://platform.laws.africa/api-keys/>

{% hint style="info" %}
In the examples below, replace `<YOUR_AUTH_TOKEN>` with your personal API token.

Once you're signed into your account, you can also visit the API URLs in your browser.
{% endhint %}

### Get a list of by-laws

Fetch a list of the by-laws (municipal legislation) for the City of Cape Town.

```bash
$ curl -H "Authorization: Token <YOUR_AUTH_TOKEN>" \
  https://api.laws.africa/v3/akn/za-cpt/.json
```

The `za-cpt`  part of the URL identifies the City of Cape Town in South Africa.

### Fetch the Animal by-law

Let's fetch the details of Cape Town's Animal by-law, in JSON format. This includes the title, publication details and a list of other API calls you can make for additional details.

```bash
$ curl -H "Authorization: Token <YOUR_AUTH_TOKEN>" \
  https://api.laws.africa/v3/akn/za-cpt/act/by-law/2011/animal.json
```

Laws.Africa can provide us with a Table of Contents for the by-law, also in JSON format. Let's fetch that:

```bash
$ curl -H "Authorization: Token <YOUR_AUTH_TOKEN>" \
  https://api.laws.africa/v3/akn/za-cpt/act/by-law/2011/animal/toc.json
```

Now let's get the HTML content of Section 3 of the by-law, regarding dog registration and licensing:

```bash
$ curl -H "Authorization: Token <YOUR_AUTH_TOKEN>" \
  https://api.laws.africa/v3/akn/za-cpt/act/by-law/2011/animal/eng/!main~chp_2__sec_3
```

### Display the by-law

Finally, let's put that HTML into a webpage and include the [Laws.Africa Law Widgets](https://github.com/laws-africa/law-widgets/blob/main/core/README.md) to apply stylesheets to make it look good:

```markup
<script type="module" src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/@lawsafrica/law-widgets@latest/dist/lawwidgets/lawwidgets.esm.js"></script>

<la-akoma-ntoso>
  <section class="akn-section" id="section-3" data-id="section-3">
    <h3>3. Dog registration and licensing</h3>
    <section class="akn-subsection" id="section-3.1" data-id="section-3.1">
      <span class="akn-num">(1)</span>
      <span class="akn-content"><span class="akn-p">The <span class="akn-term" data-refersTo="#term-owner" id="trm78" data-id="trm78">owner</span> of a property where one or more dogs are kept must register the <span class="akn-term" data-refersTo="#term-dog" id="trm79" data-id="trm79">dog</span> or dogs with the <span class="akn-term" data-refersTo="#term-Council" id="trm80" data-id="trm80">Council</span>.</span></span>
    </section>
    <section class="akn-subsection" id="section-3.2" data-id="section-3.2">
      <span class="akn-num">(2)</span>
      <span class="akn-content"><span class="akn-p">Dog registration must take place within four months of the <span class="akn-term" data-refersTo="#term-dog" id="trm81" data-id="trm81">dog</span>&#8217;s birth or within 30 days of acquiring a <span class="akn-term" data-refersTo="#term-dog" id="trm82" data-id="trm82">dog</span> on property within <span class="akn-term" data-refersTo="#term-Council" id="trm83" data-id="trm83">Council</span>&#8217;s jurisdictional boundaries.</span></span>
    </section>
    <section class="akn-subsection" id="section-3.3" data-id="section-3.3">
      <span class="akn-num">(3)</span>
      <span class="akn-content"><span class="akn-p">The <span class="akn-term" data-refersTo="#term-Council" id="trm84" data-id="trm84">Council</span> may levy a <span class="akn-term" data-refersTo="#term-dog" id="trm85" data-id="trm85">dog</span> license fee in respect of a property where one or more dogs are kept.</span></span>
    </section>
    <section class="akn-subsection" id="section-3.4" data-id="section-3.4">
      <span class="akn-num">(4)</span>
      <span class="akn-content"><span class="akn-p">The amount of the <span class="akn-term" data-refersTo="#term-dog" id="trm86" data-id="trm86">dog</span> license fee may be determined in terms of a resolution of <span class="akn-term" data-refersTo="#term-Council" id="trm87" data-id="trm87">Council</span>. A reduced <span class="akn-term" data-refersTo="#term-dog" id="trm88" data-id="trm88">dog</span> license fee may apply for sterilized dogs.</span></span>
    </section>
  </section>
</la-akoma-ntoso>
```

![](/files/-Lrrp-s3JG1aQukyz40M)

## Next steps

* [The Tutorial](/tutorial/about-the-tutorial.md) goes step-by-step through building a Django application that display legislation fetched from the Laws.Africa Content API.
* Browse the [API documentation](/get-started/overview.md).

{% content-ref url="/pages/-LrrnkUvDEilSJSH4StB" %}
[Introduction](/get-started/overview.md)
{% endcontent-ref %}


---

# Agent Instructions: 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/quick-start.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.