regulations_find_comments
regulations_find_commentsRead-only
Fetch public comments on a Federal Register document or a Regulations.gov docket — the unique corpus of what citizens and organizations actually submitted. Provide exactly one targeting parameter: docket_id (all comments in a docket, broadest), document_object_id (comments on one document, by its object ID or document ID), fr_document_number (convenience — resolves the FR number to the Regulations.gov document carrying it), or comment_id (one comment's full detail and attachments). A list narrows by comment text with search_term (each hit then carries the matching passages) and by posted date with posted_after/posted_before. The list endpoint returns no body text or attachment info — call with comment_id to read a comment's body. When a comment's real content is a PDF/DOCX attachment, the body is a stub and attachmentOnly is true; the attachment download URLs are returned. Requires REGULATIONS_GOV_API_KEY (free at https://api.data.gov/signup/).
Tool call template
This tool declares no required parameters. Add optional parameters from the input schema as needed.
{
"id": 1,
"jsonrpc": "2.0",
"method": "tools/call",
"params": {
"arguments": {},
"name": "regulations_find_comments"
}
}Input Schema
| Name | Required | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| page | No | Page number (1–40, default 1). Regulations.gov serves 40 pages, so a list reaches 40 × per_page comments (10,000 at per_page 250); totalPages and nextPage in the response say how far this one goes. To reach past that, take the set one posted_after/posted_before window at a time. | |
| per_page | No | Comments per page (at least 5, default 25, capped at 250 with a notice). Regulations.gov requires a minimum page size of 5. | |
| docket_id | No | Fetch all comments in a docket by Regulations.gov docket ID (e.g. "EPA-HQ-OAR-2025-0194") — regulationsGovDocketId on a regulations_search_rules or regulations_list_open_comments row, or docketId from regulations_get_document, not an entry of the printed docketIds. Broadest scope. Exactly one of docket_id / document_object_id / fr_document_number / comment_id is required — supplying two is rejected, not resolved by precedence. | |
| comment_id | No | Fetch one comment's full detail and attachments by its Regulations.gov comment ID (e.g. "EPA-HQ-OAR-2025-0194-31102"). Use to read a single comment's body after finding it in a list. Mutually exclusive with the other three targeting parameters — pass it alone, not alongside the docket it came from — and takes none of the list filters. | |
| search_term | No | List mode: keep only comments whose text matches, as Regulations.gov full-text search reads it — stemmed, so "flaring" also matches "flare" and "flares". Each hit then carries highlightedContent, the passages that matched. | |
| posted_after | No | List mode: earliest posted date, inclusive, ISO 8601 (YYYY-MM-DD), a real calendar day. Pair with posted_before to take a high-volume set one window at a time. | |
| posted_before | No | List mode: latest posted date, inclusive, ISO 8601 (YYYY-MM-DD), a real calendar day. The same date as posted_after selects that one day. | |
| document_object_id | No | Fetch comments on one specific Regulations.gov document, by either handle: its object ID, 16 hex characters (e.g. "0900006485883ec6", the objectId in regulations_get_docket's documents), or its document ID (e.g. "EPA-HQ-OW-2022-0114-0027", the regulationsGovDocumentId from regulations_get_document). Comments usually attach to the docket's primary (proposed-rule) document. Mutually exclusive with the other three targeting parameters. | |
| fr_document_number | No | Convenience: fetch comments on the Regulations.gov document carrying a Federal Register number (e.g. "2023-05471"; older numbers like "E9-25990" too). A Regulations.gov document ID ("EPA-HQ-OW-2022-0114-0027") is not an FR number; pass it as document_object_id. Saves a get_document → get_docket hop. A document that is not on Regulations.gov — a presidential document, for one — answers not_found. Mutually exclusive with the other three targeting parameters. |
Output Schema
| Name | Required | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| cap | No | The most comments 40 pages reach at this per_page (40 × per_page); set with truncated (list mode). | |
| mode | No | Which mode produced this result. | |
| error | No | Present when the call failed. Absent on success. | |
| shown | No | Comments returned on this page (list mode). | |
| title | No | Comment title (detail mode). | |
| notice | No | Guidance — per_page above its ceiling, no comments matched, the page is past the end, comments lie beyond the last page, or the substance of a comment is in its attachments. | |
| target | No | What was queried — the docket, document, or FR document, with any search_term and posted-date filters (list mode). | |
| bodyText | No | Comment body, HTML-stripped. A stub ("See Attached") when content is in attachments; null when empty (detail mode). | |
| comments | No | Comments matching the target, this page (list mode). Bodies/attachments require comment_id detail mode. | |
| docketId | No | Docket ID, or null (detail mode). | |
| nextPage | No | Page to request next — present only when a later page holds comments (list mode). | |
| commentId | No | Comment ID (detail mode). | |
| truncated | No | True when more comments matched than 40 pages reach at this per_page, so some are on no page — set on every page of such a set (list mode). | |
| withdrawn | No | True when the comment was withdrawn (detail mode). | |
| postedDate | No | Posted date (detail mode). | |
| totalCount | No | Total comments matching the target (list mode). | |
| totalPages | No | Pages of comments at this per_page, at most the 40 Regulations.gov serves; 0 when none matched (list mode). | |
| attachments | No | Attachments in upload order, withheld ones included — substance lives here when attachmentOnly is true (detail mode). | |
| organization | No | Submitter organization, or null (detail mode). | |
| postmarkDate | No | Postmark on a mailed submission, or null — many agencies record none (detail mode). | |
| receivedDate | No | Date Regulations.gov received the comment, or null when not recorded (detail mode). | |
| submitterName | No | Submitter name when public, or null (detail mode). | |
| attachmentOnly | No | True when attachments exist and the body is a stub/empty — the substance is in the attachment files (detail mode). | |
| restrictReason | No | Reason the comment is restricted, or null (detail mode). | |
| duplicateComments | No | Identical submissions this record stands for. 0 or 1 is an ordinary submission, depending on the agency; above 1 marks a mass-mail campaign record standing for that many identical submissions. Null when not recorded (detail mode). | |
| commentOnDocumentId | No | Document the comment was filed on, or null (detail mode). |