Get RIS Document
ris_get_documentFetch one RIS document’s full text or its rendition URLs, with explicit binding status and the amtssigniert authentic PDF surfaced wherever it exists. Address the document exactly one of two ways: document_number plus application (both copied verbatim from a ris_search_* or ris_lookup_citation result), or a document_url from a result’s content_urls — or, for a draft’s companion documents (Erläuterungen, Textgegenüberstellung, WFA, cover letter, annexes), a ris_search_drafts record’s materials[].url, which is the only route to them. format: markdown (default — the HTML rendition converted to markdown), html (raw HTML rendition), xml (the RIS Nutzdaten XML), or urls_only (no fetch — every rendition URL, including the Authentisch PDF). Format availability varies by application and the tool degrades explicitly, never silently: consolidated law, gazettes, case law, drafts, and most sectoral collections carry full text; district and municipal promulgations and court rules (Bvb, GrA, KmGer) publish only the signed authentic PDF; party-transparency decisions and council minutes (Upts, Mrp) are PDF-only; the 1848–1940 imperial gazettes (BgblAlt) are metadata-only — for these a text-format request returns a format_unavailable notice with the usable URL, not an error. Every result carries binding_status; only authentic (amtssigniert) publications are legally binding. This tool returns content, not fresh metadata — the metadata rides the search/lookup step that produced the document number. When the markdown text overflows the 40,000-byte budget the tool returns an outline (kind: outline) instead of truncating: the document’s §/Artikel/Anlage sections where it carries at least two such headings, otherwise contiguous byte windows named Part 1 of N … Part N of N covering the whole text and listed in document order. Re-call with sections:[…] naming outline entries to retrieve just those; a name matching no entry returns the outline again with a notice rather than the whole document. Windows are cut at line breaks, not at sentence or § boundaries, so one can open mid-sentence — read them in order and pull the neighbour when a passage straddles a cut. Raw html and xml renditions are never sliced and return whole at any size. Markdown drops the screen-reader expansions RIS ships alongside each abbreviated citation, keeping the visible citation form; raw html/xml renditions are returned exactly as published.
Input Schema
| Name | Required | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| format | No | markdown (default — the HTML rendition converted to markdown), html (raw HTML rendition), xml (RIS Nutzdaten schema), or urls_only (no fetch — all rendition URLs incl. the authentic PDF). | markdown |
| sections | No | Entry names to retrieve, each copied verbatim from a prior outline response (kind: outline) — §/Artikel/Anlage section names, or window names of the form "Part 2 of 6". Omit for the full document, which returns an outline instead when the markdown overflows the 40,000-byte budget. A name that matches no entry is never silently ignored: a total miss returns the outline (kind: outline) with a notice, a partial miss returns the matched entries with a notice naming others to pick from. Applies to markdown only — html, xml, and urls_only are never sliced and return in full. | |
| application | No | RIS application the document belongs to (e.g. BrKons, Dsk, BgblAuth) — copy verbatim from the same result. Required with document_number. Codes and coverage: ris_list_reference topic applications. | |
| document_url | No | A https://www.ris.bka.gv.at/Dokumente/… rendition URL as returned in a result’s content_urls — the alternative to document_number + application. Also the only way to read a draft’s companion documents: pass a ris_search_drafts record’s materials[].url (the Erläuterungen, Textgegenüberstellung, WFA, cover letter, or annex), whose filenames are opaque and per-record and so cannot be reached through document_number. Every companion filename RIS publishes is accepted, whichever shape it carries. The URL’s own extension is only checked against the rendition extensions RIS uses and is then discarded — format selects which rendition is returned, for a companion exactly as for a main document. A filename that is neither this document’s own rendition nor one of its companions is rejected; companion filenames cannot be composed by hand, so copy one verbatim. | |
| document_number | No | Technical RIS document number (Technisch.ID), e.g. NOR40262691, JJT_…, BGBLA_2026_II_171 — copy verbatim from a ris_search_* or ris_lookup_citation result. Requires application; mutually exclusive with document_url. |
Output Schema
| Name | Required | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| kind | No | full — the complete response (document text, selected entries, or rendition URLs). outline — sections lists the retrievable entries instead of the text, either because the document overflowed the byte budget or because a sections:[…] selector matched nothing; re-call with sections:[…] naming entries from it. | |
| text | No | The document text in the requested format. Absent for urls_only and when the application carries no text rendition (see the notice). | |
| error | No | Present when the call failed. Absent on success. | |
| format | No | The format served — echoes the requested format. | |
| notice | No | Present when the requested text format is unavailable for this application (names why and the usable URL), when the document overflowed to a section outline (names how to retrieve sections), or when a sections:[…] entry matched no section (names the unmatched entries). | |
| sections | No | Present when kind = outline: the document’s addressable entries, each with its UTF-8 byte size — §/Artikel/Anlage sections listed largest first, or, when the markdown carries no such headings, Part n of N byte windows listed in document order and summing to byte_size. Copy names into the sections input verbatim to retrieve them; naming several in one call returns their text concatenated in document order, with nothing inserted between them. | |
| byte_size | No | Full UTF-8 byte size of the document text. Present when text was fetched — for an overflowed document (kind: outline) this reports the full text’s size, not the outline payload’s. | |
| truncated | No | Present and true when the full text isn’t inline because an outline was returned instead (kind: outline) — either the document overflowed the byte budget, or a sections:[…] selector matched nothing. The notice names which. Retrieve entries via the sections input, or fetch content_urls for the whole artifact. | |
| application | No | RIS application the document belongs to (echoed). | |
| content_urls | No | Constructed rendition URLs. Empty for authentic-PDF-only (Bvb/GrA/KmGer) and metadata-only (BgblAlt) applications — see authentic_pdf_url and the notice. For a companion document (a draft’s Erläuterungen, Textgegenüberstellung, WFA, cover letter, or annex) these are the companion’s own XML/HTML/PDF, not the parent document’s — constructed rather than read back from RIS, so for the roughly one companion in eight that RIS files as a PDF only, xml and html return 404 and pdf is the one that resolves. | |
| binding_status | No | Legal binding status: authentic (amtssigniert, legally binding), consolidated_informational (consolidated view — not binding), historical_record (superseded/pre-e-Recht promulgation), decision (court/tribunal ruling), preparatory (draft/bill/minutes), administrative_directive (binds the administration, not citizens), or translation (unofficial English). | |
| document_number | No | Technical RIS document number (echoed). | |
| authentic_pdf_url | No | The amtssigniert authentic PDF (.pdfsig, Authentisch DataType) — the legally binding artifact — where the application publishes one. |