Registry Verify
Guide

How an AI agent checks a company before it pays

An AI agent checks a company by sending its legal name to Registry Verify, at the charge URL of the state where the company is formed or registered, paying 0.10 USDC, and reading the candidate companies that come back: each one's state number, status, people on record and the date of the data. The check tells the agent which record in that state carries the name and what the state reports about it. It does not prove that whoever sent the invoice or the contract is that company.

When to run the check

  • Before paying an invoice from a company the agent has not paid before.
  • Before onboarding a vendor or customer that says it is a registered company.
  • Before signing a contract with a party that names a corporation or LLC.

The steps

  1. Get the legal name and the state. Take the name from the invoice, contract or onboarding form, with its suffix such as LLC, INC or CORP, and the state where the company says it is formed or registered. Note a second fact you hold: the city, the ZIP code, the agent, or an officer's name.
  2. Ask before spending. Each lookup costs 0.10 USDC, paid in real USDC on Base. If the user has not authorized the agent to spend, ask first.
  3. Call that state's charge URL. Send the name in name to Florida's, New York's or California's charge URL, and pay the HTTP 402 answer with an x402 client. A company registered in two of these states needs one lookup in each. Our MCP server at https://registryverify.com/mcp has a free tool for each state that first lists candidate names and returns that state's charge URL.
  4. Pick the right candidate. Compare each candidate's address, agent and officers with the facts you hold. When two fit equally well, ask the user rather than choose on the name alone.
  5. Read the record. Read the status, the data date and the state's own warnings, as described below.
  6. Report what you found. Quote the state's number for the company, the status the state reports, the publisher and the data date. Say that a registry match is evidence about a record, not proof of who you are dealing with.

How to read the answer

Status
status_label is what the state reports. If it is anything other than active, tell the user before any payment or contract, and say what the state reports rather than calling the business closed. In California, is_active is true only for plain Active, and status_meaning says what a suspension means and which agency acted.
Data date
Tell the user how current the data is. Florida and New York give the date in dataset.source_file_date_end; California gives two, dataset.status_data_through and dataset.new_companies_through. When dataset.stale is true, say so.
People on record
Florida: the registered agent and up to six officers or managers; New York: the registered agent, the service of process address and the chief executive; California: the agent for service of process and up to 25 officers, managers and members. Compare them with the person who signed the invoice or the contract. Many companies use a commercial agent service, so the agent's name alone does not tell you who owns the company.
The state's own warnings
Florida: the annual report sentence and the warning flags, each with the Florida record behind it. New York: whether the biennial statement is on file, and a warning when New York dissolved the company by proclamation. California: the standing flags and, for a suspension, the agency and date. Tell the user about any of them before paying.
Home state
home_state.sentence says where the state's record says the company was formed. It does not say how the company stands there.

What a no match means, and what it does not

A no match answer means we found no candidate for that name in the files we hold for that state. It does not prove that the business does not exist, or that it is not registered there. Before you conclude anything, try the exact legal name with its suffix, check the spelling, and consider that the company may be registered only in another state. Each new lookup is a new payment.

For Florida's fields one by one, read the Florida agent guide.

What each state returns

Registry Verify answers for Florida, New York and California. Each state has its own records and its own charge URL, so one lookup searches one state. A lookup costs 0.10 USDC in each state, paid the same way over x402 on Base, and every answer says how current its data is.

Florida

Publisher
The Florida Division of Corporations, from its quarterly snapshot of corporate records and its daily files of new filings, changes and status events, the data behind Sunbiz (source files). About 13 million filings, active and inactive.
Updates
Every day we load Florida's new daily files on top of its quarterly snapshot, and each quarter we load the new snapshot. Florida's daily event files miss some status changes, which reach us with the next quarterly snapshot.
Data date
Every answer carries this date in dataset.source_file_date_end, the date of the newest Florida daily file we hold. dataset.stale is true when our last import finished more than 7 days ago. Florida's data status page shows this date as it stands now, with the record count.
Charge URL
GET https://myproceeds.xyz/api/pay/cmupojkok000bjz043ecdfmec/verify-florida-business?name=Publix%20Super%20Markets

Send name, and optionally limit (1 to 5), home_state (a two letter state code that lists filings formed there first), and ein, zip, address and person to check what a counterparty told you.

Fields
Document number, name as filed, status, filing type and date, principal city and ZIP code, registered agent, up to six officers, home state, annual report status, status history, and the Florida source file.
Only in Florida
Warning flags, shared record counts, former names, listing the filings formed in a chosen home state first, and checks of an EIN, ZIP code, address or person against each filing.
Limits
At most six officers, as Florida's file holds them. A filing formed before 2008 and renamed once is found only by its current name. A no match does not prove a company is absent from Florida's records. To confirm a filing made in the last day or two, a person can search Florida's own site in a browser (it refuses automated clients): Sunbiz search.

Florida business lookup API: every field, how to call it, a sample answer and how often the right company comes first.

New York

Publisher
The New York Department of State, Division of Corporations, from its company register published on data.ny.gov (source files). About 7.2 million companies, active and inactive.
Updates
Updated every day: at 16:30 UTC we add New York's daily filings and status changes.
Data date
Every answer carries this date in dataset.source_file_date_end, the date of the newest New York file we loaded. dataset.stale is true when our New York data is more than 10 days old. New York's data status page shows this date as it stands now, with the record count.
Charge URL
GET https://myproceeds.xyz/api/pay/cmupojkok000bjz043ecdfmec/verify-new-york-business?name=Pfizer%20Inc

Send name, and optionally limit (1 to 5). Florida's other parameters are accepted, change nothing, and are listed under inputs_not_used.

Fields
DOS ID, name, status and the filing that set it, entity type, formation date, county, home state, the service of process, registered agent, chief executive and principal office addresses, its five newest filings, and its former and fictitious names.
Only in New York
Whether the biennial statement is on file (New York asks business corporations and LLCs for one every two years), fictitious names in the search, and a warning when New York dissolved the company by proclamation.
Limits
No officers beyond the chief executive, and New York LLCs name no members or managers. No warning flags, shared record counts or fact checks, and New York publishes no EIN. New York says its open data is not an official record. For a certified record, ask the Department of State, or check New York's record search.

New York business lookup API: every field, how to call it, a sample answer and how often the right company comes first.

California

Publisher
The California Secretary of State, from its bizfile Online bulk data (source files). About 9.4 million companies, active and inactive.
Updates
Two files. A monthly file lists every company with its status on the file's last day, and it is the only source of status changes. A weekly file adds the companies first filed that week. A company suspended or revived after the monthly file's last day keeps its earlier status here until the next monthly file.
Data date
Every answer carries both dates: dataset.status_data_through, the last day of the newest monthly file, and dataset.new_companies_through, the last day of the newest weekly file. dataset.stale is true when the weekly data is more than 9 days old or the monthly data more than 35 days old. California's data status page shows both dates as they stand now, with the record count.
Charge URL
GET https://myproceeds.xyz/api/pay/cmupojkok000bjz043ecdfmec/verify-california-business?name=Apple%20Inc

Send name, and optionally limit (1 to 5). Florida's other parameters are accepted, change nothing, and are listed under inputs_not_used.

Fields
Entity number, name, status in California's own words and what it means, standing with the Secretary of State, the Franchise Tax Board and for its agent, entity type, first filing date, home state and the company's name there, principal, mailing and California office addresses, the agent for service of process, up to 25 officers, managers and members from the latest Statement of Information, and that statement's date.
Only in California
California's standing flags, the Statement of Information with up to 25 people, and a search of the company's name in its home state as well as its California name.
Limits
No status history and no former names, because California's file has neither. No warning flags, shared record counts or fact checks, and California publishes no EIN. California publishes this data without a promise of accuracy. For proof of status, ask the Secretary of State for a certificate of status, or check California's business search.

California business lookup API: every field, how to call it, a sample answer and how often the right company comes first.