Congress Members

Resolve a member across Congress-number sessions, normalized into the same bearer-authenticated, cursor-paginated shape as the rest of the Archivist.

GEThttps://api.archivist.dev/members

Authentication

This endpoint uses the same bearer-token contract as the rest of the Archivist. Pass your key in the Authorization header — send `Authorization: Bearer $ARCHIVIST_KEY` on every request and you’re in. No cookies, no sessions, no CSRF surface.

GET /members···

curl 'https://api.archivist.dev/members?state=CA' \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $ARCHIVIST_KEY" \
  -H "Accept: application/json"

node-fetch.js···

const res = await fetch(
  'https://api.archivist.dev/members?state=CA',
  {
    headers: {
      Authorization: `Bearer ${process.env.ARCHIVIST_KEY}`,
      Accept: 'application/json',
    },
  },
);
if (!res.ok) throw new Error(`Archivist ${res.status}`);
const { items, nextCursor } = await res.json();
const rep = items.find((m) => m.terms[0]?.congress === 118);

For full key-handling guidance and the 401 / 403 / 429 status table, see Errors & limits on the authentication page.

Endpoint

Filter by state, chamber, or congress and page through results with cursor and limit.

Endpoint · Members

Members

Page through the member mirror or resolve a single member by stable id — keyed to a Congress, chamber, and party.

GEThttps://api.archivist.dev/members

Request

The endpoint accepts the following query parameters.

Request parameters

Name	In	Type	Required	Description
state	query	string	optional	Two-letter state code (e.g. CA).
chamber	query	"house" \| "senate"	optional	Filter to one chamber — house or senate.
congress	query	integer	optional	Filter to members who served in this Congress (e.g. 118).
cursor	query	string	optional	Opaque pagination cursor returned in the previous response.
limit	query	integer	optional	Page size, 1–100. Defaults to 25.

Run it — curl

curl···

# All members from California
curl 'https://api.archivist.dev/members?state=CA' \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $ARCHIVIST_KEY"

# A single member by stable id
curl https://api.archivist.dev/members/M000197 \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $ARCHIVIST_KEY"

Run it — JavaScript

Plain fetch — no SDK, no runtime dependency. The key reads from env at server startup.

members.js···

const res = await fetch(
  'https://api.archivist.dev/members?state=CA',
  { headers: { Authorization: `Bearer ${process.env.ARCHIVIST_KEY}` } },
);
const { items } = await res.json();
const rep = items.find((m) => m.terms[0]?.congress === 118);
console.log(`${rep?.name} (${rep?.state}) — ${rep?.terms[0]?.party}`);

Response

Successful responses are 200 OK with the shape below. Errors come back as { "error": "..." } — see the error reference for the full status table.

Response schema

Field	Type	Required	Description
items	MemberItem[]	required	Page of members, ordered by state then name.
items[].member_id	string	required	Stable cross-Congress id (M-nnnnnn).
items[].bioguide_id	string	required	Library of Congress Bioguide id.
items[].name	string	required	Latest known display name.
items[].state	string	required	State the member represented most recently.
items[].terms	Term[]	required	Ordered list of terms, newest first.
items[].terms[].congress	integer	required	Congress number for that term.
items[].terms[].chamber	"house" \| "senate"	required	house or senate — the chamber the member served in for that term.
items[].terms[].party	string	required	Party affiliation as recorded for that term.
nextCursor	string \| null	required	Pass into the next page; null on the last page.

response···

{
  "items": [
    {
      "member_id": "M000197",
      "bioguide_id": "P000197",
      "name": "Pelosi, Nancy",
      "state": "CA",
      "terms": [
        { "congress": 118, "chamber": "house", "party": "Democrat" },
        { "congress": 117, "chamber": "house", "party": "Democrat" }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "nextCursor": null
}

Notes

member_id is stable across Congress transitions — a member changing to a new Congress never gets a new id.
terms is ordered newest first; the first term is the member’s current term when one exists.
A single member is fetched directly at /members/{id} — the same shape without the items wrapper.