indepacer

A CLI for PACER (Public Access to Court Electronic Records) federal court research.

Installation

pip install indepacer

# With full parsing support (BeautifulSoup for legacy formats)
pip install 'indepacer[full]'

Quick Start

# 1. Configure credentials
pacer auth login

# 2. Search for cases (costs $0.10/page)
pacer pcl cases -t "Apple v. Samsung"

# 3. Download a docket (auto-sets context)
pacer download docket 1:18-cv-08434 nysd
#  → Saves to ~/.pacer/archives/nysd/1-18-cv-08434/
#  → Caches document links in docs.json
#  → Sets this case as active context

# 4. View the docket (uses context)
pacer view                    # summary
pacer view -v                 # all entries

# 5. List available documents
pacer docs                    # shows cached doc links

# 6. Download document 31 (URL auto-resolved!)
pacer download document 31

# 7. Search local archive
pacer grep "motion to dismiss"

Interactive Workflow

# Search and act in one flow
pacer pcl cases -t "IBM" -c nysd -i
#  → Browse results with pagination
#  → Select a case
#  → Choose action: [d]ownload, [s]et context, [v]iew

Command Aliases

Short	Long Form	Description
`pacer auth`	`pacer auth login`	Configure credentials
`pacer docket`	`pacer download docket`	Download docket
`pacer doc`	`pacer download document`	Download document
`pacer view`	`pacer view`	View parsed docket
`pacer docs`	`pacer docs`	List cached documents
`pacer grep`	`pacer search`	Search local files

Command Reference

Global Options

pacer [OPTIONS] COMMAND
  -y, --yes    Skip cost confirmation prompts
  --version    Show version
  --help       Show help

Cost confirmation: By default, commands that incur PACER charges prompt for confirmation. Use -y to skip:

pacer download docket 1:18-cv-08434 nysd      # prompts: "Proceed? [Y/n]"
pacer -y download docket 1:18-cv-08434 nysd   # no prompt

Authentication

pacer auth login

Store PACER credentials securely.

pacer auth login [OPTIONS]

Options:
  -u, --username TEXT      PACER username (prompted if omitted)
  -p, --password TEXT      PACER password (prompted if omitted, hidden)
  -t, --totp-secret TEXT   TOTP secret for MFA (Base32 string)
  -c, --client-code TEXT   Client billing code (optional)

Examples:

# Interactive
pacer auth login

# Non-interactive
pacer auth login -u myuser -p mypass

# With MFA
pacer auth login -u myuser -p mypass -t QA36DEZ5EBAV5PSI5URBQLSNVBJZH2PJ

pacer auth setup-mfa

Add MFA to existing account.

pacer auth setup-mfa [OPTIONS]

Options:
  -t, --totp-secret TEXT   TOTP secret (prompted if omitted)

Get the Base32 secret from PACER's "Manage My Account" MFA setup page.

pacer auth test

Verify credentials work with PACER servers.

pacer auth test [OPTIONS]

Options:
  -o, --otp TEXT   Manual OTP code (if not using stored TOTP)

pacer auth status

Display current authentication configuration.

pacer auth status

Shows: username, password status, MFA status, client code, environment.

pacer auth logout

Remove stored credentials.

pacer auth logout

Context

The context system remembers your active case so you don't have to repeat court/case arguments.

pacer use case

Set the active case context.

pacer use case COURT CASE_NUMBER

Arguments:
  COURT         Court identifier (e.g., nysd, cacd)
  CASE_NUMBER   Case number (e.g., 1:18-cv-08434)

Example:

pacer use case nysd 1:18-cv-08434

Context is also set automatically when you download a docket.

pacer use status

Show current context and case info.

pacer use status

Output:

                         Active Context
┌──────────────┬───────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Court        │ NYSD                                          │
│ Case         │ 1:18-cv-08434                                 │
│ Path         │ /home/user/.pacer/archives/nysd/1-18-cv-08434 │
│ Docket       │ downloaded                                    │
│ Doc manifest │ cached                                        │
│ Documents    │ 2 PDF(s)                                      │
└──────────────┴───────────────────────────────────────────────┘

pacer use clear

Clear the active context.

pacer use clear

Download

pacer download docket

Download a case docket.

pacer download docket CASE_NUMBER COURT [OPTIONS]

Arguments:
  CASE_NUMBER   Case number (e.g., 1:18-cv-08434)
  COURT         Court identifier (e.g., nysd, cacd)

Options:
  -v, --verbose        Enable trace logging
  -l, --case-link URL  Direct CM/ECF case link (bypasses PCL search)

Examples:

# Standard download (searches PCL first)
pacer download docket 1:18-cv-08434 nysd

# With direct case link (faster, no PCL search)
pacer download docket 1:18-cv-08434 nysd \
  -l "https://ecf.nysd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/iqquerymenu.pl?500997"

Output:

~/.pacer/archives/nysd/1-18-cv-08434/
├── docket.html    # Full docket HTML
└── docs.json      # Cached document links

Side effects:

Sets active context to this case
Caches document links in docs.json for auto-resolution

Cost: ~$0.10 per page (typically 1-10 pages per docket)

pacer download document

Download a document from a case.

pacer download document DOC_NUMBER [DOC_LINK] [OPTIONS]

Arguments:
  DOC_NUMBER   Document number in the docket
  DOC_LINK     Direct PACER document URL (optional if docs.json exists)

Options:
  -v, --verbose   Enable trace logging

Examples:

# With context set and docs.json cached (recommended)
pacer download document 31

# With explicit URL
pacer download document 31 "https://ecf.nysd.uscourts.gov/doc1/127149132"

Output: Saves to ~/.pacer/archives/{court}/{case}/documents/{doc_num}.pdf

Auto-resolution: If docs.json exists (created during docket download), the document URL is resolved automatically from the cached manifest.

Cost: ~$0.10 per page

pacer download batch

Download multiple dockets from a CSV file.

pacer download batch CSV_FILE [OPTIONS]

Arguments:
  CSV_FILE   Path to CSV file with case list

Options:
  -c, --column-court TEXT   Column name for court ID (default: court_id)
  -n, --column-case TEXT    Column name for case number (default: case_number)
  -v, --verbose             Enable trace logging

CSV Format:

court_id,case_number
almdce,2:00-cv-00084
azdce,2:98-cv-00020
nysdce,1:2018cv08434

Example:

pacer download batch cases.csv
pacer download batch cases.csv -c court -n case_num  # custom columns

Documents

pacer docs

List documents from the cached docs.json manifest.

pacer docs [OPTIONS]

Options:
  --json   Output as JSON

Example:

# Uses active context
pacer docs

# Output
Documents in 1:18-cv-08434
┏━━━━━━━┳━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┳━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┳━━━━━━━━┓
┃ #     ┃ Date         ┃ Description                           ┃ Attach ┃
┡━━━━━━━╇━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╇━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╇━━━━━━━━┩
│ 1     │ 2018-09-17   │ COMPLAINT against IBM                 │        │
│ 3     │ 2018-09-17   │ MOTION for Pro Hac Vice               │ +2     │
│ 11    │ 2018-12-11   │ FIRST AMENDED COMPLAINT               │ +1     │
└───────┴──────────────┴───────────────────────────────────────┴────────┘

The docs.json manifest is created automatically when downloading a docket. Use document numbers with pacer download document for auto-resolved downloads.

View

pacer view

View a parsed docket in human-readable format.

pacer view [DOCKET_FILE] [OPTIONS]

Arguments:
  DOCKET_FILE   Path to HTML docket file (optional if context is set)

Options:
  -f, --format TEXT   Output format: compact, markdown, json (default: compact)
  -v, --verbose       Show all entries (default: key entries only)
  -o, --output PATH   Save to file instead of stdout

Examples:

# Uses active context
pacer view
pacer view -v              # all entries
pacer view --format json   # JSON output

# Explicit file
pacer view ~/.pacer/archives/nysd/1-18-cv-08434/docket.html

Sample Output:

# PACER Docket: 1:18-cv-08434-VEC-SLC
court: NYSD
filed: 2018-09-17
judge: Valerie E. Caproni
nos: 442 Civil Rights: Jobs
entries: 325

## Key Filings
2018-09-17 [1] COMPLAINT against IBM - Age discrimination
2018-12-11 [11] FIRST AMENDED COMPLAINT
2023-03-27 [350] JUDGMENT - Case closed

Parse

Commands for batch parsing of docket archives.

pacer parse all

Parse all dockets in the archive and export to CSV/JSON.

pacer parse all [OPTIONS]

Options:
  -i, --input-dir PATH   Input directory (default: ~/.pacer/archives)

Output: Creates CSV and JSON files with extracted metadata.

pacer parse file

Parse a single docket file with metadata extraction.

pacer parse file DOCKET_FILE [OPTIONS]

Arguments:
  DOCKET_FILE   Path to HTML docket file

Options:
  --json   Output as JSON instead of table

Example:

pacer parse file ~/.pacer/archives/nysd/1-18-cv-08434/docket.html --json

Note: For interactive viewing, use pacer view instead.

Search

pacer search

Search parsed docket entries for keywords.

pacer search [OPTIONS]

Options:
  -r, --require TEXT    Required term (repeatable, all must match)
  -e, --exclude TEXT    Excluded term (repeatable, none can match)
  -w, --within INT      Terms must appear within N characters
  -o, --output PATH     Output filename prefix
  --individual          Write separate files per case

Examples:

# Basic search
pacer search -r motion -r dismiss

# Exclude terms
pacer search -r settlement -e denied

# Proximity search
pacer search -r "summary judgment" -w 100

# Save results
pacer search -r order -o results
pacer search -r order -o results --individual

PCL (PACER Case Locator)

Search the nationwide federal court case index.

Cost: $0.10 per page (54 results per page)

pacer pcl cases

Search for cases.

pacer pcl cases [OPTIONS]

Search Criteria:
  -n, --case-number TEXT     Full case number (e.g., 1:2020cv12345)
  -t, --title TEXT           Case title (starts-with match)
  -c, --court TEXT           Court ID or region (repeatable)
  -j, --jurisdiction TYPE    ap|bk|cr|cv|mdl
  --case-type TEXT           Case type code (repeatable)

Date Filters:
  --filed-after DATE         Filed from (YYYY-MM-DD)
  --filed-before DATE        Filed to (YYYY-MM-DD)
  --closed-after DATE        Closed from (YYYY-MM-DD)
  --closed-before DATE       Closed to (YYYY-MM-DD)

Case Filters:
  --nature-of-suit, --nos TEXT   Nature of suit code (repeatable)
  --chapter TEXT                 Bankruptcy chapter (repeatable)

Pagination:
  --page INT        Page number, 0-indexed (default: 0)
  --all-pages       Fetch all pages (may incur significant costs)

Output:
  --json            Output as JSON
  --csv             Output as CSV
  -o, --output PATH Output file
  --dry-run         Show parameters without executing (no cost)

Interactive:
  -i, --interactive   Browse results and select cases to act on

Examples:

# By title
pacer pcl cases -t "Apple"
pacer pcl cases -t "Smith v. Jones"

# By court and date
pacer pcl cases -c nysd --filed-after 2023-01-01
pacer pcl cases -c CA -c NY --filed-after 2020-01-01

# By case type
pacer pcl cases --jurisdiction cv --nos 830  # Patent cases
pacer pcl cases --jurisdiction bk --chapter 11  # Chapter 11 bankruptcy

# Interactive mode - browse, select, and act
pacer pcl cases -t "IBM" -c nysd -i
#  → Paginated results display
#  → Select with number (or "1,3,5-10" for multi-select)
#  → Choose action: [d]ownload, [s]et context, [v]iew

# Pagination
pacer pcl cases -t "Contract" --page 2
pacer pcl cases -t "Contract" --all-pages --csv -o contracts.csv

# Dry run (no cost)
pacer pcl cases -t "Test" --dry-run

Nature of Suit Codes (common):

Code	Description
110	Insurance
190	Contract
440	Civil Rights
710	Labor
830	Patent
840	Trademark

pacer pcl parties

Search for parties in cases.

pacer pcl parties [OPTIONS]

Party Criteria:
  -l, --last-name TEXT    Last name or company name
  -f, --first-name TEXT   First name
  --middle-name TEXT      Middle name
  --exact-match           Require exact name match
  --ssn TEXT              SSN (bankruptcy debtors only)
  --role TEXT             Party role code (repeatable)

Case Filters:
  -c, --court TEXT             Court ID (repeatable)
  -j, --jurisdiction TYPE      ap|bk|cr|cv|mdl
  --filed-after/before DATE    Date range
  --closed-after/before DATE   Date range
  --nos TEXT                   Nature of suit (repeatable)
  --chapter TEXT               Bankruptcy chapter (repeatable)

Pagination & Output:
  --page INT        Page number (default: 0)
  --all-pages       Fetch all pages
  --json            JSON output
  --csv             CSV output
  -o, --output PATH Output file
  --dry-run         Preview without cost

Examples:

# By name
pacer pcl parties -l "Smith" -f "John"
pacer pcl parties -l "Apple Inc" --jurisdiction cv

# Company search
pacer pcl parties -l "Microsoft" --filed-after 2020-01-01

# SSN search (bankruptcy only)
pacer pcl parties --ssn 123456789 --jurisdiction bk

# Export
pacer pcl parties -l "Smith" --all-pages --csv -o smith_cases.csv

pacer pcl batch

Manage batch searches for large result sets (>5,400 results).

pacer pcl batch list [OPTIONS]
  --type cases|parties   Search type (default: cases)

pacer pcl batch start-cases [OPTIONS]
  (Same options as pcl cases)

pacer pcl batch start-parties [OPTIONS]
  (Same options as pcl parties)

pacer pcl batch status REPORT_ID [OPTIONS]
  --type cases|parties   Search type (default: cases)

pacer pcl batch download REPORT_ID [OPTIONS]
  --type cases|parties   Search type (default: cases)
  -o, --output PATH      Output file (required)

pacer pcl batch delete REPORT_ID [OPTIONS]
  --type cases|parties   Search type (default: cases)

Workflow:

# 1. Start batch job
pacer pcl batch start-cases -t "Bankruptcy" --chapter 11

# 2. Check status (note the report ID from step 1)
pacer pcl batch status 1078

# 3. Download when complete
pacer pcl batch download 1078 -o results.json

# 4. Clean up
pacer pcl batch delete 1078

Limits: Max 108,000 results per batch search.

Utilities

pacer courts

List federal court identifiers.

pacer courts

Common Courts:

ID	Court
nysdce	New York Southern District
nyedce	New York Eastern District
cacdce	California Central District
candce	California Northern District
txsdce	Texas Southern District
txndce	Texas Northern District
ilndce	Illinois Northern District
flsdce	Florida Southern District
madce	Massachusetts District
padece	Pennsylvania Eastern District

ID Format: {state}{district}dce

State: 2-letter code (ny, ca, tx, etc.)
District: n=northern, s=southern, e=eastern, w=western, m=middle, c=central
Suffix: dce (district court electronic)

pacer config

Show current configuration.

pacer config

Shows: username, password status, output directories.

Configuration

Credentials

Stored in ~/.config/indepacer/config.env (mode 600):

PACER_USERNAME=myuser
PACER_PASSWORD=mypassword
PACER_TOTP_SECRET=QA36DEZ5EBAV5PSI5URBQLSNVBJZH2PJ
PACER_CLIENT_CODE=MYCLIENT

Environment Variables

Variable	Description
`PACER_USERNAME`	PACER username
`PACER_PASSWORD`	PACER password
`PACER_TOTP_SECRET`	Base32 TOTP secret for MFA
`PACER_CLIENT_CODE`	Client billing code
`PACER_USE_QA`	Set to "1" for QA environment

Archive Structure

Cases are stored in a hierarchical structure:

~/.pacer/
├── config/
│   └── context.json           # Active case context
└── archives/
    └── {court}/               # e.g., nysd/
        └── {case}/            # e.g., 1-18-cv-08434/
            ├── docket.html    # Full docket HTML
            ├── docs.json      # Document link manifest
            └── documents/     # Downloaded PDFs
                ├── 001.pdf
                └── 001-1.pdf  # Attachment

Credentials are stored separately in ~/.config/indepacer/config.env.

Multi-Factor Authentication

PACER requires MFA for CM/ECF filing accounts by December 2025.

Setup

Enable MFA in PACER's "Manage My Account" page
During setup, copy the Base32 secret shown below the QR code
Configure:

# During initial login
pacer auth login -t QA36DEZ5EBAV5PSI5URBQLSNVBJZH2PJ

# Or add to existing account
pacer auth setup-mfa -t QA36DEZ5EBAV5PSI5URBQLSNVBJZH2PJ

Manual OTP

If automatic TOTP fails:

pacer auth test --otp 123456

Python API

from indepacer.parser import parse_docket, parse_docket_file
from indepacer.reader import DocketParser
from indepacer.docket_types import ParsedDocket
from pathlib import Path

# Fast parsing
html = Path("docket.html").read_text()
docket: ParsedDocket = parse_docket(html)

# Access data
print(docket.meta.case_number)      # "1:18-cv-08434-VEC-SLC"
print(docket.meta.court_id)         # "nysd"
print(docket.meta.judge)            # "Valerie E. Caproni"
print(len(docket.entries))          # 325

# Key filings only
for entry in docket.key_entries(10):
    print(f"{entry.date} [{entry.doc_num}] {entry.text[:50]}")

# Output formats
print(docket.to_compact())   # YAML-like, LLM-friendly
print(docket.to_markdown())  # Human-readable
print(docket.to_json())      # Structured JSON

# File-based parsing
text = parse_docket_file(Path("docket.html"), "compact")

Costs

PACER charges per page viewed:

Operation	Typical Cost
Docket download	$0.10-$1.00 (1-10 pages)
Document download	$0.10-$3.00 (1-30 pages)
PCL search	$0.10 per page (54 results/page)
PCL batch download	Varies by result count

Cost protection:

Commands prompt for confirmation before incurring charges (skip with -y)
Use --dry-run for PCL searches to preview without cost
Monitor with pacer auth status (shows PACER balance if available)

Development

# Install with dev dependencies
pip install -e '.[dev,full]'

# Run tests
pytest

# Lint
ruff check src/

See CONTRIBUTING.md for development guidelines.

License

MIT

Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
Latest commit History 9 Commits
docs		docs
icons		icons
scripts		scripts
src/indepacer		src/indepacer
.gitignore		.gitignore
CONTRIBUTING.md		CONTRIBUTING.md
LICENSE		LICENSE
README.md		README.md
ROADMAP.md		ROADMAP.md
preview.png		preview.png
pyproject.toml		pyproject.toml
uv.lock		uv.lock

License

johnzfitch/indepacer

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indepacer

Installation

Quick Start

Interactive Workflow

Command Aliases

Command Reference

Global Options

Authentication

pacer auth login

pacer auth setup-mfa

pacer auth test

pacer auth status

pacer auth logout

Context

pacer use case

pacer use status

pacer use clear

Download

pacer download docket

pacer download document

pacer download batch

Documents

pacer docs

View

pacer view

Parse

pacer parse all

pacer parse file

Search

pacer search

PCL (PACER Case Locator)

pacer pcl cases

pacer pcl parties

pacer pcl batch

Utilities

pacer courts

pacer config

Configuration

Credentials

Environment Variables

Archive Structure

Multi-Factor Authentication

Setup

Manual OTP

Python API

Costs

Development

License

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