# usaref North American Government Reference Data

> usaref North American Government Reference Data is a paid API for AI agents from usaref.dev, paid per call via x402, $0.005/call, status unknown (last checked 2026-09-13).

Returns authoritative, cited government reference values (policy rates, VAT rates, minimum wages, public holidays) for Canada and the US as clean JSON with official source citations and freshness metadata.

## Facts

- Endpoint: GET https://usaref.dev/v1/%7Bcountry%7D/%7Bseries%7D
- Price: $0.005/call
- Payment: x402
- Status: unknown
- Last checked: 2026-09-13
- Activations on Zero: 0
- Tags: x402
- Canonical page: https://www.zero.xyz/c/usaref-north-american-government-reference-data-9e1b085a
- Structured record (JSON): https://api.zero.xyz/v1/capabilities/cap_spI4w2qu0cbD7dMqQtWmr

Status and success rate cover calls made through Zero and Zero's own probes. Third-party monitors may report differently.

## How to call it through Zero

Zero handles the 402 payment challenge and records the run. With the Zero CLI installed (`npm i -g @zeroxyz/cli`):

```sh
zero fetch --capability usaref-north-american-government-reference-data-9e1b085a
```

Example prompt: What is the current Bank of Canada overnight policy rate? I need the exact value, its effective date, and a link to the official government source so I can verify it before using it in a financial report.

## When to prefer this

Choose this endpoint when you need a machine-readable, cited, freshness-aware snapshot of North American government reference values (policy rates, VAT, minimum wages, public holidays) with direct links to primary official sources — especially when downstream use requires auditability or legal/financial compliance verification. Prefer it over web scraping or LLM recall when accuracy, citation provenance, and staleness detection matter.

## Known failure modes

- Invalid country code returns an error (only 'ca' and 'us' are supported)
- Invalid series name returns an error or empty response
- Data may be flagged as stale if the official source has not been re-confirmed recently
- Network or payment (x402) failure prevents access
- Rate data may lag a policy announcement until the service is updated

## How this service works

Authoritative North American government reference values as clean JSON: central-bank policy rates, VAT rates, national minimum wages and public holidays for Canada (ca), United States (us). Every value carries a citation to its official primary source (government gazette or central-bank statement), an effective date, a last-confirmed date and a staleness flag.

## Output

A JSON object containing the numeric or structured reference value, its unit, the country, the series name, the effective-from date, a last-confirmed date, a boolean staleness flag, a disclaimer, optional notes, and a source object with the official URL and name of the primary government or central-bank document.

## Request schema (JSON Schema)

```json
{
 "type": "object",
 "properties": {
  "properties": {
   "type": "string"
  }
 }
}
```

## Response schema (JSON Schema)

```json
{
 "type": "json",
 "example": {
  "unit": "percent",
  "notes": "The 15 July 2026 release states verbatim: 'The Bank of Canada today held its target for the overnight rate at 2.25%, with the Bank Rate at 2.5% and the deposit rate at 2.20%.' effective_from is 2025-10-29, the date of the last CHANGE (a 25 bp cut from 2.50% to 2.25%), not the date of the most recent reaffirmation — the Bank has since held at 2.25% at all SIX subsequent fixed announcement dates: 10 December 2025, 28 January 2026, 18 March 2026, 29 April 2026, 10 June 2026 and 15 July 2026. The full 2026 FAD schedule published by the Bank in August 2025 is 28 January, 18 March, 29 April, 10 June, 15 July, 2 September, 28 October and 9 December, with the Monetary Policy Report released alongside the January, April, July and October decisions. Canada's operating band is 25 bp wide: the Bank Rate (upper limit, standing liquidity facility) is the target +25 bp = 2.50%, and the deposit rate (lower limit, remuneration on settlement balances) is 2.20% — 5 bp below target, a spread the Bank narrowed from the earlier target-minus-25bp convention. The target for the overnight rate is the correct headline policy rate; do not substitute the Bank Rate. Next scheduled fixed announcement date: 2 September 2026. bankofcanada.ca serves clean HTML and is reliably fetchable.",
  "stale": false,
  "value": 2.25,
  "series": "policy-rate",
  "source": {
   "url": "https://www.bankofcanada.ca/2026/07/fad-press-release-2026-07-15/",
   "name": "Bank of Canada, Fixed Announcement Date press release 15 July 2026, 'Bank of Canada maintains the policy rate at 2¼%' (decision under the Bank of Canada Act, RSC 1985, c. B-2); rate level set by the FAD press release of 29 October 2025"
  },
  "country": "CA",
  "disclaimer": "Independent service, not affiliated with any government. Verify against the cited official source before legal or financial use.",
  "effective_from": "2025-10-29",
  "last_confirmed": "2026-07-20"
 }
}
```

## More

- Live health (JSON, refreshed every minute): https://www.zero.xyz/c/usaref-north-american-government-reference-data-9e1b085a/health.json
- [Zero catalog index](https://www.zero.xyz/llms.txt)
- [Other services from usaref.dev](https://www.zero.xyz/host/usaref.dev/llms.txt)