---
title: Introduction
description: What the Dike API is, what it returns, and how the docs are organized.
order: 0
---

Dike is a REST (and gRPC-mirrored) API for Arabic legal search and reasoning across Egypt and Saudi Arabia. Four endpoints cover the core surface:

- **`POST /v1/search`** — hybrid semantic + lexical search over the legal corpus, with optional reranking.
- **`POST /v1/reason`** — grounded legal Q&A. Every citation the model emits is checked against what was actually retrieved before it reaches you.
- **`POST /v1/cite`** — parses an Arabic citation string (`القانون رقم 131 لسنة 1948`) and resolves it to a document.
- **`POST /v1/graph/traverse`** — walks the citation graph between documents (cites/amends/repeals/implements/interprets).

All `/v1/*` routes require an API key. All responses are `application/json; charset=utf-8`; errors are [RFC 7807](https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc7807) `application/problem+json`.

## How this section is organized

- **Getting Started** — create a key, make your first request, understand rate limits and errors.
- **API Reference** — one page per endpoint, with the real request/response shape.
- **MCP & Agents** — connect Dike to Claude, Cursor, or any MCP-capable agent; the gRPC mirror for tool-use loops.
- **Guides** — worked examples that chain multiple endpoints together.

If you want an interactive request builder instead of reading, the [Developer Workbench](/developers) lets you fire real requests from the browser with your own key.