---
title: Grounded Q&A walkthrough
description: End-to-end example of asking a legal question and rendering a verified answer.
order: 0
---

This walks through a full `/v1/reason` call and shows how to render the result so a reader can trust every citation.

## 1. Ask the question

```bash
curl https://api.dike.it.com/v1/reason \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $DIKE_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "question": "هل يجوز فسخ عقد الإيجار لتأخر المستأجر عن السداد؟",
    "filters": { "jurisdiction": "EG" },
    "top_k": 12
  }'
```

## 2. Render the answer with its markers intact

```json
{
  "answer": "...نعم، وفقاً للمادة 157 [1] ...",
  "citations": [
    {
      "marker": 1,
      "canonical_id": "eg-leg-1948-131",
      "article_no": "157",
      "citation_string": "المادة 157 من القانون المدني رقم 131 لسنة 1948",
      "snippet": "...",
      "verified": true
    }
  ],
  "grounding": { "retrieved": 12, "used": 4, "dropped_unverified_refs": 0 }
}
```

Render `answer` as-is — `[1]` in the text is already a verified marker, not a placeholder you need to resolve yourself. Turn each `[n]` into a link/footnote using `citations[n-1]`.

## 3. Handle weak grounding

If `grounding.used` is `0`, check the response header `X-Dike-Grounding: weak`. Don't hide the answer — show it with a visible caveat (e.g. "Dike couldn't find a strong legal basis for this in the indexed corpus") rather than suppressing it silently, since the model may still be correctly declining to overreach.

## 4. Deep-link a citation

Every `citations[].canonical_id` works directly with [`/v1/document/{canonical_id}`](/docs/api-reference/document) if the reader wants the full source text, or [`/v1/graph/traverse`](/docs/api-reference/graph-traverse) if they want to see what else cites or amends it.