Almost every question we get traces back to one of three concepts. Understanding them up front makes the rest of the product feel obvious.
An event is something that happened
When a business files for a new license, renews one, or changes status, that is an event. Events are immutable — once we observe one, it never changes. New information about the same business arrives as a new event, not an edit to an old one.
A record captures an event
Each record is the structured, deduplicated version of a single event. It carries the business details plus the event metadata. Because events are immutable, records are too — which makes them safe to cache.
A feed is a filtered stream of records
A feed is just records that match a set of filters, ordered newest first. You can consume a feed by polling the API or by subscribing to a webhook. The same filters work in both places, so you can prototype with polling and switch to webhooks without changing your logic.
- Events are immutable facts about a business.
- Records are the structured form of those events.
- Feeds are filtered, ordered streams of records you can poll or subscribe to.
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