> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.urantia.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Read a Work by Reference > The units of a reference, in order, at most 200: one verse or passage, a short range of up to 50, or a whole chapter. Each has its link. The prefix of the reference is optional: for the Bhagavad Gita, `BG 2.47` and `2.47` are the same; for the Bible, name the book (`John 3:16`, `Jn 3:16`). ## OpenAPI ````yaml GET /works/{work}/{ref} openapi: 3.1.0 info: title: Urantia Papers API version: 1.0.0 description: >- An API and MCP server for the Urantia Papers. Structured access to all 197 papers and more than 14,500 paragraphs, with full-text and semantic search, named entities, cross-references to public domain texts of the world's religions, and audio. No key needed. Docs: https://docs.urantia.dev termsOfService: https://docs.urantia.dev/terms-of-service contact: name: urantia.dev url: https://docs.urantia.dev/help email: kelson@urantia.dev license: name: MIT url: https://github.com/urantia-hub/urantia-dev-api/blob/main/LICENSE servers: - url: https://api.urantia.dev description: Production - url: http://localhost:3000 description: Local development security: [] paths: /works/{work}/{ref}: get: tags: - Works summary: Read a work by reference description: >- The units of a reference, in order, at most 200: one verse or passage, a short range of up to 50, or a whole chapter. Each has its link. The prefix of the reference is optional: for the Bhagavad Gita, `BG 2.47` and `2.47` are the same; for the Bible, name the book (`John 3:16`, `Jn 3:16`). operationId: readWork parameters: - schema: type: string minLength: 1 maxLength: 64 description: >- "bible", or a work id such as "bhagavad-gita" (its ref prefix also works: "bg"). required: true description: >- "bible", or a work id such as "bhagavad-gita" (its ref prefix also works: "bg"). name: work in: path - schema: type: string minLength: 1 maxLength: 40 description: >- A unit (`John 3:16`, `2.47`, `Dhp 183`), a short range (`John 3:16-18`, `2.47-49`), or a whole chapter (`John 3`, `2`). required: true description: >- A unit (`John 3:16`, `2.47`, `Dhp 183`), a short range (`John 3:16-18`, `2.47-49`), or a whole chapter (`John 3`, `2`). name: ref in: path example: '2:5.1' responses: '200': description: The units content: application/json: schema: type: object properties: data: type: array items: type: object properties: work: type: object properties: id: type: string title: type: string tradition: type: string required: - id - title - tradition reference: type: string description: >- "John 3:16", "Dhp 183", "BG 2.47-49" (a chunk in semantic search). text: type: string url: type: - string - 'null' description: The public page that holds the text, or null. match: type: string enum: - reference - exact - all - near description: 'Keyword search: how it matched.' similarity: type: number description: 'Semantic search: cosine similarity.' strength: type: string enum: - strong - related - weak description: >- How close the result is: strong (most right answers score this), related, or weak (likely off the topic). urantiaParallels: type: array items: type: object properties: standardReferenceId: type: string paperTitle: type: string sectionTitle: type: - string - 'null' text: type: string similarity: type: number rank: type: integer required: - standardReferenceId - paperTitle - sectionTitle - text - similarity - rank description: >- The nearest Urantia paragraphs (semantic parallels, not curated ones). required: - work - reference - text - url - urantiaParallels required: - data example: data: - work: id: bhagavad-gita title: The Bhagavad Gita tradition: Hindu reference: BG 2.47 text: >- Thy business is with the action only, never with its fruits; so let not the fruit of action be thy motive, nor be thou to inaction attached. url: >- https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Bhagavad-Gita_(Besant_4th)/Discourse_2#:~:text=Thy%20business%20is%20with urantiaParallels: [] headers: X-RateLimit-Limit: $ref: '#/components/headers/X-RateLimit-Limit' X-RateLimit-Remaining: $ref: '#/components/headers/X-RateLimit-Remaining' X-RateLimit-Reset: $ref: '#/components/headers/X-RateLimit-Reset' '400': description: Invalid request content: application/problem+json: schema: $ref: '#/components/schemas/ProblemDetails' headers: X-RateLimit-Limit: $ref: '#/components/headers/X-RateLimit-Limit' X-RateLimit-Remaining: $ref: '#/components/headers/X-RateLimit-Remaining' X-RateLimit-Reset: $ref: '#/components/headers/X-RateLimit-Reset' '404': description: Work or reference not found content: application/problem+json: schema: $ref: '#/components/schemas/ProblemDetails' headers: X-RateLimit-Limit: $ref: '#/components/headers/X-RateLimit-Limit' X-RateLimit-Remaining: $ref: '#/components/headers/X-RateLimit-Remaining' X-RateLimit-Reset: $ref: '#/components/headers/X-RateLimit-Reset' '429': description: Too many requests content: application/problem+json: schema: $ref: '#/components/schemas/ProblemDetails' headers: X-RateLimit-Limit: $ref: '#/components/headers/X-RateLimit-Limit' X-RateLimit-Remaining: $ref: '#/components/headers/X-RateLimit-Remaining' X-RateLimit-Reset: $ref: '#/components/headers/X-RateLimit-Reset' '500': description: Internal server error content: application/problem+json: schema: $ref: '#/components/schemas/ProblemDetails' headers: X-RateLimit-Limit: $ref: '#/components/headers/X-RateLimit-Limit' X-RateLimit-Remaining: $ref: '#/components/headers/X-RateLimit-Remaining' X-RateLimit-Reset: $ref: '#/components/headers/X-RateLimit-Reset' components: headers: X-RateLimit-Limit: description: The number of requests allowed in the current window. schema: type: integer example: 200 X-RateLimit-Remaining: description: The number of requests left in the current window. schema: type: integer example: 199 X-RateLimit-Reset: description: The time the window resets, in Unix seconds. schema: type: integer example: 1791152213 schemas: ProblemDetails: type: object description: An RFC 9457 problem details object. Every error response uses it. properties: type: type: string format: uri description: A URI that names the error type. title: type: string description: The short name of the status. status: type: integer description: The HTTP status code. detail: type: string description: What went wrong in this request. required: - type - title - status - detail example: type: https://urantia.dev/errors/not-found title: Not Found status: 404 detail: Paragraph not found ```` This documentation is built and hosted on [Mintlify](https://mintlify.com), a developer documentation platform.