> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://urantia.dev/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Papers & Sections

> Access all 197 papers and 1,626 sections of the Urantia Book through the API. Organized into 4 parts with full table of contents.

The Urantia Book is structured as **197 papers** organized into **4 parts**, with the Foreword as Paper 0. Each paper contains numbered sections, and each section contains numbered paragraphs.

## Structure

| Level      | Count   | Description                      |
| ---------- | ------- | -------------------------------- |
| Parts      | 4       | Major divisions of the book      |
| Papers     | 197     | Individual papers (0 = Foreword) |
| Sections   | 1,626   | Subdivisions within papers       |
| Paragraphs | 14,500+ | Atomic content units             |

## Table of contents

Get the full hierarchical structure in a single call:

```bash theme={null}
curl https://api.urantia.dev/toc
```

Returns all parts with their papers nested inside — useful for building navigation.

## List all papers

```bash theme={null}
curl https://api.urantia.dev/papers
```

Returns metadata for all 197 papers including title, part, and section count.

Add `?include=topEntities` to attach a per-paper aggregate of the most-cited named entities. Sorted by paragraph citation count descending; ties break so beings, places, and concepts rank above orders, races, and religions (and finally alphabetical):

```bash theme={null}
curl 'https://api.urantia.dev/papers?include=topEntities' | jq '.data[1].topEntities'
# [
#   { "id": "universal-father", "name": "Universal Father", "type": "being", "count": 74 },
#   { "id": "personality",      "name": "personality",      "type": "concept", "count": 66 },
#   { "id": "god",              "name": "God",              "type": "being", "count": 46 },
#   ...
# ]
```

## Read a paper

```bash theme={null}
# Get Paper 1 — The Universal Father
curl https://api.urantia.dev/papers/1
```

Returns the full paper with all paragraphs. Each paragraph includes `text`, `htmlText`, `standardReferenceId`, audio URLs, and optional entity mentions.

Add `?include=entities` to get entity annotations on every paragraph **and** the paper-level `topEntities` aggregate:

```bash theme={null}
curl https://api.urantia.dev/papers/1?include=entities
```

Prefer a lighter payload? Request just the paper-level aggregate without per-paragraph mentions:

```bash theme={null}
curl 'https://api.urantia.dev/papers/1?include=topEntities' | jq '.data.paper.topEntities'
```

Or request both explicitly:

```bash theme={null}
curl 'https://api.urantia.dev/papers/1?include=entities,topEntities'
```

## Get sections

```bash theme={null}
# Get sections for Paper 1
curl https://api.urantia.dev/papers/1/sections
```

Returns the section breakdown for a paper — useful for building section-level navigation.

## The 4 parts

| Part | Papers  | Topic                           |
| ---- | ------- | ------------------------------- |
| I    | 1–31    | The Central and Superuniverses  |
| II   | 32–56   | The Local Universe              |
| III  | 57–119  | The History of Urantia          |
| IV   | 120–196 | The Life and Teachings of Jesus |

<Card title="API Reference — Papers" icon="terminal" href="/api-reference/endpoint/list-papers">
  See the full endpoint documentation with interactive examples.
</Card>