ctrack-fetch

Downloads docket documents from the North Dakota Supreme Court public cTrack portal. By default it fetches the briefs and notices of appeal for cases on the upcoming calendar or for a specific case by number. It can also target other docket entries — published opinions (including corrected, amended, on-rehearing, and on-motion opinions) — or download every document on a case's docket.

Not an Official Court Product

This is an independent, open-source project published by an individual in a personal capacity, consistent with Rule 3.1 of the North Dakota Code of Judicial Conduct. It is not authorized, endorsed, or maintained by the North Dakota Supreme Court or the state court system.

It reads only the portal's public, anonymous APIs — the same documents any visitor can retrieve through the web interface — at a polite request rate with retries rather than parallel hammering. It uses no credentials and provides no access to sealed, confidential, or otherwise non-public material. What you download is a copy; verify anything you rely on against the official docket.

Requirements

• Node.js v18 or later

Installation

Windows

1. Download and install Node.js from https://nodejs.org/ (LTS version recommended).
2. Open Command Prompt or PowerShell.
3. Clone the repository and install dependencies:

git clone https://github.com/jet52/ctrack-fetch.git
cd ctrack-fetch
npm install

macOS

1. Install Node.js using Homebrew or download from https://nodejs.org/:

brew install node

2. Clone the repository and install dependencies:

git clone https://github.com/jet52/ctrack-fetch.git
cd ctrack-fetch
npm install

Linux

1. Install Node.js using your package manager. For Ubuntu/Debian:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install nodejs npm

For Fedora:

sudo dnf install nodejs npm

2. Clone the repository and install dependencies:

git clone https://github.com/jet52/ctrack-fetch.git
cd ctrack-fetch
npm install

ctrack-fetch has no runtime dependencies — it uses Node's built-in fetch to talk to the cTrack JSON APIs directly. npm install just sets up the lockfile; nothing is downloaded.

Usage

Download briefs from the calendar

node ctrack-fetch.js

This downloads briefs for all cases scheduled in the next 7 days. No login is required — cTrack's public data APIs are served anonymously.

Download briefs for a specific case

node ctrack-fetch.js -c 20990002

Download all documents for a case

node ctrack-fetch.js -c 20990002 -a

This downloads every docket entry that has a downloadable document (motions, notices, affidavits, etc.), not just briefs and notices of appeal. Service documents are always skipped.

Download only the opinion(s) for a case

node ctrack-fetch.js -c 20990002 -O

This downloads only published opinions, skipping briefs and everything else. A single docket may hold more than one opinion — the original plus any corrected, amended, on-rehearing, or on-motion opinions — and each is saved under a distinct name. -O overrides -a.

npm scripts

npm run download               # Normal run
npm run download:debug         # Verbose/debug output
npm run download:silent        # No console output

Options

Flag	Description	Default
-h, --help	Show help message
-v, --verbose	Enable debug output
-q, --quiet	Silent mode (no output)
-o, --output DIR	Output directory for downloaded PDFs	current directory
-d, --days N	Number of days to look ahead on calendar	7
-c, --case NUMBER	Download briefs for a specific 8-digit case number
-a, --all	Download all documents, not just briefs/NOA
-O, --opinions	Download only opinions (incl. corrected/amended); overrides -a
-t, --timeout N	Per-request HTTP timeout in seconds (raise for very large PDFs on a slow day)	90

Examples

node ctrack-fetch.js -v                    # With debug output
node ctrack-fetch.js -o ~/briefs           # Save to specific directory
node ctrack-fetch.js -d 14                 # Look ahead 14 days
node ctrack-fetch.js -c 20990001           # Specific case
node ctrack-fetch.js -c 20990001 -a        # All documents for a case
node ctrack-fetch.js -c 20990001 -O        # Only the opinion(s) for a case
node ctrack-fetch.js -v -o ~/briefs -d 7   # Combine options

Contributing

On a fresh clone, activate the local pre-push sensitive-content check:

git config --local core.hooksPath .githooks

It scans commits being pushed for likely ND court dockets, confidential-case captions, and committed binaries. Bypass once with git push --no-verify.