This page lists three turns, the messages you send to the AI one after another in the same chat, and then a check of the answer. Keep it open next to your chat. Each turn shows the next thing to paste, with the values you entered already filled in. Nothing is sent from this page, and your conversation stays in the AI tool you are using.
Describe the documents and the underlying story or question in your own words. The draft turns this into searchable categories.
Federal FOIA or the specific state act by name. Give the citation if you have it; the draft will not invent one.
The agency, and the division or regional office that actually holds the records if you know it.
The date range and the event that bounds it. A defensible range is the cheapest way to avoid a burden objection.
Every proper noun you have. This is what turns a vague request into one an officer can actually run.
Drives the fee paragraph and whether a waiver argument is worth making.
Watch for these throughout
State public records acts differ from federal FOIA and from each other in name, citation, response time, fee rules, exemptions, and appeal route, and they are amended regularly. Verify every one of those against the current act before sending. Do not accept a citation or deadline from the model.
Fee waivers and requester categories are federal FOIA constructs. Many state acts allocate costs differently, and a waiver argument written for FOIA can read as confused to a state records officer.
The request itself is frequently a public record, and agencies often notify the third party whose records are sought. Assume your target learns you asked, and file under the right name.
Using a records request in place of discovery in pending litigation can be limited by statute, treated differently by the agency, and used against you. Check before filing one on a matter already in suit.
A request narrowed to what you already know will return only what you already know. Keep one category aimed at the records you cannot name yet, described by custodian and system rather than by subject.