# Covelight Care

> A free, neutral directory of every licensed residential care facility for the elderly (RCFE)
> in California, compiled from state licensing records: per-home license status, capacity, care
> designations (dementia, hospice, non-ambulatory, bedridden), inspection and complaint history,
> and Medi-Cal Assisted Living Waiver participation. Homes never pay to appear or to rank.
> Unknown values are shown as "not on file" — never guessed, never rendered as "no".

## Dataset

- [About the dataset](https://covelightcare.com/data): what we compile, the source agencies, field provenance, and reuse terms
- [Methodology](https://covelightcare.com/methodology): field-by-field provenance with last-refresh dates read live from our pipeline ledger

## Key pages

- [Directory](https://covelightcare.com/assisted-living/california): every licensed California RCFE, by county and city
- [Check a home](https://covelightcare.com/check): look up the state license record for a specific care home
- [Medi-Cal / Assisted Living Waiver](https://covelightcare.com/medi-cal/california): homes enrolled in the DHCS Assisted Living Waiver, by county
- [Corrections](https://covelightcare.com/corrections): report an error; dated public corrections log

## Markdown versions

- Each care home's page, and each county, city, care-type, Medi-Cal, near-hospital and license-holder page, has a short Markdown version: the page's core facts in the page's own words, answer first. So do a county's later roster pages and its list of closed licenses, and the lists of hospitals and of license holders. Add `.md` to the page's URL (before any `?`), or request the page itself with `Accept: text/markdown`.
- The HTML page carries the full record and stays the page to cite. Each Markdown version names it in a `Link: rel="canonical"` header and is marked `noindex`.
- [Licensed care homes in California, by county](https://covelightcare.com/assisted-living/california.md)
- [Medi-Cal Assisted Living Waiver homes, by county](https://covelightcare.com/medi-cal/california.md)

## For agents and developers

- [Developer portal](https://covelightcare.com/developers): start in 60 seconds (curl, JavaScript, Python), connect an AI assistant to the MCP server, the data dictionary, the family hand-off, terms
- [REST API reference](https://covelightcare.com/developers/api): every endpoint with a real request and response; errors, rate limits, paging, caching, versioning
- [MCP server reference](https://covelightcare.com/developers/mcp): every tool with its inputs, output fields and a real call; errors, limits, compatibility policy
- [OpenAPI 3.1 contract](https://covelightcare.com/openapi.json)
- [Machine front door](https://covelightcare.com/api/v1): endpoint inventory as JSON
- [MCP server](https://covelightcare.com/mcp): remote MCP, Streamable HTTP, no key — find homes, check up to 100 by name or license in one call (REST twin: POST /api/v1/check), compare, and hand a family a link; setup at https://covelightcare.com/developers#mcp
- [MCP server card](https://covelightcare.com/mcp/server-card) and [AI catalog](https://covelightcare.com/.well-known/ai-catalog.json)
- No payload carries availability, scores, or rankings; "not_on_file" is a statement about the record, never a "no".

## Vocabulary

- "Not on file" means the state record we hold is silent. It never means "no".
- License status, citations, and inspection facts are presented as the California Department of Social Services records carry them, with dates; narratives are quoted verbatim from state documents.
- Availability is never claimed from silence: unless an operator reported openings, with a visible date, the honest statement is "no openings reported".
- There are no scores, star ratings, or reviews anywhere on the site.

## Updates

- Licensing and inspection data refresh weekly from CDSS/CalHHS public sources; DHCS waiver enrollment refreshes on the same cycle. Per-fact refresh dates: https://covelightcare.com/methodology