A records request is a formal ask for documents, audio, or other media from your agency. This article walks through fulfilling a request — finding or uploading the right media, attaching it to the request, and releasing it to the requester.
How Requests Come In
Requests enter the system two ways:
Public portal — A requester submits directly through your agency's public request portal.
Email — Someone forwards a records request email to your agency's Records Requests inbox address. The system creates a request automatically.
When a request comes in, the AI agent automatically searches for matching media. You'll see any results it found when you open the request.
Step-by-Step: Fulfill a Request
1. Open the request
Navigate to your Records Requests dashboard. Incoming requests appear in the queue with a To-Do status. Click into the request to see the details and any media the agent found automatically.
2. Review agent results
The agent may have already found matching media. Review what it pulled up.
If the results look correct and complete, skip ahead to step 5 (Release).
If the results are incomplete or wrong, continue to step 3.
The agent shows a confidence indicator for its results. Higher confidence means the agent is more certain it found the right records. Even with high confidence, always verify the results match what the requester asked for.
3. Manually search and add media
If the agent didn't find what you need, or found the wrong content:
Click Find Media in the request.
Use the search in the Data section to locate the right media by date, type, or other criteria.
Click the three-dot menu on the media item.
Select Add to Records Requests.
The media is now attached to the request.
Repeat for each piece of media the request requires. For tips on getting the best search results, see Searching for Records.
4. Upload media (if not in the system)
If the media you need isn't in GovWorx at all:
Navigate to the Data section.
Drag and drop your file(s) into the upload area.
Once uploaded, click the three-dot menu on the item.
Select Add to Records Requests to attach it to the request.
5. Release the request
Once all the right media is attached:
Change the request status from To-Do to Complete.
This releases the media to the requester.
The requester receives an email with a magic link — a short-lived, one-time-use passcode that lets them access and download the files on the public portal.
Only the person who submitted the request can access the download. The link is restricted to the original requester's email.
Key Details
Downloads are restricted to the person who made the request. No one else can access the released files.
Only the most recent version is sent. If you redact media before releasing, the requester gets the redacted version, not the original.
Email forwarding works like the portal. Requests that come in via email follow the same fulfill-and-release workflow.
You can add media from multiple sources. A single request can include agent-found results, manually searched media, and uploaded files.
Redaction (Optional)
If your agency needs to redact audio or other media before releasing:
Open the media item in Media Index.
Use the redaction tools to mark the sections that need to be removed.
The redacted version replaces the original in the request.
When you complete the request, the requester receives only the redacted version.
For the full redaction workflow, see Redacting Records Before Release.
Note: Automatic redaction is a separate setting configured per service. Talk to your GovWorx admin if you want to enable it.