> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.rescueconsole.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Approve or deny an application > Records the decision, who made it (the person who made the key) and when. A denial needs a reason code; an approval does not. The decision clears the application's stage and any hold, closes it for good, and is copied to the form submission it was made from. Any workflow your organization starts when an application is approved, or denied, starts. Approving does not record an adoption: sign the adoption contract on the application for that. Needs **write** on Animals. ## OpenAPI ````yaml /api-reference/openapi.json post /api/animals/applications/{id}/decision openapi: 3.1.0 info: title: RescueConsole API version: '2026-09-19' description: >- Your own organization's records, from your own software. There is no sandbox: every request goes to your live organization. servers: - url: https://{organization}.rescueconsole.com description: Your own organization's address, the one you sign in at. variables: organization: default: your-rescue description: >- The first part of the address you sign in at. A key only works at the address of the organization it was made in. security: - apiKey: [] tags: - name: Animals description: The animals in your care, and the ones you have placed. - name: Animal notes description: Notes written on an animal's record. - name: Animal weights description: An animal's weight readings, one per weighing. - name: Animal medical records description: >- Vaccines, treatments, procedures, tests, exams and other medical records on one animal. - name: Animal placements description: The people an animal came from or has been placed with, over time. - name: Animal nutrition description: 'What an animal eats: its feeding list and its diet.' - name: Animal relationships description: Siblings, parents, offspring and bonded pairs. - name: Animal tags description: Your own short labels on an animal. - name: Breeds description: The breed or kind lists your intake form offers for each species. - name: Litters description: Litters, and the animals born into them. - name: Locations and housing description: >- The places animals are housed at each of your locations: campuses, buildings, rooms and cages, the tunnels that join cages into one space, and who is in each. - name: Foster homes description: >- The people who foster for you, what each home can take, and the animals offered to and placed with them. - name: Intakes description: >- How each animal arrived: the route in, who brought it, why it was given up and the state it came in. - name: Medical due description: >- Medical work that is outstanding across all your animals, and one medical record added to many animals at once. - name: Transports description: >- Transport runs: a chain of drives, each leg with its own driver, that moves animals from one place to another. - name: Animal calendar description: >- The dated things in animal care on one calendar: medical work due, adoptions, foster placements starting and ending, arrivals, and meet and greets. - name: Animal reports description: >- The operations report: intakes, outcomes, live release rate and the animals in your care, each figure with its own definition. - name: Adoption applications description: >- Applications to adopt or foster, from first draft to a decision, and the adoption contract signed on an approved one. - name: Adoptions description: >- Animals that went home, what each adopter owes and has paid, and closing or reversing the adoption. - name: Signed contracts description: >- Contracts signed on an adoption, a foster placement or an intake, each kept exactly as it read when it was signed. - name: Contract templates description: >- The contracts your organization has people sign, with the merge fields that fill them in. - name: Reconciliations description: >- A payment processor's settlement lines, matched against the adoption payments you recorded. - name: Animal custom fields description: >- The extra fields your organization adds to animals, housing units and adoption applications. - name: Age groups description: >- What counts as a baby, an adult or a senior, per species, which fee rules and discounts read. - name: Animal statuses description: >- Your organization's status vocabulary for animal records, and what kind of status each one is. - name: Application stages description: >- The steps an adoption or foster application moves through before it is decided, in your organization's words. - name: Behaviour attributes description: >- The catalogue of behavioural traits, and where a trait with each name may be shown beyond the record. - name: Cage card templates description: >- The layouts your organization prints for the kennel door: paper, fields, photo and QR code. - name: Adoption fee schedules description: >- The rules that suggest an animal's adoption fee, and the discounts laid over them. - name: Medical catalogue description: >- The diagnoses, tests, vaccines, treatments, procedures, conditions and medications your medical records pick from. - name: People description: >- The people your organization deals with: adopters, donors, volunteers, fosters and everybody else. - name: Person notes description: Notes written on a person's record. - name: Person contacts description: >- A person's phone numbers and email addresses, one of each kind marked primary. - name: Person addresses description: A person's addresses, one of them primary. - name: Person tags description: Free-text labels on a person, added and removed one at a time. - name: People duplicates description: People who look like the same person entered twice, and merging them. - name: People custom fields description: The fields a person's record carries beyond the standard ones. - name: Organizations description: >- The outside organizations your rescue deals with: veterinary practices, partner rescues, shelters, suppliers, employers and agencies. - name: Organization locations description: An organization's places, one of them the main one. - name: Affiliations description: >- Who works at, volunteers for or otherwise belongs to an organization, now or in the past. - name: Forms description: >- The forms your organization publishes, such as an adoption application or a volunteer sign-up, and the questions on them. - name: Submissions description: >- What people sent through your forms, and what your team does with each one. - name: Tasks description: >- To-dos, on a record or for the whole organization, narrowed to the records your key may read. - name: Calendar description: >- The dated work across your organization in one list, narrowed to the areas your key may read. - name: Activity description: >- What was created, changed and deleted in your organization, narrowed to the areas your key may read. - name: Shift schedules description: >- Schedules: the occasions shifts are grouped under, such as an adoption day or Saturday kennel cover. - name: Shift windows description: >- Shifts: a stretch of time at a place, with the volunteer roles it needs and how many of each (the address calls a shift a window). - name: Shift bookings description: >- Sign-ups: a person taking a role on a shift, giving it up, and the hours they worked. - name: Volunteers description: >- The people who volunteer: where each stands, what they have done, and where they would rather work. - name: Volunteer roles description: >- The jobs a volunteer can sign up for, such as Dog walker or Adoption counselor. - name: Volunteer qualifications description: 'Approvals: who may take which role, and at which location.' - name: Shift policies description: The rules you set for sign-ups and cancellations. - name: Shift calendar description: Schedules and shifts as calendar items for a date range. - name: Shift custom fields description: Your own fields on schedules, shifts and sign-ups. - name: Events description: >- The occasions your rescue hosts: adoption days, fundraisers, clinics and the rest. - name: Events calendar description: Your events between two days, as calendar entries. - name: Campaigns description: >- Appeals you raise money for, each with its goal and what it has raised so far. - name: Donations description: 'Gifts of money: how much, from whom, and what they were given to.' - name: Donors description: The people who have given, with what each has given in all. - name: Wish list description: The things your rescue needs, and the deliveries that met them. - name: Fundraising custom fields description: Your organization's own fields on donations and campaigns. - name: Message templates description: >- Saved wording your organization sends again and again, with merge fields filled from your records. - name: Sending description: >- Everything here sends real email from your organization, and none of it can be unsent. - name: Message log description: >- The email your organization has sent or tried to send, and what became of each message. - name: Conversations description: >- The email conversations in your organization's inboxes, and the records each one is about. - name: Inboxes description: >- The addresses your organization receives email at, and who may read each one. - name: Contact preferences description: >- Whether a person has asked not to be emailed, altogether or about one kind of message. - name: Suppressions description: >- Addresses no email goes to, because mail to them bounced or their owner asked not to be written to. - name: Sender and deliverability description: Who your organization's email goes out as, and how much of it arrives. - name: Registry flags description: >- Safety flags your organization files about a person or an animal, which other organizations using RescueConsole can see once the flag is vetted and shared. - name: Registry reviews description: >- Another organization's vote on a flag it did not file, which decides whether the flag becomes active or disputed. - name: Registry search description: >- The lookup by microchip number that anybody may make, with or without a key. paths: /api/animals/applications/{id}/decision: parameters: - name: id in: path required: true description: The application's ID. schema: type: string post: tags: - Adoption applications summary: Approve or deny an application description: >- Records the decision, who made it (the person who made the key) and when. A denial needs a reason code; an approval does not. The decision clears the application's stage and any hold, closes it for good, and is copied to the form submission it was made from. Any workflow your organization starts when an application is approved, or denied, starts. Approving does not record an adoption: sign the adoption contract on the application for that. Needs **write** on Animals. operationId: decideApplication requestBody: required: true content: application/json: schema: type: object required: - decision properties: decision: type: string enum: - approved - denied decision_reason_code: type: string enum: - housing_unsuitable - landlord_denied - insufficient_experience - incomplete_information - animal_unavailable - better_match_found - other description: Required when denying. decided_on: type: string format: date description: Today unless you say. decision_notes: type: string description: Why, in words. example: decision: denied decision_reason_code: landlord_denied decision_notes: The landlord does not allow dogs over 25 pounds. responses: '200': description: The application, decided. content: application/json: schema: $ref: '#/components/schemas/ApplicationEnvelope' '400': $ref: '#/components/responses/Problem' '401': $ref: '#/components/responses/Problem' '403': $ref: '#/components/responses/Problem' '404': $ref: '#/components/responses/Problem' '409': $ref: '#/components/responses/Problem' components: schemas: ApplicationEnvelope: type: object required: - application properties: application: $ref: '#/components/schemas/Application' Application: allOf: - $ref: '#/components/schemas/ApplicationFields' - type: object required: - id - applicant_person_id - status - is_open - created_at - updated_at properties: id: type: string applicant_person_id: type: string application_kind: type: string enum: - adoption - foster status: type: string enum: - draft - submitted - under_review - meet_scheduled - approved - denied - withdrawn stage: type: - string - 'null' description: >- The key of the stage it is at, one of your own. Null when no stage is set. stage_label: type: - string - 'null' description: The stage's name. In the list and on one application. submitted_on: type: - string - 'null' format: date decided_on: type: - string - 'null' format: date decided_by_person_id: type: - string - 'null' description: Who approved or denied it. decision_reason_code: type: - string - 'null' enum: - housing_unsuitable - landlord_denied - insufficient_experience - incomplete_information - animal_unavailable - better_match_found - other - null held_at: type: - string - 'null' description: When it was put on hold. Null when it is not on hold. format: date-time hold_reason: type: - string - 'null' description: Why it is on hold. meet_with: description: >- Who the applicant meets. On one application and after a change, a list of names; in the list and after a create or a decision, the person IDs as a JSON text. oneOf: - type: array items: $ref: '#/components/schemas/ApplicationPersonName' - type: string source_submission_id: type: - string - 'null' description: >- The form submission this application was made from, when it came in through one of your forms. custom_fields: type: object additionalProperties: true description: Your own application questions, by field key. is_open: type: boolean description: >- False once it is approved, denied or withdrawn. A closed application cannot be changed. applicant_first_name: type: - string - 'null' description: In the list and on one application. applicant_last_name: type: - string - 'null' description: In the list and on one application. applicant_name: type: - string - 'null' description: >- The applicant's display name. In the list and on one application. applicant_email: type: - string - 'null' description: In the list and on one application. pet_count: type: integer description: How many animals it is for. In the list and on one application. assignees: type: array items: $ref: '#/components/schemas/ApplicationPersonName' description: >- Who on your team is working it, in the order they were assigned. In the list and on one application. pets: type: array items: $ref: '#/components/schemas/ApplicationPet' description: The animals applied for. On one application. created_at: type: string format: date-time updated_at: type: string format: date-time additionalProperties: true ApplicationFields: type: object properties: co_applicant_name: type: - string - 'null' description: >- A second adult applying with them. Kept on the application, not as a person record. co_applicant_email: type: - string - 'null' co_applicant_phone: type: - string - 'null' housing_type: type: - string - 'null' enum: - house - apartment - condo - townhouse - mobile_home - farm - other - null housing_is_rented: type: - boolean - 'null' description: Whether they rent their home. landlord_name: type: - string - 'null' landlord_phone: type: - string - 'null' landlord_approves: type: - boolean - 'null' description: >- Whether the landlord agrees. Null means nobody has asked the landlord yet, which is not the same as no. has_fenced_yard: type: - boolean - 'null' household_adults: type: - integer - 'null' minimum: 0 description: How many adults live in the home. household_children: type: - integer - 'null' minimum: 0 description: How many children live in the home. youngest_child_age: type: - integer - 'null' minimum: 0 description: The age of the youngest child, in years. household_agrees: type: - boolean - 'null' description: Whether everyone in the home agrees to the adoption. has_current_pets: type: - boolean - 'null' description: Whether they have pets now. current_pets: type: - string - 'null' description: The pets they have now, in their words. has_previous_pets: type: - boolean - 'null' description: Whether they have had pets before. previous_pets: type: - string - 'null' description: The pets they have had, in their words. vet_name: type: - string - 'null' description: Their veterinarian. vet_phone: type: - string - 'null' hours_alone_per_day: type: - integer - 'null' minimum: 0 description: How many hours a day the animal would be alone. maximum: 24 meet_scheduled_at: type: - string - 'null' description: >- When the meet and greet is: a date, or a date and time such as 2026-10-03T14:00. meet_location: type: - string - 'null' description: Where the meet and greet is. meet_completed_at: type: - string - 'null' description: When the meet and greet took place. meet_notes: type: - string - 'null' description: How the meet and greet went. decision_notes: type: - string - 'null' description: Notes on the decision. description: >- The answers on an application. Send only what changes. A yes or no answer is true, false, or null for not asked. Text is trimmed, and empty text is stored as null. ApplicationPersonName: type: object required: - person_id - name properties: person_id: type: string name: type: string ApplicationPet: type: object required: - animal_id - rank properties: id: type: string description: This entry's ID. animal_id: type: string rank: type: integer description: The applicant's order of preference. 1 is the animal they most want. name: type: - string - 'null' species: $ref: '#/components/schemas/Species' status: type: string description: The animal's status key. breed: type: - string - 'null' description: An animal the applicant is applying for. Species: type: string enum: - dog - cat - rabbit - equine - small_mammal - large_mammal - bird - barnyard - fish - reptile - exotic responses: Problem: description: What is wrong, in one sentence you can show to a person. content: application/json: schema: type: object required: - error properties: error: type: string example: error: house_trained must be 1, 0 or null (not assessed) securitySchemes: apiKey: type: http scheme: bearer description: An API key from Settings, API keys. It starts with rc_live_. ````