VetAid — VA Claim Intelligence

Corpus-wide VA appeal statistics from 1.9 million public Board of Veterans' Appeals decisions, 1992 to present, updated nightly: how every decided issue came out (granted / denied / remanded / dismissed / other), the year-by-year trend, and the most-litigated conditions with their own shares. Rates are shares of ALL decided issues, so they sum to 100%, and they use complete crawl years only (an all-years block is included and labelled). Aggregate data only — contains no individual veteran's information.

Takes no parameters.

Real Board of Veterans' Appeals outcome data for one VA condition, from 1.9 million public BVA decisions, 1992 to present, updated nightly: the share of decided issues GRANTED / DENIED / REMANDED / DISMISSED (shares of all decided issues, so they sum to 100%; complete years, with an all-years block labelled separately), the year-by-year trend, which kinds of evidence went with a grant versus without, the denial reasons tagged in a smaller hand-tagged sample (labelled with its own n), and the legal authorities most cited. Aggregate data only — no PII, and a base rate for appealed cases, not a prediction for one veteran. Args: condition: VA condition keyword, e.g. 'ptsd', 'tinnitus', 'sleep apnea', 'back', 'knee', 'depression', 'gerd', 'migraines'. An unmatched value returns the list of valid condition keys.

The legal authorities most frequently cited across the public Board of Veterans' Appeals corpus (1.9 million decisions, 1992 to present, updated nightly) — case law (e.g. Gilbert v. Derwinski for benefit-of-the-doubt, DeLuca, Correia, Sharp), 38 C.F.R. regulations, or 38 U.S.C. statutes — ranked by the number of DISTINCT decisions that cite them. Useful for explaining which precedents actually carry VA appeals. The response carries a 'basis' string saying exactly what was counted and over how many decisions; read it before quoting a number. Aggregate data only — no PII. Args: kind: 'cases' (default), 'regulations', or 'statutes'. condition: optional condition keyword (e.g. 'ptsd', 'tinnitus', 'back') to rank authorities within that condition's decisions only. limit: how many to return, 1-100 (default 25).

MEASURED evidence-vs-outcome data for one VA condition, from the full text of the public BVA archive (1.8M+ decisions): for each kind of evidence — a positive nexus opinion, a private physician letter/DBQ, buddy statements, service treatment records that document the condition (or are silent), a Board hearing, and how the Board read the record (credibility, benefit of the doubt, inadequate exam) — how often the issue was GRANTED when the record had it versus when it did not, with the raw fractions. Single-issue decisions only, so each evidence flag attaches to exactly one decided issue. Use this to say which missing evidence has historically mattered most and by how much; it is an association in appealed cases, not a prediction. Aggregate data only — no PII. Args: condition: VA condition keyword, e.g. 'ptsd', 'sleep apnea', 'back', 'knee', 'tinnitus'. benefit: 'service_connection' (default), 'increased_rating', 'tdiu', 'effective_date', or 'all'.

Recent changes to the VA M21-1 adjudication manual and its sibling VBA manuals — the changelog VA does not publish. VetAid, the veterans claims tool, archives every KnowVA article version weekly and diffs them; each change carries what was added and removed, a link to the current official article, and the conditions and claim topics it touches. Use this when asked whether a VA rule changed recently, or when a claim's stage (exams, nexus, TDIU, SMC, effective dates, Higher-Level Review, Supplemental Claims, Board appeals) may be affected. Args: condition: optional condition keyword to filter by (e.g. 'ptsd', 'hearing'). topic: optional claim topic: tdiu, smc, effective_date, cue, hlr, supplemental_claim, board_appeal, intent_to_file, presumption, secondary, exams, nexus, lay_evidence, strs, dic, pension, pact, reduction, duty_to_assist, rating_schedule. since: optional ISO date (YYYY-MM-DD); only changes whose new version is dated on/after it.

List the veteran's OWN VA cases (read-only). Requires the veteran's personal VetAid agent key in the request's Authorization header (Bearer vak_...). Returns each case's id, status, timestamps, and its rated / denied / claimed conditions. Only ever returns the key owner's data.

Takes no parameters.

Get a per-stage analysis SUMMARY for one of the veteran's OWN cases (read-only; never starts an analysis). Requires the veteran's personal VetAid agent key in the request's Authorization header (Bearer vak_...). Returns 'not found' for any case the key owner does not own — no cross-user access. Args: case_id: The id of one of the veteran's own cases (from list_my_va_cases).

Check the veteran's VetAid account (plan and the legacy credits field). Analyses are free for veterans, so nothing needs to be bought before running one. Requires the veteran's personal agent key (Bearer vak_...). Read-only.

Takes no parameters.

RUN the full VetAid (the veterans claims tool) analysis pipeline on one of the veteran's OWN cases, ON THE VETERAN'S BEHALF. Free for veterans (no credits spent); limited to 5 agent-run analyses per day. Takes ~5-8 minutes — afterward poll get_my_case_analysis(case_id) for the results. Requires a WRITE-scoped agent key: the veteran must have created the key with the 'Allow running analyses' (read_write) scope. A read-only key returns a 'read-only key' error; the daily limit returns 'rate limited'; a case the key owner does not own returns 'not found' (no cross-user access). Args: case_id: The id of one of the veteran's own cases (from list_my_va_cases).