A "package" is essentially a container for products/screenings. You can think of packages as your team's predefined background screening recipes. The Sterling API platform provides a number of components, which are individual searches that can be bundled up into a single package. Common components do things like check driving records or criminal records in various jurisdictions (like count, state, or federal courts). Packages are unique to your account and are used to standardize the checks your account uses to screen individuals based on your company or organization's needs.

A GET on the /packages endpoint provides a list of the packages defined for your account. The package response also lists the required candidate fields needed to initiate a screening with the package. Some components require more candidate data than others to successfully discover records related to the candidate, which means that different packages will have different required fields.