The govinfo api is intended to provide data users with a simple means to programmatically access govinfo content and metadata, which is stored in self-describing packages. This initial release provides functionality to retrieve lists of packages added or modified within a given time frame, summary metadata for packages, direct access to content and metadata formats, and equivalent granule information.
Interactive documentation using the OpenAPI/swagger specification is available at https://api.govinfo.gov/docs.
This API requires the use of an API.data.gov key - signup here. If you already have one, go to the /docs page, click on Authorize, and enter your key. Then you can make all the requests normally.
You can send your API key in a few different ways. See api.data.gov for more information on key usage.
One of the API's design goals is to minimize breaking changes, but we are implementing versioning to allow users to specify the version required. We have not determined the number of versions that we plan to support at this time, but it will be based on usage and we will communicate with known users prior to deprecating any version.
If no version is specified in requests, the latest version of the api will be provided.
See Issues to submit an issue or comment on future development priorities.
See the labels below for additional information:
- Features - list of features that are currently under consideration by the govinfo team. Your feedback is welcome!
- Upcoming - list of features that are currently under development and will be available in our next release. May also be tagged with a release label (Month Year) e.g. "July 2018".
Data available in the API represents official publications from all three branches of the Federal Government as made available on GPO's govinfo. For more information about the data that's available from govinfo, see our about page and learn what's available.
Collections Service | samples
https://api.govinfo.gov/collections?api_key=DEMO_KEY
This request will provide a json list of the collections available within our system, including a collectionCode, collectionName, packageCount, and granuleCount (as applicable). All json response are returned in a minified format.
The following request allows you to specify a collection and get a list of packageIds that have been added or modified within the specified time period. collectionCode and startDate are required, as are offset and pageSize. Optionally, you can include the endDate. Currently, we are not limiting the pageSize, but we may restrict this based on performance needs.
Note: There is a 10000 item limit on collections responses. This means that if your update range is too broad, you may need to narrow it down using the
endDateparameter. Example
startDate and endDate are parameters used to search against the lastModified value for the individual packages. This represents the time that this package was added or updated - equivalent to the value listed in the sitemaps. It is not the equivalent to Date Published, Date Issued, or Date Ingested in MODS.
https://api.govinfo.gov/collections/CREC/2018-07-01T00:00:00Z?offset=0&pageSize=10&api_key=DEMO_KEY
Packages service | samples
This service allows you to specify a govinfo packageId and retrieve available forms of content and metadata. A /summary json response is available that includes links and basic metadata about the package - generally equivalent to the information available on the details page for that package.
From the summary, you can get access to all available content and metadata formats for a package. Here is a sample download section for the BILLS-115hr1625enr example below, including a link to the related Billstatus package:
"download": {
"txtLink": "https://api.govinfo.gov/packages/BILLS-115hr1625enr/htm",
"xmlLink": "https://api.govinfo.gov/packages/BILLS-115hr1625enr/xml",
"pdfLink": "https://api.govinfo.gov/packages/BILLS-115hr1625enr/pdf",
"modsLink": "https://api.govinfo.gov/packages/BILLS-115hr1625enr/mods",
"premisLink": "https://api.govinfo.gov/packages/BILLS-115hr1625enr/premis",
"zipLink": "https://api.govinfo.gov/packages/BILLS-115hr1625enr/zip"
},
"related": {
"billStatusLink": "https://www.govinfo.gov/bulkdata/BILLSTATUS/115/hr/BILLSTATUS-115hr1625.xml"
},https://api.govinfo.gov/packages/BILLS-115hr1625enr/summary?api_key=DEMO_KEY
https://api.govinfo.gov/packages/CREC-2018-01-03/summary?api_key=DEMO_KEY
https://api.govinfo.gov/packages/FR-2018-04-12/summary?api_key=DEMO_KEY
You can also get a list of available granules for a specified package by adding /granules, offset and pageSize
https://api.govinfo.gov/packages/CHRG-107shrg82483/granules?offset=0&pageSize=10&api_key=DEMO_KEY
https://api.govinfo.gov/packages/CREC-2018-01-03/granules?offset=0&pageSize=100&api_key=DEMO_KEY
https://api.govinfo.gov/packages/FR-2018-04-12/granules?offset=0&pageSize=100&api_key=DEMO_KEY
This provides a list of titles, granuleIds and links to the granule summary, where you can access all available content and metadata formats, including the zip.
Similar to the package summary, you can retrieve a json summary for any granule, which will return basic metadata as well as links to all available content and metadata.
https://api.govinfo.gov/packages/FR-2018-04-12/granules/2018-07777/summary?api_key=DEMO_KEY