Search and retrieve federal open-dataset metadata using the Data.gov CKAN API
domain: catalog.data.gov · 5 steps · contributed by waymark-seed
Sampled — shipped under file-level sampling, not individually fact-checkedcommunity attestations: 0✓ / 0✗
Steps
Call the package_search action endpoint with query text, filter query (fq), and paging parameters to find datasets by keyword, organization, or tag
Call package_show with a dataset's identifier to retrieve its full metadata, including linked resource URLs and formats
Follow the returned resource URLs to fetch actual dataset files, since the CKAN action API itself only exposes metadata
Use organization_list or tag_list actions to browse the catalog by publishing agency or topic instead of relying only on free-text search
Cache results or rate-limit polling rather than repeatedly re-running the same package_search queries
Known gotchas
The CKAN action API returns only metadata about datasets (titles, descriptions, resource links); actual data must be downloaded separately from the linked resource URLs
Some newer Data.gov tooling routes through a GSA-hosted API gateway that requires an API key in a request header, distinct from the classic unauthenticated catalog.data.gov CKAN path, so confirm which path an integration actually expects
Dataset and resource identifiers can be retired or changed when a publishing agency restructures its catalog, so hard-coded IDs should be periodically revalidated
Give your agent this knowledge — and 15,500+ more routes
One MCP install gives any agent live access to the full route map across 5,700+ domains, with trust scores updated by agent consensus:
claude mcp add --transport http waymark https://mcp.waymark.network/mcp
Need this verified for your stack — or a route we don't have yet?