Open Data

Bulk Datasets

Download complete datasets as CSV or JSON. Updated hourly from official government sources. No account required.

All datasets are public domain. CSV files include metadata comment headers. JSON files include a column data dictionary. Data refreshes every hour via ISR (campaign finance refreshes daily).

Quick Start

No API key, no registration. Paste this into a terminal:

curl https://civdotiq.org/api/v1/bills?limit=5

{
  "data": "[ ... ]",
  "pagination": {
    "total": "...",
    "limit": 5,
    "offset": 0,
    "hasMore": "..."
  },
  "meta": {
    "apiVersion": "v1",
    "timestamp": "...",
    "source": "congress.gov",
    "license": "MIT",
    "documentation": "https://civdotiq.org/docs/api"
  }
}

JavaScript: fetch('https://civdotiq.org/api/v1/bills?limit=5').then(r => r.json())

REST API

10 endpoints covering representatives, bills, votes, districts, and committees.

OpenAPI 3.0 specification · Full API reference · Self-describing index

Pagination

List endpoints use offset-based pagination. The response pagination object tells you where you are.

# Fetch page by page until hasMore is false
offset=0
while true; do
  resp=$(curl -s "https://civdotiq.org/api/v1/bills?limit=50&offset=$offset")
  echo "$resp" | jq '.data | length'
  has_more=$(echo "$resp" | jq '.pagination.hasMore')
  [ "$has_more" = "false" ] && break
  offset=$((offset + 50))
done

Error Responses

Errors use the same envelope with an error object instead of data.

{
  "error": {
    "code": 404,
    "message": "Bill not found",
    "details": "No bill matching ID \"119-hr-99999\""
  },
  "meta": {
    "apiVersion": "v1",
    "timestamp": "...",
    "source": "error",
    "license": "MIT",
    "documentation": "https://civdotiq.org/docs/api"
  }
}

Code Examples

import requests

resp = requests.get("https://civdotiq.org/api/v1/representatives", params={
    "chamber": "senate",
    "state": "MI"
})
data = resp.json()

for member in data["data"]:
    print(f'{member["name"]} ({member["party"]})')

print(f'Source: {data["meta"]["source"]}')

async function fetchAllBills() {
  const bills = [];
  let offset = 0;

  while (true) {
    const url = `https://civdotiq.org/api/v1/bills?limit=250&offset=${offset}`;
    const { data, pagination } = await fetch(url).then(r => r.json());
    bills.push(...data);
    if (!pagination.hasMore) break;
    offset += 250;
  }

  return bills;
}

import feedparser

feed = feedparser.parse("https://civdotiq.org/api/feed/member/P000197")

for entry in feed.entries:
    print(f'{entry.updated}: {entry.title}')
    print(f'  {entry.link}')

# Fetch two members in parallel
curl -s "https://civdotiq.org/api/v1/representatives/P000197" > rep1.json &
curl -s "https://civdotiq.org/api/v1/representatives/S000148" > rep2.json &
wait

# Compare with jq
jq -s '.[0].data.name, .[1].data.name' rep1.json rep2.json

Atom Feeds

Subscribe to civic updates in any RSS/Atom reader. All feeds return application/atom+xml.

curl -H "Accept: application/atom+xml" https://civdotiq.org/api/feed/bills/latest

Nostr

Every significant civic event is cryptographically signed and published to Nostr relays as a permanent public record. Events use NIP-23 long-form content (kind 30023) with Markdown content readable in any long-form client. A NIP-65 relay list (kind 10002) is published so clients auto-discover which relays carry CIV.IQ data. State coverage spans 15 states.

{
  "kind": 30023,
  "content": "# HR 1 passed in House\n\nThe bill passed...\n\n**Type**: bill-action | **Source**: [congress.gov](...)\n\n---\n\n<details><summary>Structured Data</summary>\n\n```json\n{ ... }\n```\n\n</details>",
  "tags": [
    [
      "d",
      "civiq:bill-action:hr1-119-action-2025-01-15"
    ],
    [
      "title",
      "HR 1 passed in House"
    ],
    [
      "summary",
      "The bill passed..."
    ],
    [
      "published_at",
      "1705276800"
    ],
    [
      "t",
      "bill-action"
    ],
    [
      "t",
      "legislation"
    ],
    [
      "r",
      "https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/1"
    ]
  ],
  "pubkey": "<civiq public key>",
  "sig": "<schnorr signature>"
}

import { SimplePool } from 'nostr-tools/pool';

const pool = new SimplePool();
const relays = [
  "wss://relay.damus.io",
  "wss://relay.snort.social",
  "wss://nos.lol"
];

// Subscribe to all CIV.IQ civic events
const sub = pool.subscribeMany(relays, [{
  kinds: [30023],
  '#L': ['civic-event'],
  // Optional: filter by type
  // '#t': ['bill-action', 'vote-record'],
}], {
  onevent(event) {
    const title = event.tags.find(t => t[0] === 'title')?.[1];
    const type = event.tags.find(t => t[0] === 't')?.[1];
    console.log(`[${type}] ${title}`);
    console.log(event.content.slice(0, 200));
  }
});

Fediverse

Follow CIV.IQ from Mastodon or any ActivityPub client. The same civic events published to Nostr are delivered to every follower's inbox as signed ActivityPub activities.

Search @civiq@civdotiq.org in your Mastodon instance to follow. New civic events are delivered directly to follower inboxes via HTTP Signature-authenticated POST. Activities support Create and Update types.

Standards & Discovery

Machine-readable endpoints for protocol discovery.

Data Freshness

Cache durations per endpoint. Every response includes Cache-Control headers so your HTTP client can cache automatically. s-maxage is the CDN cache time; stale-while-revalidate allows serving stale data while refreshing in the background.

Data Sources

Making publicly accessible data easier to understand. Licensed under MIT.