# Data.gov CKAN Action API

**Canonical:** https://apis.io/apis/data-gov/ckan-action-api/  
**Provider:** Data.gov — https://apis.io/providers/data-gov/  
**Base URL:** https://catalog.data.gov/api/3/action  
**Documentation:** https://docs.ckan.org/en/2.11/api/

Data.gov CKAN Action API is one of 4 APIs that [Data.gov](https://apis.io/providers/data-gov/) publishes on the [APIs.io](https://apis.io/) network. Tagged areas include Catalog, CKAN, Datasets, and Open Data. The published artifact set on APIs.io includes API documentation and an API reference.

The CKAN Action API exposes the full Data.gov catalog programmatically. It provides read access to packages (datasets), resources (file/URL distributions), organizations (publishers — federal agencies and sub-agencies), groups (topical categories), tags, and users. The API is a single endpoint family at /api/3/action/{action_name} accepting GET (for simple read calls) and POST (JSON body) for any action. Key actions include package_search, package_show, package_list, organization_list, organization_show, group_list, group_show, tag_list, resource_show, and current_package_list_with_resources. Responses are wrapped in {success, result, help} envelopes. Read access is anonymous; write actions require an API key (Data.gov restricts write access to authorized agency publishers).

## Machine-readable artifacts (4)

- **Documentation** — https://docs.ckan.org/en/2.11/api/
- **APIReference** — https://catalog.data.gov/api/3/action/help_show
- **Standards** — https://resources.data.gov/resources/dcat-us/
- **APIsJSON** — https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/data-gov/refs/heads/main/apis.yml

## Other Data.gov APIs (3)

- [Project Open Data (data.json) Catalog API](https://apis.io/apis/data-gov/project-open-data/)
- [Data.gov Harvester (datagov-harvester)](https://apis.io/apis/data-gov/datajson-harvester/)
- [Inventory.data.gov CKAN API](https://apis.io/apis/data-gov/inventory-api/)

## Tags

Catalog, CKAN, Datasets, Open Data

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Profiled by [API Evangelist](https://apievangelist.com) and published on [APIs.io](https://apis.io/apis/data-gov/ckan-action-api/). The API's provider profile, Kin Score and agent-readiness rating are at https://apis.io/providers/data-gov/.