# British Columbia Data Catalogue

> The Government of British Columbia's open data catalogue, operated by DataBC. 3,356
> dataset records from 244 provincial ministries, agencies and public-sector bodies,
> organized into 26 thematic groups. Built on CKAN 2.9.5 and reachable through the CKAN
> Action API at https://catalogue.data.gov.bc.ca/api/3/action/ with no key and no account
> for public content. Its geospatial half is served separately as OGC WMS and WFS by
> DataBC at openmaps.gov.bc.ca, carrying 895 layers from the BC Geographic Warehouse.

Generated by API Evangelist on 2026-09-04 from this provider's own published contracts and
live API responses. The provider does not publish an llms.txt: every path on
catalogue.data.gov.bc.ca returns the same 37,599-byte HTML shell, including /llms.txt and
a control path that does not exist.

## Start here

- [BC Data Catalogue](https://catalogue.data.gov.bc.ca/): The catalogue web application. Client-side rendered — the API, not this site, is the machine-readable surface.
- [How to use the BC Data Catalogue API](https://bcgov.github.io/data-publication/pages/dps_bcdc_api_w_how_to_use.html): DataBC's own API documentation. "You do not need an API key nor an account if you are only accessing publicly available data."
- [Common API calls](https://bcgov.github.io/data-publication/pages/dps_bcdc_api_w_common_calls.html): Worked Solr queries against package_search, including the BC-only extras fields.
- [Site status](https://catalogue.data.gov.bc.ca/api/3/action/status_show): Returns the live CKAN version and enabled extensions. The provider's spec tells clients to call this rather than assume a version.

## Contracts

- [BC Data Catalogue API — OpenAPI 3.0.0](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/bcgov/api-specs/master/bcdc/bcdc.json): First-party, published by DataBC in github.com/bcgov/api-specs. 22 read operations. Declares production, test and delivery servers. Note: components.schemas is empty — no response shapes are described.
- [DataBC Public WMS 1.3.0 GetCapabilities](https://openmaps.gov.bc.ca/geo/pub/ows?service=WMS&request=GetCapabilities&version=1.3.0): 895 queryable layers. Formats include PNG, GeoJSON, TopoJSON, KML, PDF and Atom.
- [DataBC Public WFS 2.0.0 GetCapabilities](https://openmaps.gov.bc.ca/geo/pub/ows?service=WFS&request=GetCapabilities&version=2.0.0): 896 feature types. Supports WFS 1.0.0, 1.1.0 and 2.0.0.
- [BC Government API Registry](https://catalogue.data.gov.bc.ca/group/bc-government-api-registry): The catalogue group in which B.C. registers its other government APIs and their OpenAPI definitions.

## How to call it

- Base URL: `https://catalogue.data.gov.bc.ca/api/3`
- Shape: RPC over HTTP. Every call is `/action/{action_name}`; there are no REST resource paths. Objects are named in the query string (`id`, `name_or_id`), not in the path.
- Auth: none for reads. Writes require a catalogue account and its token in the `ckan_api_key` header.
- Pagination: `limit`/`offset` on list actions; `rows`/`start` on `package_search`, whose `q` accepts Solr syntax and whose response carries `count` and `results`.
- Errors: the CKAN envelope `{help, error:{__type, message}, success:false}`. Branch on `success`, not on the status code. 409 means a validation failure, not a conflict. Malformed requests return a bare JSON string instead of the envelope. Not RFC 9457.
- Rate limits: none published, and no `RateLimit-*` or `Retry-After` headers are returned. The surface sits behind a Kong gateway, so throttling may exist without a runtime signal.
- Test environment: `https://cat.data.gov.bc.ca/api/3` answers anonymously.

## Key operations

- `GET /action/package_search` — search datasets with Solr, e.g. `q=res_format:wms`, `q=res_extras_bcdc_type:geographic`, `q=license_id:2`
- `GET /action/package_list` — every dataset slug
- `GET /action/package_show?id={slug}` — one dataset with all its resources
- `GET /action/organization_list` / `organization_show` — the 244 publishing bodies
- `GET /action/group_list` / `group_show` — the 26 thematic groups
- `GET /action/resource_search` / `resource_show` — individual distributions
- `GET /action/tag_list` / `tag_show` — catalogue keywords
- `GET /action/scheming_dataset_schema_show?type=bcdc_dataset` — the BC-specific field definitions the OpenAPI omits

## Crossing from metadata to data

A resource's `object_name` (for example `WHSE_LAND_AND_NATURAL_RESOURCE.PROT_CURRENT_FIRE_POLYS_SP`) is the BC Geographic Warehouse table name and is also the layer name in the DataBC WMS/WFS capabilities. That string is the join between a catalogue record and a live map service. 884 datasets carry a WMS resource.

## Licence and terms

- [Open Government Licence — British Columbia](https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content?id=A519A56BC2BF44E4A008B33FCF527F61): named in the contract's own `info.license` block.
- [API Terms of Use for information provided under the OGL-BC](https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content?id=D1EE0A405E584363B205CD4353E02C88)

## Clients

- [bcdata (R, CRAN 0.5.3)](https://bcgov.github.io/bcdata/): first-party, published from bcgov with the Province of British Columbia as copyright holder.
- [bcmaps (R, CRAN 2.3.0)](https://bcgov.github.io/bcmaps/): first-party B.C. spatial layers.
- No first-party JavaScript, Python, Java, Go, .NET or Ruby client is published. There is no MCP server.

## Contact

- API and catalogue: data@gov.bc.ca
- Catalogue errors: datacat@gov.bc.ca
- Geospatial services: datamaps@gov.bc.ca