generated: '2026-09-06'
method: searched
source: >-
  https://api.data.gov/docs/developer-manual/ (DEMO_KEY Rate Limits) and
  https://www.ers.usda.gov/developer/data-apis, read 2026-09-06.
provider: Economic Research Service
providerId: economic-research-service
description: >-
  ERS publishes no sandbox, no test environment and no fixture tooling of its own. There is one
  real, published try-before-you-register credential, and it belongs to the platform rather than
  to ERS: api.data.gov's shared DEMO_KEY. It is worth recording because it is the only way a
  consumer - or an agent - can make a successful ARMS call without completing an email
  round-trip first, and ERS never mentions it on its own pages.
sandbox_environment: none
test_vs_live:
  separate_hosts: false
  separate_keys: false
  note: >-
    There is no test host and no test/live key split. api.ers.usda.gov serves production data
    to every key. The only distinction is quota: a registered key gets 1,000 requests an hour,
    DEMO_KEY gets far less.
shared_demo_credential:
  value: DEMO_KEY
  verbatim: true
  source: https://api.data.gov/docs/developer-manual/
  usage: https://api.ers.usda.gov/data/arms/year?api_key=DEMO_KEY
  limits:
    - metric: requests_per_hour
      limit: 30
      scope: ip-address
    - metric: requests_per_day
      limit: 50
      scope: ip-address
  note: >-
    Published verbatim by api.data.gov as "the special DEMO_KEY api key... for initially
    exploring APIs prior to signing up". Not invented here and not a secret - it is a documented
    public literal. api.data.gov encourages signing up for a real key for any actual use. NOT
    documented by ERS: a developer reading only the ERS pages is told to register and is never
    told this exists.
test_data:
  cards: null
  accounts: null
  fixtures: null
  note: >-
    Not applicable. There are no test values to publish for a read-only public-data API - the
    production data IS the test data, and ERS additionally publishes the full ARMS dataset as
    bulk files that require no key at all, which is the honest offline-rehearsal path here.
bulk_download:
  key_required: false
  note: >-
    "A key is not required to use the bulk download facility"
    (https://github.com/USDA-REE-ERS/ARMS-Data-API README). An exhaustive variable reference is
    published as a CSV at
    https://www.ers.usda.gov/sites/default/files/images/arms-all-variables-december-2023.csv.
  source: https://github.com/USDA-REE-ERS/ARMS-Data-API/blob/master/README.md
geospatial:
  key_required: false
  note: >-
    The gisportal.ers.usda.gov ArcGIS REST and SOAP services need no credential at all, so the
    entire geospatial surface can be explored, queried and integration-tested anonymously. In
    practice that is the closest thing ERS has to a sandbox.
time_simulation:
  supported: false
trigger_tooling:
  supported: false
maintainers:
  - FN: Kin Lane
    email: kin@apievangelist.com