ckan.australia_search

stable Advanced

Search Australian open government datasets (data.gov.au, CKAN).

GET /v1/ckan/australia_search

What you get#

A list of Ckan results in Onekey's unified shape, in data (an array). An empty array is a normal, successful answer and is charged like any other; a source that reports "nothing found" as an error returns a free 404 not_found instead.

What it costs#

Advanced · 5 credits for a fresh fetch, charged only when it succeeds.
Free when served from cache (0.2 credit for a cached response over 100 KB).
Free if the request is invalid (never charged) or the source fails or reports not found (refunded).

Parameters#

Name	Type	Required	Default	What it is	Constraints
`q`	string	yes	(required)	Search text	max 80 chars; must match `[\w .,'&+:()-]{1,80}`; trimmed, repeated spaces collapsed
`rows`	string	no	`10`	Rows (1-50)	max 2 chars; must match `[1-9]\d?\|50`; trimmed

Request#

curl "https://api.onekey.dev/v1/ckan/australia_search?q=climate&rows=3" \
  -H "x-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY"

Try it

Add your key to run this call right here. No key? Get one free. The key stays in this tab.

Recorded response#

A real Ckan response, recorded and returned in Onekey's shape. Fields the platform does not provide are null.

json

{
  "success": true,
  "data": [
    {
      "entity": {
        "id": "e12e911c-01f4-5f1b-8001-8fb312d202c5",
        "name": "Agricultural climate metrics for the National Climate Risk Assessment",
        "description": "Agricultural climate metrics were derived for the National Climate Risk Assessment.\n\nThis data collection describes the agricultural climate metrics derived from projections of climate variables across Australia from 8 CMIP6 global climate models, as well as a historical baseline from the Bureau of Meteorology’s Atmospheric high-Resolution Reanalysis for Australia (BARRA-R2) data. Agricultural cli",
        "slug": "fedora-pid_csiro-64751",
        "category": "CSIRO Data Access Portal",
        "date": "2025-11-30T20:09:57Z"
      },
      "ext": {
        "resources": 312
      },
      "package": {
        "license": "notspecified"
      }
    },
    {
      "entity": {
        "id": "49c0c88d-021e-4feb-bf14-c6b1451f3116",
        "name": "Climate Data: National Climate Centre, Bureau of Meteorology",
        "description": "Three datasets containing climate data, compiled in April 2011, have been purchased from the Bureau of Meteorology. These datasets include observations from stations in all Australian States and Territories. Each dataset includes a file which gives details of the stations where observations were made and a file describing the data. AWS Hourly Data contains hourly records of precipitation, air temp",
        "slug": "climate-data-national-climate-centre-bureau-of-meteorology1",
        "category": "Australian Ocean Data Network",
        "date": "2025-06-23T15:28:08Z"
      },
      "ext": {
        "resources": 4
      },
      "package": {
        "license": "notspecified"
      }
    }
  ],
  "metadata": {
    "platform": "ckan",
    "endpoint": "australia_search",
    "cached": false,
    "stale": false,
    "age_s": 0,
    "fetched_at": "2026-01-01T12:00:00+00:00",
    "credits_charged": 5,
    "request_id": "7f3a9c2e5b1d4c8fa2e6d0b9c4f18e37"
  },
  "error": null
}

Field mapping#

How this endpoint's source fields become Onekey's unified schema. Fields the source lacks come back as null.

Source path	Onekey field	Transform
`id`	`entity.id`	-
`title`	`entity.name`	-
`notes`	`entity.description`	-
`name`	`entity.slug`	-
`organization.title`	`entity.category`	-
`metadata_modified`	`entity.date`	`toIsoDate`
`num_resources`	`ext.resources`	`toNumber`
`license_title`	`package.license`	-

Caching and freshness#

Fresh for about 2 minutes. Repeat calls in that window are served from cache and are free.
Between 2 minutes and 15 minutes the cached copy is still served instantly and marked stale: true while Onekey refreshes it in the background.
If the source is down when a refresh is needed, the last copy can be served for up to 1 hour more (marked stale).
A "not found" is remembered for 1 minute and is free.
The cache is shared across all customers, which is what keeps repeat calls cheap.

What can go wrong#

Status	Code	What to do
401	`unauthorized`	Check the `x-api-key` header.
402	`insufficient_credits`	Add credits; your balance must cover the price.
404	`not_found`	Unknown endpoint path.
422	`invalid_params`	Fix the parameters using the table above. Free.
429	`rate_limited`	Wait `Retry-After` seconds, then retry.
502	`upstream_error`	The source failed. Refunded; retry with backoff.

See Errors for the full list and retry guidance.

Status: stable (verified against the live source).