Datasets, places and topics

Data Feeds is in early access. Contact us to set up a subscription; the API and sync client described here open to early access customers first.

Places

A place is a county, identified as us-<state>-<FIPS>, for example us-fl-12095 for Orange County, Florida. GET /v1/places lists the counties in your workspace’s coverage, with how many datasets each holds by topic.

Topics

Every dataset is filed under one topic from a fixed list, such as permits, zoning, code_enforcement, planning, sales or parcels. GET /v1/topics returns the list. A subscription can name topics to receive only those.

Datasets

A dataset is one public record set from one source, such as Orange County’s building permits.

{
  "id": "ds_orange_fl_building_permits",
  "title": "Building permits",
  "place": {
    "id": "us-fl-12095",
    "name": "Orange County",
    "state": "FL",
    "kind": "county"
  },
  "topic": "permits",
  "source": {
    "publisher": "Orange County Division of Building Safety",
    "url": "https://...",
    "license": null
  },
  "geometry": { "type": "Point", "srid": 4326 },
  "keyColumns": ["permit_number"],
  "current": {
    "version": 42,
    "schemaVersion": "2.1",
    "publishedAt": "2026-10-18T06:12:40Z",
    "sourceCheckedAt": "2026-10-18T06:00:03Z",
    "rowCount": 184220
  },
  "refresh": { "cadence": "daily", "nextCheckAt": "2026-10-19T06:00:00Z" }
}

keyColumns are the columns that identify a record across versions. When a source has no stable key the list is empty, and records are matched by their content.
refresh.cadence is how often Ploti checks the source. A check that finds nothing new publishes no version; current.sourceCheckedAt still moves.
Geometry is always WGS 84 (EPSG:4326).

Record ids

Every record has a _ploti_record_id, derived from the dataset and its key columns. It stays the same across versions for as long as the key columns do, so you can upsert and delete by it. For a dataset without key columns, the id is derived from the record’s content: an edit at the source arrives as a delete of the old record and an upsert of the new one.

Envelope columns

Every snapshot and changes file carries these columns ahead of the dataset’s own:

Column	Type	Meaning
`_ploti_record_id`	string	Stable record id.
`_ploti_dataset_id`	string	The dataset.
`_ploti_place_id`	string	The county, e.g. `us-fl-12095`.
`_ploti_version`	integer	The version this row is as of.
`_ploti_source_url`	string	Where the record is published.
`_ploti_fetched_at`	timestamp	When Ploti read it from the source.

Changes files add _ploti_op (upsert or delete) and _ploti_change (added, changed or removed). Because every dataset carries the same envelope, you can load many counties’ datasets side by side and ask “what changed in this county since Tuesday” without knowing any dataset’s columns. Some data in the Ploti app is licensed from third parties rather than collected from public sources. It is available in the app and to agents, but not through Data Feeds, and does not appear in GET /v1/datasets.

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Datasets, places and topics

Places

Topics

Datasets

Record ids

Envelope columns

​Places

​Topics

​Datasets

​Record ids

​Envelope columns

​Datasets you cannot subscribe to

Places

Topics

Datasets

Record ids

Envelope columns

Datasets you cannot subscribe to