Public record · the channel
Published, not delivered.
The government publishes these records. It does not deliver them: each source has its own key, format, cadence and failure mode, and the person with a duty to read them rebuilds the join by hand. This page lists what we found broken in each channel and the repair we shipped — as facts about publishing, not judgments about agencies.
Method and refusals: /methodology · field limits: /dictionary · the screening record built on these repairs: /screening
since 2026-06
Published as
Monthly CSV download, individuals and entities mixed; a web search that returns one name at a time.
Broken
No API; no dated proof of a check; screening 2,000 staff monthly means 2,000 searches.
Repair shipped
File stored verbatim with its SHA-256 and date; exact business-name and exact-NPI lookup; batch check of a pasted list; one dated record per run.
since 2026-06
Published as
Daily ZIP behind a click-through modal; the API requires a personal key and a system account for the full extract.
Broken
The file service the page itself uses is undocumented on the page; 'no result' on the website leaves no artifact.
Repair shipped
Daily extract pulled from the public file service, 35k firm rows stored verbatim, exact name or UEI, file name and hash on every answer.
since 2026-06
Published as
CSV with no header row and '-0-' for empty fields; aliases in a separate file; a sanctions-search site.
Broken
Names without an official key; aliases must be joined by entity number; most screening tools match fuzzily and hide it.
Repair shipped
SDN and ALT files stored verbatim; exact name or exact listed alias only, alias matches labelled; date and hash shown.
since 2026-05
Published as
Rich API keyed on UEI; name search returns near-matches without saying so.
Broken
Slow under load; a name search silently mixes registrants with similar names.
Repair shipped
Recipients counted only when the registered name equals the searched name; the others listed as 'not counted'; shared 24 h cache; 'did not answer' instead of a zero.
since 2026-06
Published as
Keyed API by auditee UEI, behind a free per-person API key.
Broken
The key gate means most readers never reach the filings; findings and general data are separate tables.
Repair shipped
Connector joins general and findings under one UEI; filings shown as filed with the auditor's terms; says plainly when no key is configured.
FMCSA SAFER / Motor Carrier Census
since 2026-05
Published as
HTML snapshot per USDOT; a Socrata dataset for the census.
Broken
Snapshots are overwritten, so history is lost; Socrata throttles and returns 503s.
Repair shipped
Every snapshot kept as a dated version with a change log; last-good census list served with its pull time when the service throttles.
since 2026-06
Published as
Public API and search.
Broken
Company names are free text; a typed name can match the wrong company with high confidence; categories are revised without a changelog.
Repair shipped
Exact company-field match with a published rule version; matches under retired rules discarded; refusals published; composition changes shown with the taxonomy caveat.
since 2026-06
Published as
A JSF web application with an export button; no API.
Broken
Resolved cases move to an archive, so the current list thins and old months look quieter than they were.
Repair shipped
Export pulled through the portal's own report endpoint; current and archive lists read; the thinning stated on every chart.
since 2026-05
Published as
Provider Data Catalog API.
Broken
Times out under load; a failed lookup used to fall through to an unrelated company of the same name.
Repair shipped
Hospital intent preserved on failure; the page says CMS did not answer.
since 2026-06
Published as
timeseries API with undocumented GOVTYPE codes.
Broken
Documented parameters return 404; the state total needs GOVTYPE 001, not 1.
Repair shipped
Working parameters recorded in the method; per-resident lines with the population year stated.
since 2026-06
Published as
Clean REST API, no key.
Broken
Bracketed paging parameters must be sent literally; the monthly statement mixes current- and prior-year blocks in one table.
Repair shipped
Current-year block selected by sequence; department lines taken from Treasury's own 'Total--' rows; formulas shown.
since 2026-06
Published as
Eleven agencies, eleven keys.
Broken
No agency says where its records do or do not join another's; nobody archives what a page said on a date.
Repair shipped
Match register with published refusals; daily archive hash chain with OpenTimestamps proof; free, logged corrections.
Not fixable from outside — and said so
- • Death Master File and IRS TIN matching are not public; we do not read them and say so wherever a buyer might expect them.
- • State business registries and UCC filings block automated reading in the states we tried; we link to them rather than scrape them.
- • County property records have no common channel; not read.
- • Officer, owner and affiliate relationships are not published with keys; we do not infer them.