| name | israel-gov-api |
| description | Discover, query, and analyze Israeli government open data from data.gov.il (CKAN API). Use when user asks about Israeli government data, "data.gov.il", government datasets, CBS statistics, or needs data about Israeli transportation, education, health, geography, economy, or environment. Supports dataset search, tabular data queries, and analysis guidance. Pair with the MCP servers listed below for direct tool access from your agent. Do NOT use for classified government data or data requiring security clearance. |
| license | MIT |
| allowed-tools | Bash(python:*) WebFetch |
| compatibility | Requires network access for data.gov.il API. Enhanced by datagov-mcp or data-gov-il-mcp servers. |
Israel Government API
Instructions
Step 1: Understand the Data Need
Ask the user:
- What topic? (transportation, health, education, economy, etc.)
- What geography? (national, specific city/region, specific address)
- What time period? (current, historical, time series)
- What format? (raw data, summary statistics, visualization)
Step 2: Search for Datasets
Use the data.gov.il CKAN API to find relevant datasets:
Search by keyword:
GET https://data.gov.il/api/3/action/package_search?q=KEYWORD&rows=10
Search by organization (ministry):
GET https://data.gov.il/api/3/action/package_search?fq=organization:MINISTRY_ID
Common organization IDs:
| Ministry | ID | Hebrew |
|---|
| Central Bureau of Statistics | lamas | halishka hamerkazit listatistika |
| Ministry of Transportation | ministry_of_transport | misrad hatahaburah |
| Ministry of Health | ministry-health | misrad habriut |
| Ministry of Education | ministry_of_education | misrad hachinuch |
| Israel Tax Authority | taxes-authority | rashut hamisim |
| Israel Land Authority | the_israel_lands_administration | rashut mekarkei yisrael |
| Ministry of Interior | interior_affairs | misrad hapnim |
Step 3: Retrieve and Query Data
Once a dataset is found:
Get dataset details:
GET https://data.gov.il/api/3/action/package_show?id=DATASET_ID
Query tabular data (datastore):
GET https://data.gov.il/api/3/action/datastore_search?resource_id=RESOURCE_ID&limit=100
Filter by field values:
GET https://data.gov.il/api/3/action/datastore_search?resource_id=RESOURCE_ID&filters={"field_name":"value"}&limit=100
Select specific fields and sort:
GET https://data.gov.il/api/3/action/datastore_search?resource_id=RESOURCE_ID&fields=field1,field2&sort=field1 desc&limit=100
Full-text search within a resource:
GET https://data.gov.il/api/3/action/datastore_search?resource_id=RESOURCE_ID&q=search+term&limit=100
Important: The datastore_search_sql endpoint may be disabled on data.gov.il (often returns 403 Forbidden). Use datastore_search with filters, fields, sort, q, limit, and offset parameters instead.
Tips:
- Field names are often in Hebrew -- use
datastore_search with limit=1 first to see field names
- Use
filters parameter with a JSON object for exact field matching (e.g., filters={"city_code":"5000"})
- Use
q parameter for full-text search across all fields
- Large datasets: use
limit and offset for pagination
- Date fields may be in various formats -- check dataset documentation
Pagination:
- Page with
limit + offset: the response returns _links.next (an offset-based next-page URL) you can follow, or you can increment offset yourself. Deep offset paging still works (large offsets return data, there is no hard cap), but the further you page the slower each request gets.
- data.gov.il's
filters does exact matching only, so there is NO _id keyset/cursor paging: filters={"_id":">N"} returns success:false (an invalid query). Use offset paging instead.
- For very large or full-table extractions, download the resource's CSV directly (the
resources[].url from package_show) or pass records_format=csv, rather than paging the entire table over the API.
- The response
total field is the count of all records in the resource (not in the page), so use it to plan how many pages you need.
records_format accepts objects (default JSON), lists (positional arrays), csv, or tsv. lists and csv are noticeably faster and cheaper for large pulls; reach for them when streaming or bulk-extracting.
Step 4: Analyze and Present
For the retrieved data:
- Summarize key findings in plain language
- Calculate basic statistics if requested (mean, median, trends)
- Suggest visualizations (bar chart, line graph, map) appropriate to the data
- Note data freshness (last update date) and any caveats
- Provide the direct link to the dataset on data.gov.il for reference
Step 5: Cross-Reference (Advanced)
When combining multiple datasets:
- Identify common keys (city code, date, category code)
- Use Israeli administrative codes (CBS city codes) for geographic joins
- Note that field names across datasets may differ -- match by content not name
- Document data lineage: which datasets contributed to the analysis
Commonly Requested Datasets
Resource IDs below were verified live on 2026-06-16 via datastore_search?resource_id=<id>&limit=1. IDs on data.gov.il do change without notice. Always re-verify before quoting them to a user.
| Dataset | Resource ID | Description |
|---|
| Private and commercial vehicles (vehicle registration) | 053cea08-09bc-40ec-8f7a-156f0677aff3 | Full registry of private and commercial vehicle license plates with make, model, year. ~4.1M rows. |
| Public-transport vehicles | cf29862d-ca25-4691-84f6-1be60dcb4a1e | Active license plates of public-transport vehicles (buses, taxis). ~65k rows. |
Education institutions (mosdot) | 5548fd63-5868-4053-ad81-98caddc5e232 | Characteristics of educational institutions supervised by the Ministry of Education. ~120k rows. |
| Registered amutot (NGOs) | be5b7935-3922-45d4-9638-08871b17ec95 | Ministry of Justice registry of associations / non-profits. ~75k rows. |
For other domains (GTFS public transport, real-estate transactions, hospital quality, air quality), use package_search to discover the current dataset, then package_show to grab the active resources[].id -- those IDs rotate when datasets are re-published year over year.
Examples
Example 1: Find School Data (full chained workflow)
User says: "I need data about schools in Tel Aviv"
Actions (do not skip the lookup steps -- resource IDs rotate):
- Discover candidate datasets:
curl -s "https://data.gov.il/api/3/action/package_search?q=mosdot&rows=5"
- Inspect the chosen dataset and grab the active
resources[].id:
curl -s "https://data.gov.il/api/3/action/package_show?id=mosdot" \
| python3 -c "import sys,json; r=json.load(sys.stdin)['result']['resources']; [print(x['id'], x['format'], x.get('name','')) for x in r]"
- Peek at field names with
limit=1:
curl -s "https://data.gov.il/api/3/action/datastore_search?resource_id=5548fd63-5868-4053-ad81-98caddc5e232&limit=1"
- The mosdot resource exposes the locality as a NAME field
שם ישוב (city name text, e.g. תל אביב - יפו), not a numeric city code. Filter by the city name (or use q= full-text); Hebrew must be percent-encoded:
# full-text search for Tel Aviv schools (q = "תל אביב", percent-encoded)
curl -s "https://data.gov.il/api/3/action/datastore_search?resource_id=5548fd63-5868-4053-ad81-98caddc5e232&q=%D7%AA%D7%9C%20%D7%90%D7%91%D7%99%D7%91&limit=100"
The numeric CBS locality code (Tel Aviv-Yafo 5000, Haifa 4000, Jerusalem 3000) is the field סמל_ישוב, but it lives in the CBS localities dataset (resource 5c78e9fa-c2e2-4771-93ff-7f400a12f7ba), not in the mosdot resource. Join by city name when you need the code.
Result: Structured school list for Tel Aviv (count, types, sizes).
Example 2: Analyze Housing Prices
User says: "Show me housing price trends in Haifa"
Actions:
package_search?q=nadlan or q=%D7%A2%D7%A1%D7%A7%D7%90%D7%95%D7%AA to find the Tax Authority real-estate transactions dataset.package_show?id=<slug> and grab the most recent year's resource id from resources[].datastore_search with the Haifa city code filter, sorted by transaction date descending.- Group by month, compute median price per square meter, calculate month-over-month percentage change.
Result: Monthly price trend for Haifa with analysis.
Example 3: Municipal Data Comparison
User says: "Compare education spending across Israeli cities"
Actions:
package_search?q=%D7%AA%D7%A7%D7%A6%D7%99%D7%91%20%D7%97%D7%99%D7%A0%D7%95%D7%9A (budget + education in Hebrew, percent-encoded).- Pick a municipal-budget dataset,
package_show to retrieve the active resource id.
datastore_search filtered to education-category rows; page with offset (or download the resource CSV) for large resources.- Normalize per capita using
lamas (CBS) population figures.
Result: Ranked comparison of education spending per student across major Israeli municipalities with data source and year.
Bundled Resources
Scripts
scripts/query_datagov.py -- Search datasets, inspect resources, and run datastore queries against the data.gov.il CKAN API directly from the command line. Supports subcommands: search, dataset, query, orgs. Run: python scripts/query_datagov.py --help
References
references/ckan-api-reference.md -- Complete endpoint catalog for the data.gov.il CKAN API including search parameters, datastore query syntax, and common organization IDs. Consult when constructing API calls or debugging query syntax.
Recommended MCP Servers
Pair this skill with an MCP server so your agent can call data.gov.il (or a derived dataset) directly as tools, without scripting HTTP calls.
When this skill walks the user through a query, prefer the dedicated MCP if it's installed; fall back to the raw CKAN API otherwise.
Gotchas
- Israeli government data APIs (data.gov.il) frequently change URLs and endpoint structures without notice. Agents may hardcode endpoints that worked last month but now return 404. Re-verify resource IDs with
package_show before quoting them.
- The data.gov.il API returns data with Hebrew column headers by default. Agents may fail to parse responses that contain non-ASCII header names in JSON or CSV output.
- Hebrew filter values and
q parameters must be UTF-8 percent-encoded. Raw Hebrew in URLs breaks several HTTP clients (some curl builds, older requests versions, certain proxies). Example: search for "רכב" as q=%D7%A8%D7%9B%D7%91; filter on "חיפה" as filters=%7B%22city%22%3A%22%D7%97%D7%99%D7%A4%D7%94%22%7D.
- Rate limiting on gov.il APIs is strict and undocumented. Agents that make rapid sequential requests will be blocked. Always add delays between API calls.
- A 403 response with body
Security Violation is the data.gov.il WAF terminating your session. This is distinct from an auth 403. Recovery: back off exponentially (10s, 30s, 60s), drop any session cookies, and retry with a fresh User-Agent. Do not retry tight-loop, the WAF will extend the block.
- Many government datasets have date fields in DD/MM/YYYY format (Israeli convention), not ISO 8601. Agents may parse "01/02/2026" as February 1st instead of January 2nd.
- Deep offset paging gets progressively slower on large datasets (there is no hard cap, but big offsets are expensive). data.gov.il does NOT support
_id keyset paging (filters is exact-match only, so {"_id":">N"} fails with success:false); for full extractions, download the resource CSV instead of paging the whole table.
Reference Links
Troubleshooting
Error: "Dataset not found"
Cause: Search terms too specific or in wrong language
Solution: Try broader Hebrew keywords. Government data is primarily in Hebrew.
Error: "Datastore not available"
Cause: Not all resources have the datastore (queryable) API enabled
Solution: Download the CSV/Excel resource directly and process locally.
Error: "403 Forbidden" on SQL queries
Cause: The datastore_search_sql endpoint may be disabled by data.gov.il
Solution: Use datastore_search with filters, fields, sort, and q parameters instead. For example: datastore_search?resource_id=ID&filters={"city":"Haifa"}&fields=field1,field2&sort=field1 desc&limit=100
Error: "Hebrew field names"
Cause: Most government datasets have Hebrew column names
Solution: First query with limit=1 to see all field names, then construct targeted queries.
