Querying OWID's internal Datasette instance

Querying OWID's internal Datasette instance

Our World In Data runs an internal Datasette instance that mirrors data from two sources:

1. Main MySQL database — contains our catalog of charts, variables, datasets, sources, and other metadata used by the OWID website and data pipeline.
2. Analytics data store — contains page view and usage analytics data.

Access

The datasette instance is available via tailscale at:

http://analytics/

No API keys or tokens are needed — access is controlled at the network level. However, you must always include a User-Agent header — requests without one get a 502 error. Use -H "User-Agent: Claude" on every curl call.

Available databases

• private — mirror of the main MySQL database (charts, variables, datasets, entities, etc.)
• analytics — page view and usage analytics

URL structure

Datasette URLs follow this hierarchy:

/                           -> List all databases
/{database}                 -> Database overview (list tables)
/{database}/{table}         -> Browse rows of a table
/{database}/{table}/{pk}    -> Individual row by primary key
/{database}.json?sql=...    -> Run arbitrary SQL as JSON. Our datasette instance uses duckdb, which is very similar to PostgreSQL.
/{database}.csv?sql=...     -> Run arbitrary SQL as CSV

Tilde escaping

Datasette uses tilde encoding (not percent-encoding) for special characters in database/table names within URL paths. Allowed characters that need no encoding: A-Z a-z 0-9 _ -. Spaces are encoded as +. Everything else uses ~ followed by a two-digit hex code (e.g. . becomes ~2E, / becomes ~2F).

IMPORTANT: Always retrieve metadata before writing queries

Before constructing any SQL query against a database, you must first retrieve the table and column metadata so you know what tables exist and what columns they have. Do not guess at table or column names.

Step 1: Get the list of tables with columns, primary keys, and foreign keys

curl -s -H "User-Agent: Claude" "http://analytics/private.json"

This returns a JSON object with a tables array. Each entry includes:

• name — table name
• columns — list of column names
• primary_keys — list of primary key columns
• count — row count
• foreign_keys — incoming and outgoing foreign key relationships

Step 2: Get column types

To get the CREATE TABLE statement for a specific table, query sqlite_master:

curl -s -G -H "User-Agent: Claude" "http://analytics/private.json" \
  --data-urlencode "sql=SELECT sql FROM sqlite_master WHERE name = 'charts'" \
  --data-urlencode "_shape=array"

To get all column names and types for a table, you can also use information_schema:

curl -s -G -H "User-Agent: Claude" "http://analytics/private.json" \
  --data-urlencode "sql=SELECT table_name, column_name, data_type FROM information_schema.columns WHERE table_name = 'charts'" \
  --data-urlencode "_shape=array"

Step 3: Check for human-readable descriptions

curl -s -H "User-Agent: Claude" "http://analytics/-/metadata.json"

This returns descriptions for databases, tables, and individual columns.

Running SQL queries

JSON output

Append .json to the database name:

curl -s -G -H "User-Agent: Claude" "http://analytics/private.json" \
  --data-urlencode "sql=SELECT * FROM charts LIMIT 5" \
  --data-urlencode "_shape=objects"

CSV output

Append .csv instead:

curl -s -G -H "User-Agent: Claude" "http://analytics/private.csv" \
  --data-urlencode "sql=SELECT * FROM charts LIMIT 5"

JSON shape options

The _shape parameter controls how rows are formatted in JSON responses:

Value	Effect
objects	Rows as key/value objects (default and recommended)
arrays	Rows as arrays of values, no column keys
array	Flat JSON array of objects, no wrapper metadata
arrayfirst	Flat array of just the first column's values
object	Objects keyed by primary key

Browsing table data (no SQL needed)

You can also browse table data directly without writing SQL. Append .json or .csv to the table path:

# JSON
curl -s -H "User-Agent: Claude" "http://analytics/private/charts.json?_size=5&_shape=objects"

# CSV
curl -s -H "User-Agent: Claude" "http://analytics/private/charts.csv?_size=5"

Table endpoints support column filtering with ?column__operator=value syntax:

?state__exact=CA
?planet_int__gt=1
?name__contains=energy
?id__in=1,2,3

Useful query parameters

Parameter	Description
sql	The SQL query (use --data-urlencode to pass it safely)
_shape	JSON response shape (see above)
_size	Rows per page (use _size=max for up to 1000)
_sort	Sort ascending by column
_sort_desc	Sort descending by column
_col	Include only this column (repeatable)
_nocol	Exclude this column (repeatable)
_where	Add a WHERE clause fragment
_stream=on	Stream all rows (CSV only, up to 100MB)
_header=off	Omit CSV header row

Tips

• Always use curl -s -G -H "User-Agent: Claude" with --data-urlencode to safely pass SQL queries — this avoids manual URL-encoding and the User-Agent header is required to avoid 502 errors.
• For large result sets, use LIMIT and OFFSET in your SQL to paginate, or use _stream=on with CSV output to get all rows at once.
• The datasette instance mirrors data periodically — it may not reflect the very latest changes to the production database.
• Only SELECT statements are allowed. INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE, and PRAGMA are rejected.
• Use _size=max to get up to 1000 rows in a single JSON response.
• The grapher_configs table in the private database contains our chart config JSON blobs. If you need to understand the structure of these, fetch the json schema from https://files.ourworldindata.org/schemas/grapher-schema.latest.json for reference.

Example Queries

Find indicators by name:

curl -s -G -H "User-Agent: Claude" "http://analytics/private.json" \
  --data-urlencode "sql=SELECT id, name, unit, catalogPath FROM variables WHERE name LIKE '%renewable energy%' ORDER BY id DESC LIMIT 10" \
  --data-urlencode "_shape=array" | jq

Find published charts by topic:

curl -s -G -H "User-Agent: Claude" "http://analytics/private.json" \
  --data-urlencode "sql=SELECT id, title, slug, type FROM charts WHERE title LIKE '%life expectancy%' AND isPublished = 1 LIMIT 10" \
  --data-urlencode "_shape=array" | jq

Find which variables power a chart:

curl -s -G -H "User-Agent: Claude" "http://analytics/private.json" \
  --data-urlencode "sql=SELECT v.id, v.name, v.unit FROM variables v JOIN chart_dimensions cd ON v.id = cd.variableId JOIN charts c ON cd.chartId = c.id WHERE c.slug = 'life-expectancy'" \
  --data-urlencode "_shape=array" | jq

Count charts by type:

curl -s -G -H "User-Agent: Claude" "http://analytics/private.json" \
  --data-urlencode "sql=SELECT type, COUNT(*) as count FROM charts WHERE isPublished = 1 GROUP BY type ORDER BY count DESC" \
  --data-urlencode "_shape=array" | jq