Data Points

Every jurisdiction in the United States sets its own rules for building codes, permitting, inspections, and utility interconnection. A data point is a single regulatory requirement tracked for a specific AHJ. It answers one question about one jurisdiction’s code — and the same question can have a completely different answer from one city to the next. Data points are the core data in Fordje. When you query the API, you are retrieving data points: the specific, structured answers to regulatory questions across thousands of jurisdictions.

What a data point looks like in practice

Data points span every regulatory topic that touches construction and energy regulation. Here are some examples of the kinds of questions Fordje tracks:

Example question	Category	Format
Is a permit required for re-roofing?	Permitting	Boolean
Minimum insulation R-value	Building Standards	Numeric
How often are inspections required?	Inspections	Text
Utility interconnection voltage threshold	Utility & Interconnection	Numeric
Solar panel setback distance from roof edge	Residential Solar - Product	Numeric
Maximum lot coverage percentage	Zoning & Land Use	Numeric
Contractor license requirements	Licensing & Contractor Requirements	Text

Each of these questions might have a different answer in Los Angeles than it does in Houston, and a different answer again in Phoenix. Fordje tracks all of them so you do not have to.

Types vs values

Data points have two parts: the type and the value. The type is the question. “Is a permit required for re-roofing?” is a data point type. Types are global reference data — they are not scoped to any particular AHJ. The full catalog of types is the same regardless of which jurisdictions you are subscribed to. The value is a specific jurisdiction’s answer to that question. “Yes” in Los Angeles, “No” in Houston. Values are always tied to an AHJ. Fordje Connect returns the latest published value for each AHJ and data point type. Internal review states are not exposed through the public API. When available, provenance fields such as reference and section describe the published value. When you query GET /v1/data-points, each item in the response includes both the type (nested as data_point_type) and the value:

{
  "id": 1001,
  "ahj": {
    "id": 1,
    "name": "City of Los Angeles",
    "type": "city",
    "state_code": "CA",
    "geoid": "0644000"
  },
  "data_point_type": {
    "id": 10,
    "name": "Permit Required",
    "description": "Whether a permit is required for this work type",
    "unit_of_measure": "boolean",
    "category_ids": [53]
  },
  "value": "Yes",
  "reference": "Los Angeles Municipal Code",
  "section": "91.106.1.1",
  "updated_at": "2025-01-10T08:30:00Z"
}

You can browse all available data point types with GET /v1/data-points/types without needing to specify any AHJ. This is useful for discovering what questions Fordje tracks before querying specific jurisdictions. For a curated starting point, see the standard solar data point types.

Units of measure

Every data point type has a unit of measure that tells you how to interpret the value. When Fordje Connect has a display name for the unit, it appears as unit_of_measure.

Unit	Description	Example value
Boolean	Yes/No answer	`"Yes"`
Text	Free-form text description	`"Annual inspection required for systems over 5kW"`
Numeric	Number, often with implied physical units	`"38"` (R-value)
Currency (USD)	Dollar amount	`"150.00"`
Percentage	Percentage value	`"80"`

Each unit of measure also includes an abbreviation field (e.g., "bool", "USD", "%") that you can use for compact display or programmatic parsing. Call GET /v1/units-of-measure to see all units with their abbreviations.

Use the GET /v1/units-of-measure endpoint to retrieve the full list of units programmatically, including their abbreviations. See the reference data API reference for details.

Filtering data points

The GET /v1/data-points endpoint supports several filters to narrow your query:

Filter	What it does
`ahj_ids`	Return data points for specific jurisdictions (comma-separated AHJ IDs)
`state_codes`	Return data points for all AHJs in one or more states (e.g. `CA,TX`)
`data_point_type_ids`	Return values for specific questions only (comma-separated type IDs)
`category_ids`	Return data points belonging to specific regulatory topics (e.g. Permitting, Inspections)

You can combine these filters. For example, to get all permitting data points across California:

curl -X GET "https://connect.fordje.com/v1/data-points?state_codes=CA&category_ids=53" \
  -H "X-API-Key: your-api-key"

Results are always scoped to the AHJs in your subscription. If you filter by a state, you will only see data for the AHJs within that state that your organization has access to. See AHJs for details.

Categories classify data point types into regulatory topics like Permitting, Inspections, Building Standards, and Zoning & Land Use. You can browse the full list with GET /v1/categories. See the categories concept page for more.

Discovering what is available

Different AHJs have different sets of data points depending on what Fordje has catalogued for that jurisdiction. Not every jurisdiction will have a value for every data point type. To see what data points exist for a specific AHJ, filter by its ID:

curl -X GET "https://connect.fordje.com/v1/data-points?ahj_ids=1&page_size=5" \
  -H "X-API-Key: your-api-key"

{
  "response_type": "success",
  "description": "Retrieved 5 data point(s)",
  "data": {
    "items": [
      {
        "id": 1001,
        "ahj": {
          "id": 1,
          "name": "City of Los Angeles",
          "type": "city",
          "state_code": "CA",
          "geoid": "0644000"
        },
        "data_point_type": {
          "id": 10,
          "name": "Permit Required",
          "description": "Whether a permit is required for this work type",
          "unit_of_measure": "boolean",
          "category_ids": [53]
        },
        "value": "Yes",
        "reference": "Los Angeles Municipal Code",
        "section": "91.106.1.1",
        "updated_at": "2025-01-10T08:30:00Z"
      }
    ],
    "pagination": {
      "page": 1,
      "page_size": 5,
      "total": 42,
      "total_pages": 9
    }
  }
}

To browse the global catalog of data point types (the questions, without jurisdiction-specific values):

curl -X GET "https://connect.fordje.com/v1/data-points/types?page_size=5" \
  -H "X-API-Key: your-api-key"

{
  "response_type": "success",
  "description": "Retrieved 5 data point type(s)",
  "data": {
    "items": [
      {
        "id": 10,
        "name": "Permit Required",
        "description": "Whether a permit is required for this work type",
        "unit_of_measure": "boolean",
        "category_ids": [53]
      },
      {
        "id": 20,
        "name": "Inspection Frequency",
        "description": "How often inspections are required",
        "unit_of_measure": "text",
        "category_ids": [63]
      }
    ],
    "pagination": {
      "page": 1,
      "page_size": 5,
      "total": 85,
      "total_pages": 17
    }
  }
}

Not seeing a data point you need? Reach out to [email protected] — we are always expanding our coverage.

Next steps

Query data points

Full API reference for GET /v1/data-points — all filters, response fields, and pagination.

Browse data point types

Full API reference for GET /v1/data-points/types — the global catalog of questions Fordje tracks.

Getting started

Core concepts

Guides

What a data point looks like in practice

Types vs values

Units of measure

Filtering data points

Discovering what is available

Next steps

Query data points

Browse data point types

​What a data point looks like in practice

​Types vs values

​Units of measure

​Filtering data points

​Discovering what is available

​Next steps

Query data points

Browse data point types

What a data point looks like in practice

Types vs values

Units of measure

Filtering data points

Discovering what is available

Next steps