Mayd It LLC / Guides
Working with US public-records APIs
Field notes on the government APIs behind our data tools: the undocumented traps, the pagination ceilings, and the errors that return HTTP 200 with wrong data. Everything here was measured against the live APIs, not copied from the docs.
FDA Recall API: A Working Guide to openFDA Enforcement
How to pull FDA drug, device and food recall data from the openFDA enforcement API: the 26,000-record skip wall, the silent OR bug, and stale status.
openFDA Adverse Event API: Paging Past 25,000 and Flattening
Measured guide to the openFDA adverse event API: beat the 25,000 skip cap with search_after, fix silent overcounts, decode code fields, flatten FAERS and MAUDE.
CPSC Recall API: No Pagination and a Broken Hazard Filter
CPSC's SaferProducts recall API has no pagination and three documented filters that always return zero. Verified parameter reference and workarounds.
Restaurant Health Inspection Data by City: APIs and Traps
Verified dataset IDs, a live freshness check, and the schema traps behind restaurant health inspection data by city: inverted scores, null sorts, row fanout.
Building Permit Data for Roofing, Solar and HVAC Leads
Real Socrata queries for roofing, solar and HVAC permit leads: per-city trade columns, the null-date and dedupe traps, and honest 90-day lead counts.
USAspending API, No API Key: Federal Contract Awards
Query the USAspending API with no API key for federal contract awards: the 10,000-record hasNext cliff, five silent filter failures, and dedupe traps.