README.md

---
license: other
license_name: sntiq-dual-by-audience
license_link: https://github.com/SNTIQ-Team/amtsgraph/blob/main/LICENSING.md
language:
  - de
pretty_name: "Amtsgraph — German public-authority competence graph"
tags:
  - germany
  - legal
  - government
  - courts
  - public-administration
  - graph
size_categories:
  - 100K<n<1M
configs:
  - config_name: authorities
    data_files: authorities.jsonl
  - config_name: court_chains
    data_files: court_chains.jsonl
  - config_name: competences
    data_files: competences.jsonl
  - config_name: edges
    data_files: edges.jsonl
  - config_name: places_courts
    data_files: places_courts.jsonl
  - config_name: municipalities
    data_files: municipalities.jsonl
  - config_name: matters
    data_files: matters.jsonl
  - config_name: caveats
    data_files: caveats.jsonl
---

# Amtsgraph

**The open, validated graph of German public authorities — who is
competent, where, and for what.**

Built 2026-07-06 from official registers (Orts- und Gerichtsverzeichnis,
PVOG/FITKO, Bundesagentur für Arbeit, Destatis, BayernPortal, OpenPLZ,
xRepository). Every build passes a validation gate (coverage, collision,
contiguity, benchmark checks) before release; every record carries
provenance (source, URL, fetch timestamp).

## Files

| File | Rows | Content |
|---|---|---|
| `authorities.jsonl` | 19,746 | all authorities with contacts, provenance, external IDs |
| `court_chains.jsonl` | 338,873 | instance chains per (plz, ortk, matter) |
| `competences.jsonl` | 77,125 | kind × area assignments (rank 0 = apply here) |
| `edges.jsonl` | 8,394 | parent / supervision / appeal / successor relations |
| `places_courts.jsonl` | 14,057 | official court-resolution place register |
| `municipalities.jsonl` | 10,950 | AGS/ARS spine with postal codes (M:N) |
| `matters.jsonl` | 36 | legal-matter taxonomy (14 core + special) |
| `caveats.jsonl` | 5,372 | warnings that must be surfaced with answers |

## Resolution logic

1. **Courts**: look up `places_courts` by postal code (+ locality when one
   code spans several court districts), then `court_chains` by
   `(plz, ortk, matter)` — rows ordered by `position` are the full
   instance chain (role `court`) plus prosecution offices (role
   `prosecution`). Join `authorities` for contacts and filing addresses.
2. **Agencies**: map the user's municipality to its `ags` via
   `municipalities`, then filter `competences` by `kind` and area
   (`gemeinde` = 8-digit AGS, `kreis` = 5-digit prefix, `land` = 2-digit).
   `rank 0` = the office to apply at; `rank 1` = supervisory body.
3. **Always join `caveats`** for the scope you resolved — they flag
   genuine ambiguities and register gaps. For legal use, an honest
   warning beats a confident wrong answer.
4. The organisational web (Bavaria): traverse `edges` with
   `relation='parent'` for department hierarchies, `'supervision'` for
   oversight, `'appeal'` for derived court appeal routes.

## Null semantics

Empty fields are deliberate, not dirty data:

- `legal_form` is only defined for Jobcenter (`gE` = joint federal-municipal
  institution, `zkT` = municipal provider); for every other kind it is null.
- For courts, the full visiting address (street + postal code + city) lives
  in `street` as published by the justice register, and the separate
  postal-box address in `postal_address`; the `plz`/`city` columns are
  filled where sources provide them as discrete fields (agencies), null
  otherwise.
- `valid_to` is null for active records; a timestamp marks retired ones
  (kept for traceability — e.g. offices replaced by a more precise
  department).
- `matter` on edges is null for non-court relations (parent, supervision).
- `external_ids` may be empty for organisational units that have no
  official register identity of their own.

## Important notes

- General information, **not legal advice**; statutory exceptions to
  competence rules exist that no dataset can capture.
- Department-level depth covers Bavaria's 96 Kreisverwaltungsbehörden
  (pilot); other Länder resolve at authority level.
- Underlying records originate from official public registers; their
  respective terms govern redistribution (see the source registry in the
  GitHub repository). Dual-licensed by audience: non-commercial / human-rights / research use under Apache-2.0 (code) + CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 (data); commercial, corporate and governmental use under the SNTIQ-CM License v1.0 (free written permission, non-harm covenant, attribution, reciprocity) — see LICENSING.md in the GitHub repository.

## Citation

```bibtex
@misc{amtsgraph2026,
  title   = {Amtsgraph: an open validated graph of German public
             authorities, court competences and organisational structure},
  author  = {Glushkov, David and {SNTIQ}},
  year    = {2026},
  url     = {https://github.com/SNTIQ-Team/amtsgraph}
}
```

Source code, pipeline and full documentation:
**https://github.com/SNTIQ-Team/amtsgraph**