Government of British Columbia APIs for AI Agents
Maps GeolocationContent DeliveryData TransformationOfficial Vendor DocumentsNo authAPI keyoauth2, apiKeyAgent Ready
For Agents
APIs9 in catalogue
Endpoints141 indexed
AuthNo auth / API key / oauth2, apiKey
ProvenanceOfficial OpenAPI documents
An agent can geocode and validate British Columbia addresses, plan road and truck routes, check live road closures, resolve official place names, share geographic areas of interest, search open government datasets, look up aquifer and groundwater records, read government news and ministry data, and pull WorkBC job postings. Because several of these APIs cover the same province, an agent can chain them, for example geocoding an address, then routing around a live closure.
The Government of British Columbia is the authoritative source for provincial location, routing, and public-sector data, so results carry official standing that global commercial providers cannot match for British Columbia. Its APIs share a common province-wide frame of reference, letting geocoding, routing, road events, and named features line up against the same underlying road network and gazetteer.
Use for: Working with authoritative Government of British Columbia data and services: geocoding and routing across the BC road network, live road events, official place names and areas of interest, open dataset discovery, groundwater and aquifer records, government news, and WorkBC job postings.
Not supported: locations outside British Columbia, real-time traffic streaming, map tile rendering, job application management, weather forecasts, dataset file hosting
Credentials: There is no single shared credential: some APIs are anonymous open data (news, geographical names, geomark, jobposting, open511), the geocoder and route planner use an apikey header issued through the BC API directory, GWELLS uses a JWT bearer token for protected operations, and the data catalogue accepts a CKAN API key for restricted reads.
All 9 Government of British Columbia OpenAPI documents are vendor-official and indexed by Jentic, kept validated and agent-ready.
The Government of British Columbia publishes a set of official REST APIs that expose the province's authoritative public data and services. The portfolio spans geospatial tools (address geocoding, road-network routing, live road events, geographic names, and area-of-interest sharing), open government data discovery, groundwater and aquifer records, government news and ministry information, and the WorkBC job posting feed. Together these APIs let applications work with canonical British Columbia locations, routes, datasets, and public-sector content without scraping government websites.
Government of British Columbia API Catalog
9 APIs across 4 product groups.
Maps Geolocation5
BC Route Planner REST APICompute distance, optimal routes, and turn-by-turn directions across British Columbia's road network, with a separate truck mode that respects commercial vehicle restrictions.~22 endpointsGeocoder REST APIGeocode and reverse-geocode British Columbia addresses, occupants, and intersections, with proximity search around a coordinate.~16 endpointsBC Geographical Names Web Service - REST APISearch and retrieve official British Columbia geographical names - features, name histories, and name authority decisions - with no authentication required.~14 endpointsGeoMark Web Service REST APICreate reusable geographic areas of interest and serve them in multiple file formats and coordinate systems for cross-tool sharing.~7 endpointsDriveBC's Open511 APILook up live road events, closures, and construction in British Columbia, filtered by area, jurisdiction, or event type.~4 endpoints
Data Enrichment2
Groundwater Wells, Aquifers and Registry APILook up British Columbia groundwater wells, mapped aquifers, and registered well drillers and pump installers along with the supporting code lists.~24 endpointsBC Data Catalogue APISearch and retrieve metadata for British Columbia open government datasets exposed through the CKAN-based BC Data Catalogue.~22 endpoints
Which Government of British Columbia API should I use?
| I want to... | Use |
|---|---|
| Turn a British Columbia address into coordinates | Geocoder REST API |
| Find where to drive around a British Columbia road problem | BC Route Planner REST API |
| Know what is currently blocking British Columbia roads | DriveBC's Open511 API |
| Resolve or verify an official British Columbia place name | BC Geographical Names Web Service - REST API |
| Find a British Columbia open dataset by keyword | BC Data Catalogue API |
Install Jentic One Beta
Connect the Government of British Columbia APIs to your agent
Jentic One is a self-hosted execution layer for AI agents. It lets your agent call the Government of British Columbia APIs, or any other public or private API you need. You set the rules, the agent never sees your credentials, and every call is logged.
Two steps, two machines. Install the instance in a safe environment, then register your agent from wherever it runs.
1
Step 1: Jentic One Host machine
# On the machine that will host your Jentic One instance:
curl -fsSL "https://jentic.com/install.sh?src=apis&api=%2Fapis%2Fgov.bc.ca" | sh2
Step 2: Agent machine
# On the machine where your agent runs (keep this separate from the instance):
curl -fsSL "https://jentic.com/install.sh?src=apis&api=%2Fapis%2Fgov.bc.ca" | sh
jentic register # connects your agent to your Jentic One instanceJentic One is in public beta. The setup above keeps your agent separate from the instance, which is what you want before using real credentials: an agent running as the same OS user as Jentic One can read its stored keys directly. Just evaluating? A single local install is fine to start. See the secure deployment guide for the tiers.
Once connected, ask your agent something like: “work with british columbia government location, routing, and open data apis”.
What AI Agents Can Do with Government of British Columbia
Each workflow spans multiple Government of British Columbia APIs. Jentic routes each operation to the right API automatically.
Route around live British Columbia road closures
Pull active accidents, closures, and construction from Open511, then ask the BC Route Planner for directions that avoid the affected road segments. The agent uses the road events to score which alternative route is currently drivable rather than routing blindly.
Example prompt:
Fetch active major events from Open511, then call the route planner for directions between two coordinates that avoid the closed segments.
APIs used
DriveBC's Open511 API + BC Route Planner REST API
Geocode an address and plan an optimal multi-stop route
Convert a list of British Columbia street addresses into coordinates with the geocoder, then feed those coordinates to the route planner to compute the optimal stop order and turn-by-turn directions for a field visit.
Example prompt:
Geocode six BC addresses, then call optimalDirections with the resulting coordinates and return the reordered stops and total drive time.
APIs used
Geocoder REST API + BC Route Planner REST API
Enrich a geocoded point with the official place name nearby
Geocode a British Columbia address to coordinates, then query the Geographical Names service for the official named features near that point so downstream output uses canonical BC names rather than informal labels.
Example prompt:
Geocode a BC address, then call the names near-point search around the returned coordinate and return the closest official feature name and class.
APIs used
Geocoder REST API + BC Geographical Names Web Service - REST API
Discover a dataset then geocode its addresses
Search the BC Data Catalogue for a dataset by keyword and pull its resource download URLs, then geocode any addresses inside the data so the records can be mapped or spatially analysed.
Example prompt:
Search the catalogue for a dataset, take an address column from a resource, and geocode each address into coordinates.
APIs used
BC Data Catalogue API + Geocoder REST API
Why Jentic?
What agents get from Jentic-routed access to this vendor.
Setup
Wiring these APIs by hand means juggling different hosts, output-format path segments, and auth models across nine services. With Jentic you install Jentic One once, then find and add any of the Government of British Columbia APIs from the Jentic directory to your workspace, and your agent calls them through one consistent path.
Permission scoping
You decide which operations each API exposes to the agent, so you can allow read-only lookups such as geocoding, dataset search, or listing road events while leaving out operations like creating a geomark or truck routing. Your own rules in your Jentic One instance scope which operations and credentials the agent may use, so it cannot reach anything you have not included.
Credential isolation
Where a service needs a credential, such as the geocoder or route planner apikey, the GWELLS JWT, or a CKAN key, it is stored encrypted by your own Jentic One instance and injected at request time, so it never enters the agent's prompt, logs, or context. The anonymous open data APIs need no credential and pass through unchanged.
Intent-based discovery
Agents search the Jentic directory by intent, such as 'geocode a bc address', 'check bc road closures', or 'search bc open data', and Jentic returns the matching operation with its parameter schema typed, so the agent calls the right endpoint across the portfolio without reading each API's docs.
FAQs
Specific to using Government of British Columbia APIs through Jentic.
What can I build with the Government of British Columbia APIs together?
The APIs combine into province-wide workflows. You can geocode an address, check live road events, and plan a route that avoids closures; resolve official place names for geocoded points; or discover an open dataset and geocode the addresses inside it. Each API covers the same province, so their coordinates, road network, and named features line up.
Do these APIs all use the same authentication?
No. Several are anonymous open data, including the news, geographical names, geomark, job posting, and Open511 services. The geocoder and route planner require an apikey issued through the BC API directory, GWELLS uses a JWT bearer token for protected operations, and the data catalogue accepts a CKAN API key for restricted reads.
Is the whole portfolio limited to British Columbia?
Yes. These are provincial government services, so coverage is British Columbia only. The geocoder, route planner, geographical names, and Open511 feeds do not extend to other provinces or countries, and for locations elsewhere you would use a global provider instead.
Can any developer use every API in this portfolio?
Not entirely. The open data APIs are available to anyone, but the BC Route Planner is currently restricted to B.C. Government Ministries, and the geocoder and GWELLS have credentialed operations that require an issued key or token. Expect the route planner in particular to require a ministry sponsor.
How current is the data these APIs return?
It varies by service. Open511 road events are near real time, subject to the underlying jurisdictional feeds; news, ministry, and job posting content reflects what the province has published; and the geocoder, geographical names, and GWELLS records are authoritative reference data that changes when the province updates its registers and gazetteer.
Which APIs work well as a geospatial stack?
The geocoder, route planner, Open511, geographical names, and geomark services share a common British Columbia frame of reference. A typical stack geocodes an address, resolves nearby official names, checks road events, and plans a route, with geomark used to share the resulting area of interest across mapping tools.
If you need a different Maps Geolocation vendor
All 4 are in the Jentic catalogue with the same one-credential, intent-search pattern.
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