Data Export

The export system provides bulk access to data from a conforming implementation in machine-friendly formats. It uses the same filter dimensions as the search API, so you can export targeted slices of the dataset rather than downloading everything.

Export Endpoint

GET /export/games?format=jsonl&mechanics=cooperative&year_min=2020

Parameters

Include Options

GET /export/games?format=jsonl&include=base,polls,taxonomy&weight_min=3.0

JSON Lines Format

Each line is a self-contained JSON object representing one game with all requested includes:

{"id":"01967b3c-5a00-7000-8000-000000000096","slug":"barrage","name":"Barrage","type":"base_game","min_players":1,"max_players":4,"weight":4.02,"rating":8.12,"mechanics":["worker-placement","area-control","engine-building"],"categories":["strategy","economic"],"player_count_ratings":[{"player_count":1,"average_rating":2.8,"rating_count":312,"rating_stddev":1.2},{"player_count":2,"average_rating":3.9,"rating_count":534,"rating_stddev":0.8},{"player_count":3,"average_rating":4.6,"rating_count":687,"rating_stddev":0.5},{"player_count":4,"average_rating":4.4,"rating_count":498,"rating_stddev":0.7}]}
{"id":"01967b3c-5a00-7000-8000-000000000097","slug":"castles-of-burgundy","name":"The Castles of Burgundy","type":"base_game","min_players":1,"max_players":4,"weight":3.00,"rating":8.28,"mechanics":["dice-rolling","drafting","engine-building"],"categories":["strategy"],"player_count_ratings":[{"player_count":1,"average_rating":3.2,"rating_count":456,"rating_stddev":1.0},{"player_count":2,"average_rating":4.7,"rating_count":1823,"rating_stddev":0.4},{"player_count":3,"average_rating":3.8,"rating_count":987,"rating_stddev":0.8},{"player_count":4,"average_rating":3.3,"rating_count":612,"rating_stddev":0.9}]}

JSON Lines (.jsonl) is chosen because:

• Each line can be parsed independently – streaming and parallel processing are trivial.
• Appending new records does not require modifying existing data.
• Tools like jq, pandas, and duckdb handle JSON Lines natively.
• It is the de facto standard for data engineering pipelines.

CSV Format

Flat tabular export for spreadsheet users and simple analysis:

id,slug,name,type,min_players,max_players,weight,rating,confidence,mechanics,categories
01967b3c-5a00-7000-8000-000000000096,barrage,Barrage,base_game,1,4,4.02,8.12,0.81,"worker-placement|area-control|engine-building","strategy|economic"
01967b3c-5a00-7000-8000-000000000097,castles-of-burgundy,The Castles of Burgundy,base_game,1,4,3.00,8.28,0.85,"dice-rolling|drafting|engine-building","strategy"

CSV limitations:

• Array fields are pipe-delimited within a single column (cooperative|hand-management).
• Nested data (polls, vote distributions) is flattened or excluded.
• CSV export supports include=base,taxonomy but nested includes like polls produce one row per poll entry (game x player_count), not one row per game.

For anything beyond basic game metadata, JSON Lines is the recommended format.

ExportManifest

Every export response begins with a manifest header (in JSON Lines format) or is accompanied by a manifest endpoint:

GET /export/manifest?format=jsonl&mechanics=cooperative&year_min=2020

{
  "export_id": "01967b3c-7000-7000-8000-000000000099",
  "format": "jsonl",
  "filters_applied": {
    "mechanics": ["cooperative"],
    "year_min": 2020
  },
  "includes": ["base", "polls", "taxonomy"],
  "total_games": 342,
  "generated_at": "2026-03-12T10:00:00Z",
  "spec_version": "1.0.0",
  "checksum": "sha256:a1b2c3d4e5f6..."
}

The manifest provides:

• Reproducibility: The exact filters and includes used, so someone can regenerate the export later.
• Integrity: A SHA-256 checksum of the export data.
• Versioning: The spec version the data conforms to.
• Metadata: Total count, timestamp, unique export ID.

Streaming

Export responses are streamed. The server begins sending data as soon as the first row is ready, without buffering the entire result set. This means:

• Large exports (100k+ games) work without timeouts.
• Clients can begin processing before the download completes.
• Memory usage is bounded on both client and server.

The Content-Type header is application/x-ndjson for JSON Lines and text/csv for CSV. The Transfer-Encoding is chunked.

Rate Limiting

Export endpoints are rate-limited separately from search endpoints. The default limits:

• 10 export requests per hour per API key
• Maximum 100,000 games per export (use filters to stay under)
• No limit on export size in bytes (but larger exports take longer)

These are the specification’s recommended defaults. Implementations may adjust limits based on their infrastructure.

For full-dataset exports exceeding the per-request limit, use the cursor parameter to paginate through the export in batches.

Use Cases

• Academic research: Export all games with weight votes and player count polls for a study on complexity perception.
• Alternative ranking systems: Export ratings and vote counts to compute your own Bayesian ranking.
• Collection management: Export your owned games (filtered by a list of IDs) with full metadata for a local database.
• Data journalism: Export games by year to analyze trends in board game design.
• Machine learning: Export the full dataset as training data for a recommendation engine.