Data freshness

The sanctions and PEP data is loaded every day from its sources. A change at an authority reaches the API on the next load.

Ask how fresh the data is

GET /sanctions/datasets answers with the source list and one timestamp:

{
  "datasets": [
    { "name": "ru_acf_bribetakers", "description": "ACF List of War Enablers" },
    { "name": "US-AECA-DEBARRED", "description": "AECA Debarred List" }
  ],
  "data_updated_at": "2026-09-20T03:03:01"
}

data_updated_at is the newest change in the whole data set. Show it in your interface, or check it in your job before you screen. If it has not moved for more than a day, something upstream is stuck. Tell us.

The timestamps on an entity

last_change is the one you use. It drives the date sort and the from_date and to_date filters on search.

Find what is new

Ask search for everything that changed since your last run:

curl -s -G "https://api.linkinlegal.com/v1/sanctions/search" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $LINKINLEGAL_API_KEY" \
  --data-urlencode "from_date=2026-09-19" \
  --data-urlencode "sort_method=date" \
  --data-urlencode "per_page=100"

• from_date and to_date are inclusive. One day in both gives you the changes of that day.
• Both read last_change, so you get new and changed records, not only new ones.
• Page with page until you pass total_pages.

Run the job with one day of overlap (yesterday and today), and drop what you have already seen by id. Then a load that finishes late cannot slip through your window.

When a new entity can be matched

The two endpoints see a new record at different moments.

match compares against a prepared list of all names and aliases of an entity. That list is rebuilt once a day at 04:00 UTC. Until it has run, a record that arrived after the last refresh is found by search but not by match.

For daily screening this changes nothing: run your job after 04:00 UTC and you work with the newest data.

What we do not promise

• No webhooks. There is no push when the data changes. Poll with from_date, or rescreen on a schedule.
• No source timetable. Each authority publishes on its own rhythm. Our load is daily; the source may be weekly.
• No change feed per entity, except the listing history: GET /sanctions/entities/{id}/history tells you which authority listed the entity, when it started and when it ended.