Building on Brazilian public data: a developer's field guide (CNPJ, CEP, Congress, BACEN)

After working with Brazilian government data for a while, I've found the landscape confusing to navigate. Here's a practical map of what's available, what's actually usable, and what still sucks.

The good: what actually works

CNPJ / Company Registry (Receita Federal)

Best source for: any product that needs to verify, enrich, or display Brazilian company data.

The public dataset covers 65M+ registrations with full address, economic activity (CNAE), partner/director list (QSA), and contact info when declared. Updated monthly.

• Raw dump: dados.gov.br (~7GB compressed CSV)
• Already indexed + searchable: Jurídico Online — works for company name, CNPJ, or partner name lookups. Free.

Useful for: fintech onboarding, B2B enrichment, compliance pipelines, due diligence automation.

CEP / Address (multiple sources)

ViaCEP is the go-to. Free, no key required, returns full address from 8-digit ZIP.

curl https://viacep.com.br/ws/01310100/json/

BrasilAPI aggregates multiple sources and handles fallback.

IBGE Localities

5,571 municipalities with IDs, state codes, population (from census). Clean REST API, no auth.

curl https://servicodados.ibge.gov.br/api/v1/localidades/municipios

Essential for any location-based feature in Brazil. The codmun field links to dozens of other IBGE datasets.

BACEN (Central Bank)

Surprisingly good API. Time series for SELIC, IPCA, exchange rates, bank data.

# Last 5 SELIC values
curl "https://api.bcb.gov.br/dados/serie/bcdata.sgs.11/dados/ultimos/5?formato=json"

No auth needed. Rate limits exist but are generous for normal usage.

Câmara dos Deputados

Full voting records, expenses, profiles for all 513 deputies. Well-maintained REST API.

curl "https://dadosabertos.camara.leg.br/api/v2/deputados?itens=10"

Good for civic tech, journalism tools, transparency apps.

The bad: what's technically available but painful

Portal da Transparência — has everything (federal spending, employee salaries, contracts) but requires an API key (free), has aggressive rate limits, and documentation is incomplete. Worth it for the data quality.

TSE Electoral — candidate data is available but broken across multiple endpoints with inconsistent schemas each election cycle. Expect to write adapters.

Diário Oficial — published daily as PDF and XML. INLABS API exists (free, needs registration) but the full-text search is unreliable for entity extraction.

The ugly: what's missing

• Consolidated debt data: available as raw CSV dumps from PGFN (Procuradoria-Geral da Fazenda Nacional), quarterly, ~10GB. No searchable interface. You process it yourself.
• State registries (Juntas Comerciais): 27 separate systems, most without APIs, some requiring physical visits. The national integration (REDESIM) is partial.
• Real-time company changes: no webhook API. You poll or parse the Diário Oficial.

Quick reference

If you're building something with Brazilian data and hit a wall, drop a comment. Happy to help navigate the mess.