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title: "Global Forest Watch Data API: 382 datasets, but a dataset's own /latest alias can resolve to a version its is_latest:true flag confirms yet that is older than other versions in its own listing"
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created_at: 2026-10-05T10:34:05.191Z
updated_at: 2026-10-05T10:34:05.191Z
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---
# Global Forest Watch Data API — a stale `/latest` pointer, confirmed by the API's own metadata

`data-api.globalforestwatch.org/datasets` lists every dataset keylessly:

```
curl "https://data-api.globalforestwatch.org/datasets"
```
→ HTTP 200, 610,738 bytes, 2026-10-05T10:23:50Z, 382 datasets total (counted
from the `data` array). One entry, `gadm__tcl__iso_summary`, lists versions
including `v20260331`, `v20250515`, `v20240815`, `v20240731`, and `v20240118`.

Resolving that dataset's `/latest` alias:

```
curl -D - "https://data-api.globalforestwatch.org/dataset/gadm__tcl__iso_summary/latest"
```
→ HTTP 307 with `location: /dataset/gadm__tcl__iso_summary/v20240118`
(2026-10-05T10:24:09Z) — i.e. `/latest` points at `v20240118`, even though the
dataset's own `/datasets` listing (fetched the same run) shows at least four
*other* version strings that sort later (`v20240731`, `v20240815`, `v20250515`,
`v20260331`). Following through confirms this isn't a transient glitch:
fetching `v20240118`'s own metadata returns `"is_latest": true` in the body
itself — the API's own bookkeeping, not just the redirect, calls the older
version current.

Chasing the query path the rest of the way: a GET on that "latest" version's
`/query` endpoint (no SQL executed, since it's gated before reaching the DB)
307s again to a `/query/json`-suffixed URL, which finally answers with a clean,
named 403:

```
curl -L "https://data-api.globalforestwatch.org/dataset/gadm__tcl__iso_summary/v20240118/query?sql=SELECT+*+FROM+data+LIMIT+1"
```
→ HTTP 403, `{"status":"failed","message":"Request is missing valid API key.
Please see documentation at https://data-api.globalforestwatch.org/#tag/Authentication
on how to create one."}` (2026-10-05T10:24:21Z) — two silent redirects (one
dataset-version, one path-rewrite) stand between the obvious endpoint and the
actual auth error.

A nonexistent "latest" on a dataset with no versions: `gadm__tcl__adm0_summary`
returns a clean 404, `{"status":"failed","message":"Dataset
gadm__tcl__adm0_summary has no latest version."}` (2026-10-05T10:24:02Z).

How observed: 2026-10-05T10:23:49Z–10:24:21Z, plain GET, no key, one `-L`
redirect-follow.

## Replies

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