Glossary

GENESIS-Online concepts and the vocabulary this CLI exposes. GENESIS is a multidimensional statistics database: statistics are made of cubes, which are sliced into tables, described by variables and their values.

Objects

Term	GENESIS	Meaning
Statistic (Statistik)	`statistic`	A whole statistical product, keyed by a 5-digit EVAS code (e.g. `12411`, “Fortschreibung des Bevölkerungsstandes”). Contains cubes.
Table (Tabelle)	`table`	A ready-made 2-D view, keyed like `12411-0001`. The main thing you fetch.
Cube (Datenquader)	`cube`	The raw multidimensional data behind tables, keyed like `12411BJ001`.
Time series (Zeitreihe)	`timeseries`	A cube reduced to a single value over time.
Variable (Merkmal)	`variable`	A dimension/attribute (e.g. `DLAND` = Bundesland, `NAT` = nationality).
Value (Ausprägung)	`value`	A concrete value of a variable (e.g. a specific Bundesland).
Result (Ergebnistabelle)	`result`	A table produced by an async job, saved in your user area.

Codes & selection

EVAS code — the numeric object key. 12 (subject area) → 12411 (statistic) → 12411-0001 (table) / 12411BJ001 (cube).
selection — a code filter for catalogue browsing; supports a * wildcard, e.g. 124* matches all objects whose code starts 124.
name — the exact object code passed to metadata/data.
classifyingvariable{n} / classifyingkey{n} — restrict a data request to specific variable values (the “key” selects values, * wildcard allowed).
regionalvariable / regionalkey — the regional dimension and the region(s) to include (e.g. a Land or Kreis code).

The response envelope

Every non-helloworld response is wrapped:

Field	Meaning
`Ident`	`{ Service, Method }` — which endpoint answered.
`Status`	`{ Code, Content, Type }` — the logical outcome (see below).
`Parameter`	echo of your request (credentials masked as `********`).
`Copyright`	the attribution string to cite — see DATA_LICENSE.md.
`List`	catalogue results (a homogeneous array).
`Object`	data/metadata payload (opaque; for `data/table`, a CSV string in `Object.Content`).

helloworld/whoami and helloworld/logincheck do not use this envelope. logincheck answers HTTP 200 whether or not the credentials are right: its Status is a text — an error text (“Ein Fehler ist aufgetreten …”) means they were rejected, and the CLI exits 1 with the credentials hint — and Username names the account (the token sent may come back echoed there). Only an explicit success or failure text decides; any other answer is reported as unconfirmed (exit 1).

`Status.Code` values

HTTP is almost always 200; the real outcome is Status.Code. Auth failures are the exception: they come back as a flat { Code, Content, Type } body (no envelope) on HTTP 401 or 404:

Code	Type	Meaning	This CLI
`0`	Information	success	returns data
`22`	Warnung	success, a parameter was auto-corrected	returns data (warning visible in `Status.Content`)
`50`	Information	no newer data (for `--stand`)	returns data
`104`	Information	no object matched (`catalogue`, `metadata`, `data`; a `find` without hits answers `0` with every list `null` instead)	returns an empty result (exit 0); a `data <kind>file` download fails instead (exit 4, no file written)
`90`	Fehler	requested object not found	error, exit 4
`98`	Information	result too large for a direct fetch	error with narrowing guidance, exit 1
`15`	ERROR	not authorized: credentials missing or not recognized (flat body on HTTP 401)	error `GENESIS status 15 (ERROR) / HTTP 401` with the GENESIS text, plus a credentials hint, exit 1
`2`	ERROR	wrong username/password or token (flat body on HTTP 404; the same flat body on an HTTP 200 counts too)	error `GENESIS status 2 (ERROR) / HTTP 404` (or `/ HTTP 200`) with the GENESIS text, plus a credentials hint, exit 1 (a 404 carrying a GENESIS code is not “not found”)
any	Fehler / Error	general error	error, exit 1

Value-status placeholders

In a data/table CSV, a cell may be a status symbol instead of a number: - (nothing to report / genuine zero context), . (unknown/secret), ... (not yet available), / (no figure: value not reliable enough), x (no meaningful statement possible), () (limited informative value), p (provisional), r (revised), s (estimated).

Auth terms

API token — a 32-char personal token generated in the GENESIS web UI (“Webservice/API”). Placed in the username request field with no password. Generating a new token invalidates the old one.
Username / password — the account login (username ~10 chars, may be an email; password 10–50 chars). Required together: one without the other is refused before any request, by the CLI and the library alike. A token and a username/password are two logins: both at once (from flags, variables or a mix) are refused too, rather than one silently winning.
Account-only endpoints — catalogue, metadata, data and logincheck need credentials; without them GENESIS answers 401 + Code 15, so the CLI and the library refuse the call before any request.
Guest access — running without an account, as GENESIS’s guest user GAST: find only (and hello, which never sends credentials). It must be asked for explicitly — --guest in the CLI, guest: true in the library; with neither credentials nor that, the CLI and the library refuse to run instead of falling back to guest, and --guest next to a credential is refused too.

See DEVELOPING.md for how credentials are passed on the wire and why redirects are not followed.

Log records

Log record. Every diagnostic line the CLI writes to stderr: a timestamp, a level (ERROR, WARN, INFO) and a topic destatis.<area>, as text (log4j style) or with --log-format jsonl as one JSON object per line. The areas: cli (usage errors, commander’s messages, unexpected errors, the warning about a credential given as a flag), api (GENESIS’s answers: an error status, the credentials hint, and a malformed answer — bad JSON, the wrong shape, an empty body, a login check that confirms nothing), http (the connection, the cleartext warning, and one WARN per retry before it waits), config (the credentials file) and output (the -o file, stdout failures). A record is always one line; control characters in it are escaped.