Usage

ladesaeulen — a CLI for the Bundesnetzagentur Ladesäulenregister. No API key needed. The register lists the stations whose operators have completed the BNetzA’s notification procedure, so counts are “listed in the register”, not every public charger in Germany.

ladesaeulen [global options] <command> [command options]

Global options

Commands

stations — search charging stations

Default output is { features, exceededTransferLimit } — exceededTransferLimit: true means more matched than were returned (the server caps a page at ~2000 rows). The CLI prints a stderr note in that case, saying whether your --limit or the server’s cap cut the page; page with --offset, raise --limit or narrow --where. --geojson gets the same note: there the server puts the flag in the FeatureCollection’s properties.exceededTransferLimit. A reply that is not a FeatureCollection with a features array (a gateway’s {}, features: null) is an error (exit 1), not an empty map.

count-by <field> — grouped counts

ladesaeulen count-by state → [{ value, count }, …], sorted by count desc. Add --where to aggregate a subset. It groups by one field: a comma-separated list (state,Typ) is a usage error — group by one field and fix the other with --where (count-by state --where "Typ='Schnellladeeinrichtung'"). The field is one column name as fields lists it (letters, digits and _); anything else — a line break, a space, an expression such as UPPER(Ort) — is a usage error (exit 2) before any request. Good fields: state, Typ, operator_companyName, Ort (Betreiber is null on more than half of the stations). The result stops at 2,000 groups (the server’s page limit; the CLI then prints a stderr note); the top groups are still correct because the server sorts by count first.

info — how current the data is

ladesaeulen info → { name, lastEditDate, dataLastEditDate, maxRecordCount }, the layer’s own metadata; the dates are ISO 8601 UTC ("2026-10-01T13:53:22.139Z"). The register is a snapshot, refreshed irregularly, and no row carries an as-of date (documentDate is always empty), so cite dataLastEditDate with an answer.

fields — list queryable columns

ladesaeulen fields → [{ name, type, alias }, …]. Use it to build --where, --fields and count-by. Sixteen of the listed columns are null on every row (the evses_* per-connector columns, documentDate, documentTime, json_type, Steckersystem_Ladepunkt7..10; see GLOSSARY.md): fields names them on stderr, and stations/count-by log an INFO record (… is empty on every row) when a filter, sort, field list or group names one, since its 0 or single null group is not an answer.

The --where filter

Standard Esri SQL over the layer’s columns:

• strings are single-quoted: Ort='Berlin', state='Bayern'. Text comparisons ignore case, with = and LIKE alike: Ort='berlin' counts the same 4,996 stations as Ort='Berlin' (2026-10-06), so retrying with another casing finds nothing new, and case cannot tell two values apart
• partial match: operator_companyName LIKE '%EnBW%'
• max_electric_power_station is the operator’s figure for the whole station, often the sum of its charge points (2 × 160 kW reads 320), so it is not the power a car can get: use --min-point-kw for that (above)
• max_electric_power_station and Anzahl_Ladepunkte are text columns (esriFieldTypeString in fields); cast them to compare as numbers: CAST(max_electric_power_station AS FLOAT) >= 150, CAST(Anzahl_Ladepunkte AS INTEGER) > 2. An unquoted max_electric_power_station >= 150 fails with ArcGIS error 400
• go_live_date is dd.mm.yyyy text too, so sorting on it does not find the newest stations ("31.12.2025" sorts above "31.08.2026"); filter by year or month with go_live_date LIKE '%.2026' or LIKE '%.08.2026'
• combine with AND/OR inside one --where; the default is 1=1 (all rows). Giving --where (or any other option that takes a value) twice is a usage error (exit 2), not “the last one wins”
• long filters are fine: when the request URL would pass 2,000 characters (a long IN (…) list), the CLI sends the query as a form-encoded POST instead of a GET, and an error message then reads … for POST <url>

Common fields: Ort, Postleitzahl, state, Betreiber, operator_companyName, Typ (Normalladeeinrichtung/Schnellladeeinrichtung), Status, max_electric_power_station, Anzahl_Ladepunkte.

Examples

ladesaeulen stations --count                                        # 116343 on 2026-09-15
ladesaeulen stations --where "state='Berlin'" --count
ladesaeulen count-by Typ --compact
ladesaeulen stations --near 52.5163,13.3777 --radius 2 --where "Typ='Schnellladeeinrichtung'" --geojson
ladesaeulen fields --compact | jq '.[].name'

Exit codes

A reader that stops early (ladesaeulen count-by Ort | head -n 3) ends the run quietly with 0. When stderr’s reader is gone (2>&1 | true), a failed run still exits with its own code.

Notes

• The ArcGIS server reports logical errors as HTTP 200 with an error object (e.g. a bad --where column) — the CLI detects it and exits 1 with the message.
• stations default fields are curated (--fields '*' for all, incl. a large raw JSON blob per row).
• The data is © the Bundesnetzagentur under CC BY 4.0 — see DATA_LICENSE.md; attribution is required.