Usage

ladesaeulen — a CLI for the Bundesnetzagentur Ladesäulenregister. No API key needed.

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

Global options

Option	Description
`--base-url <url>`	API base URL (the ArcGIS FeatureServer)
`--timeout <ms>`	time limit per request in ms, whole response included (0 = no timeout; at most 2147483647)
`--user-agent <ua>`	User-Agent header value
`--max-retries <n>`	retries for transient 429/503 responses (0..10)
`--max-response-bytes <n>`	cap the response body size in bytes (0 = unlimited; default 100 MiB)
`--compact`	print JSON on a single line (for piping to `jq`)
`-V, --version` / `-h, --help`	version / help

Commands

`stations` — search charging stations

Option	Description
`--where <sql>`	SQL filter, e.g. `"Ort='Berlin' AND Typ='Schnellladeeinrichtung'"`
`--limit <n>`	max rows per request (1..10000, default 50). The server returns at most ~2000 — page the rest with `--offset`
`--offset <n>`	rows to skip (paging)
`--order-by <spec>`	sort, e.g. `"Ort ASC"` or `"CAST(max_electric_power_station AS FLOAT) DESC"` (power is a text column; without the cast it sorts as text)
`--fields <list>`	comma-separated field list, or `'*'` for all
`--near <lat,lon>`	only stations near this WGS84 point (needs `--radius`)
`--radius <km>`	search radius in km for `--near`
`--count`	print only the number of matching stations
`--geojson`	output a GeoJSON FeatureCollection instead of ArcGIS JSON

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; page with --offset or narrow --where.

`count-by <field>` — grouped counts

ladesaeulen count-by state → [{ value, count }, …], sorted by count desc. Add --where to aggregate a subset. 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, no note is printed); the top groups are still correct because the server sorts by count first.

`fields` — list queryable columns

ladesaeulen fields → [{ name, type, alias }, …]. Use it to build --where, --fields and count-by.

The `--where` filter

Standard Esri SQL over the layer’s columns:

strings are case-sensitive and single-quoted: Ort='Berlin', state='Bayern'
partial match: operator_companyName LIKE '%EnBW%'
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
combine with AND/OR; the default is 1=1 (all rows)

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

Code	Meaning
`0`	success (help/version included); an empty result also exits 0
`1`	API/logical error (the ArcGIS `error` envelope), or a catch-all
`2`	usage error (bad flags, unknown command, `--near` without `--radius`, a non-`http(s)` or malformed `--base-url`, redirecting base URL)
`4`	HTTP 404
`6`	network / transport failure (DNS, connection, timeout, response size-cap)

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).