The child-places playbook

Statistics across the places contained within a parent geography — on this instance, the countries within the world, a continent, a UN region or another geographic grouping. The general playbook hands off here when a question spans the places contained in a parent geography.

This is the data-commons-child-places-researcher skill exactly as the server serves it to AI clients — the operating rules a client is expected to follow when it uses the tools.

Foundational Knowledge: Data Commons Graph Structure¶

Data Commons organizes data into two main structural hierarchies. Understanding these is key to choosing your place names and variables:

1. Topics (Variable Hierarchy): A taxonomy of categories (e.g., Health -> Clinical Data -> Medical Conditions). Topics contain sub-topics and individual variables.

2. Places (Geographic Hierarchy): A taxonomy of spatial containment (e.g., World -> Continent -> Country -> State -> County).

Data Availability & Efficiency Tips:¶

• Direct Containment Efficiency: Querying the direct child places of a parent (e.g., all counties inside California) is highly optimized and returns faster than querying arbitrary cross-border place sets.

• Single-Place Routing: If the user’s query asks for statistics about a single specific place (e.g., “population of France” or “GDP of California”), you MUST read the base skill resource at ‘skill://data-commons-researcher/SKILL.md’ instead.

1. The Three-Step Tool Pipeline¶

When researching statistics across child places within a parent entity, always separate your work into three distinct phases to avoid context bloat:

1. Discovery (search_child_indicators): Use this to find candidate variables matching the user’s concept that are available at the sub-national/child level.

2. Assessment (get_variable_metadata): Pass candidate variables and target child locations to retrieve structural metadata, ensuring the dataset matches the required temporal range, granularity, and source trust.

3. Retrieval (get_child_observations): Fetch the actual timeseries arrays across all child places of a specified type once the variables and facets have been qualified.

CRITICAL: Always validate variable-place combinations first¶

• You MUST call search_child_indicators first to verify that the variable exists for the specified child places.

• You MUST call get_variable_metadata to verify dataset facets (source, dates, coverage) for sampled child places before retrieving heavy observation arrays.

• Only use DCIDs returned by search_child_indicators - never guess or assume variable-place combinations.

• This ensures data availability and prevents errors from invalid combinations.

Multi-Entity Discovery Routing Hook¶

After calling search_child_indicators or get_variable_metadata, inspect the observation_properties list on candidate variables:

• If observation_properties contains multiple entity properties (e.g. ["donor", "recipient"] or ["exportingEntity", "importingEntity"]), this indicator is a Multi-Entity Statistical Variable. You MUST switch to reading skill://data-commons-multi-entity-researcher/SKILL.md and call get_multi_entity_observations.

2. Discovery Heuristics: Concept Splitting & Parameter Tuning¶

To ensure focused and accurate candidate retrieval when calling search_child_indicators:

A. Concept Extraction & Multi-Query Splitting¶

• Search Single Concepts: Always search for one semantic concept at a time.

• Split Compound Queries:

  • Incorrect: query="health and unemployment rate" (Causes search index confusion).

  • Correct: Split into two separate, sequential tool calls:

    1. search_child_indicators(query="health", ...)

    2. search_child_indicators(query="unemployment rate", ...)

B. Parameter Configuration Guidelines¶

• Toggling Topics (include_topics):

  • Set include_topics=true (Default) when the user’s request is exploratory (e.g., “What health data do you have for California counties?”).

  • Set include_topics=false when targeting a specific dataset or observation (e.g., “Find the diabetes rate for California counties”). This reduces the return payload size.

• Setting Result Limits (per_search_limit):

  • Always stick to the default value of 10 to keep payloads small.

  • Do not increase the limit unless the user explicitly requests more candidate indicators.

3. Geographic Place Qualification & Fallback Recovery¶

Data Commons requires qualified geographic names to avoid database name conflicts.

A. Core Qualification Rules¶

• Never use DCIDs in Search Parameters: Only pass qualified, human-readable English place names to parent_place or sample_child_places in search_child_indicators (e.g., use "California", not "geoId/06").

• Always Qualify Naming Ambiguities: Add parent geographic or administrative context when specifying parent or sample child places:

  • New York: Differentiate between "New York City, USA" and "New York State, USA".

  • Washington: Differentiate between "Washington, DC, USA" and "Washington State, USA".

  • Madrid: Differentiate between "Madrid, Spain" (city) and "Community of Madrid, Spain" (autonomous community).

  • London: Differentiate between "London, UK" and "London, Ontario, Canada".

  • Scotland: Differentiate between "Scotland, UK" and "Scotland County, USA".

• Extracting names from other tools: If you get place info from another tool, extract and use only the readable name, but always qualify it with geographic context.

B. Child Place Indicator Discovery Rule¶

• When searching for indicators related to child places within a parent (e.g., states within a country, or counties within a state), you MUST call search_child_indicators, passing the parent entity in the parent_place parameter and a diverse sample of 5-6 of its child places in the sample_child_places list. This ensures the discovery of indicators that have data at the child place level.

C. Vague & Unqualified Query Fallbacks¶

• If a user asks a general or vague question about available sub-national data without specifying target indicators (e.g., “What child data do you have for California?” or “What statistics exist for US counties?”), proactively run a child topic lookup:

  • Call: search_child_indicators(query="", parent_place="California", sample_child_places=["Los Angeles County, CA", "San Francisco County, CA", "Alpine County, CA"], include_topics=true).

  • Present the returned high-level topics for that place’s children to guide the user’s focus.

D. Geographic Resolution Recovery (Troubleshooting)¶

• If the search tool resolves the wrong parent place:

  • Re-run search_child_indicators with explicit administrative parameters.

4. Playbook Recipes & Call Examples¶

Recipe: Sampling Child Places & Containment Data¶

• Goal: Check and retrieve data across child places of a parent (e.g., “unemployment rate in Indian states” or “GDP of all countries in the World”).

• Step 1 (Discovery & Sampling): Call search_child_indicators using a diverse sample of child places to verify variable availability:

  • Example (States in India): search_child_indicators(query="unemployment", parent_place="India", sample_child_places=["Uttar Pradesh, India", "Maharashtra, India", "Tripura, India", "Bihar, India", "Kerala, India"])

  • Example (Countries in the World): search_child_indicators(query="GDP", parent_place="World", sample_child_places=["USA", "China", "Germany", "Nigeria", "Brazil"])

  • Example (Administrative Level Sampling for Cities): search_child_indicators(query="population", parent_place="USA", sample_child_places=["New York City, USA", "Los Angeles, USA", "Chicago, USA", "Houston, USA", "Phoenix, USA"])

  • Example (Administrative Level Sampling for States): search_child_indicators(query="population", parent_place="USA", sample_child_places=["California, USA", "Texas, USA", "Florida, USA", "New York State, USA", "Pennsylvania, USA"])

• Proxy Logic rules:

  1. If a sampled child place shows data in placesWithData for a variable, assume that variable is available across all child places of that type.

  2. If no sampled child place shows data, assume the variable is not available at the child level.

  3. Definitiveness of Child Search: The results of search_child_indicators are absolute and definitive for the targeted child places. If a variable or concept does not appear in the child search results, it is guaranteed not to exist for those child places. Do NOT run follow-up global searches (search_indicators) to double-check or verify if the variable exists elsewhere.

  4. No Redundant Single-Place Pings: If a variable is confirmed via search_child_indicators or has child place coverage, proceed directly to get_child_observations (using latest or a narrow range). Do NOT run redundant single-place get_observations calls to verify the variable’s active status.

  5. Determine the common child place type (e.g. "State" or "Country") from the returned dcidPlaceTypeMappings.

• Step 2 (Assessment): Verify facets and date ranges for the variable across the child level by passing the resolved DCIDs of the sampled child places:

  • get_variable_metadata(variable_dcids=["unemployment_rate_dcid"], entity_dcids=["resolved_child_dcid_1", "resolved_child_dcid_2", "..."])

• Step 3 (Retrieval): Query observations for ALL child places of the determined type using get_child_observations:

  • get_child_observations(variable_dcid="unemployment_rate_dcid", parent_place_dcid="country/IND", child_place_type="State")

5. Processing search_child_indicators Responses¶

Always treat results as candidates. You must filter, rank, and verify them based on the user’s full context.

A. Response Structure Reference¶

{
  "topics": [
    {
      "dcid": "dc/t/TopicDcid",
      "memberTopics": ["dc/t/SubTopic1", "..."],
      "memberVariables": ["dc/v/Variable1", "..."],
      "placesWithData": ["geoId/06037", "..."]
    }
  ],
  "variables": [
    {
      "dcid": "dc/v/VariableDcid",
      "placesWithData": ["geoId/06037", "geoId/06075", "..."]
    }
  ],
  "dcidNameMappings": {
    "dc/t/TopicDcid": "Readable Topic Name",
    "dc/v/VariableDcid": "Readable Variable Name",
    "geoId/06037": "Los Angeles County, CA",
    "geoId/06075": "San Francisco County, CA"
  },
  "dcidPlaceTypeMappings": {
    "geoId/06037": ["County"],
    "geoId/06075": ["County"]
  },
  "status": "SUCCESS"
}

B. Field Mapping Rules¶

• topics: (Only if include_topics=true) Use dcidNameMappings to resolve readable names.

• variables: Individual data indicators. Use dcidNameMappings to resolve readable names.

• placesWithData: Represents which of the sampled child places have data for that specific indicator.

• dcidNameMappings: Use this to map returned DCIDs to human-readable names.

• dcidPlaceTypeMappings: Maps place DCIDs to their types. Use this to determine the child_place_type parameter when calling get_child_observations.

6. Processing get_variable_metadata Responses¶

Use this response to verify dataset coverage, date ranges, and sources for sampled child places before fetching full observation arrays.

A. Response Structure Reference¶

{
  "status": "SUCCESS",
  "variables": {
    "UnemploymentRate_Person": {
      "id": "UnemploymentRate_Person",
      "name": "Unemployment Rate",
      "facets": [
        {
          "id": "2176550201",
          "provenanceId": "dc/base/BLS_CP",
          "obsCount": 12,
          "dateRange": { "start": "2020", "end": "2024" },
          "scope": { "entityCoverage": ["geoId/06037"] }
        }
      ]
    }
  },
  "provenances": {
    "dc/base/BLS_CP": {
      "id": "dc/base/BLS_CP",
      "properties": {
        "source": "Bureau of Labor Statistics",
        "url": "https://www.bls.gov"
      }
    }
  }
}

B. Field Mapping Rules¶

• variables: Contains metadata per variable DCID. Inspect facets to confirm temporal range (dateRange) and validity across the sampled child places.

• provenances: Maps provenance IDs to authoritative source details (source, url). Use this for mandatory data attribution.

7. Child Place Type Determination Heuristics¶

Before calling get_child_observations, inspect the dcidPlaceTypeMappings returned by search_child_indicators to determine the value for the child_place_type parameter:

1. Common Type: Find the place type common to ALL sampled child places.

2. Specific Type Priority: If multiple types are common to all child places, choose the most specific type (e.g., prefer "County" over "AdministrativeArea2").

3. Majority Fallback: If no single type is common to all, use the type that maps to a clear majority (50%+ threshold) of the sample.

4. Resolution Failure: If there is no common type and no majority type, child-place mode is not supported. Fall back to making individual get_observations calls in single-place mode for each child place using the base skill resource at ‘skill://data-commons-researcher/SKILL.md’.

8. Bounded Date Query & Date Filtering Rules¶

To prevent payload saturation and context window exhaustion when fetching time-series observations:

A. Child Places Mode Constraint¶

• When calling get_child_observations with child_place_type active, never set date="all".

• Safe Date Strategies:

  • Set date="latest" to retrieve only the most recent data point for each child place.

  • Explicitly define a narrow window using date_range_start and date_range_end (e.g., 2020 to 2023).

B. Date Range Boundary Interpretations¶

When date="range" is used, the date ranges are evaluated as follows:

• Start Date Only: If only date_range_start is specified, the response will contain all observations starting at and after that date (inclusive).

• End Date Only: If only date_range_end is specified, the response will contain all observations before and up to that date (inclusive).

• Both Boundaries: If both are specified, the response contains observations within the provided range (inclusive).

• Default Fallback: If you do not provide any date parameters (date, date_range_start, or date_range_end), the tool will automatically fetch only the 'latest' observation.

9. Processing get_child_observations Responses¶

A. Response Structure Reference¶

{
  "variable": { "dcid": "UnemploymentRate_Person", "name": "Unemployment Rate" },
  "resolvedParentPlace": { "dcid": "geoId/06", "name": "California", "typeOf": ["State"] },
  "childPlaceType": "County",
  "placeObservations": [
    {
      "place": { "dcid": "geoId/06037", "name": "Los Angeles County", "typeOf": ["County"] },
      "timeSeries": [{ "date": "2024", "value": 5.4 }]
    }
  ],
  "sourceMetadata": { "sourceId": "2176550201", "provenanceUrl": "https://www.bls.gov" },
  "alternativeSources": []
}

B. Field Mapping Rules¶

• variable: Details about the statistical variable requested.

• resolvedParentPlace: Structural verification of how the parent place parameter was resolved.

• childPlaceType: Confirms the administrative type applied to all child observations.

• placeObservations: A list of observations, one entry per child place. Each entry contains:

  • place: Details about the observed child place (DCID, name, type).

  • timeSeries: A list of (date, value) objects.

• sourceMetadata: Primary authoritative data source information.

• alternativeSources: Secondary available sources.