# Flat Data

DevFeed: [Flat Data](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/flat-data-67158.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://githubnext.com/projects/flat-data/>)

Published: 2021-05-18T00:00:00Z

Content type: article

Language: en

Sources: [GitHub Next](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/github-next.md>)

Topics: [etl](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/etl.md>), [cURL](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/curl.md>), [JSON](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/json.md>)

Tags: [git-scraping](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/git-scraping.md>), [github](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/github.md>), [repositories](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/repositories.md>), [scraping](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/scraping.md>)

## AI overview

Flat Data uses GitHub Actions to fetch data from HTTP endpoints or SQL databases, optionally process it, and commit changes to a GitHub repository on a schedule or in response to triggers. The article explains how this approach can simplify everyday data acquisition and cleanup without requiring users to provision and monitor infrastructure.

## Source excerpt

Flat explores how to make it easy to work with data in git and GitHub. It builds on the ["git scraping" approach pioneered by Simon Willison](https://simonwillison.net/2020/Oct/9/git-scraping/) to offer a simple pattern for bringing working datasets into your repositories and versioning them, because developing against local datasets is faster and easier than working with data over the wire.