Managing codelists

Codelists are controlled vocabularies (for example ISO country codes, SDMX frequency codes, or organization-specific code lists). Components in a data structure can reference a standard codelist from the registry instead of defining codes inline.

See Structural metadata for how the registry relates to indicator projects.

Open the codelists registry

From the main navigation, click Codelists.

Create or edit a codelist

1. Click Create codelist (or open an existing draft codelist).
2. Enter identifying metadata (for example agency, name, version, label).
3. Add codes (code, label, and optional description). You can add translations for codelist labels and individual code labels (ISO language codes).
4. Save the codelist.

Status workflow

Codelists move through a lifecycle:

• Draft — editable; not yet used as the canonical published version.
• Published / active — available for linking from data structure components.
• Locked — published codelists become read-only in the registry. Create a new version or draft copy to change codes after publication.

When creating a data structure from CSV, you can create a codelist from CSV for geography or dimension columns during the import mapping step.

Import and export

From a codelist detail or edit view you can transfer codelists between sites or bulk-load codes:

Action	Formats
Import	JSON, CSV, SDMX (structure message with codelist)
Export	JSON, CSV, SDMX 2.1, SDMX 3.0

Use export for backup, migration, or publishing codelists alongside DSDs to other systems.

Next steps

• Managing data structures
• Attach a data structure to an indicator project