N-WaysGuinea-Bissau home codes
Every compound in Guinea-Bissau has an N-Ways code. Look one up, find the code at a point, or decode it offline with the open engine, and credit N-Ways where you show it.
What a code is
Every compound in Guinea-Bissau, in all 39 sectors, has an N-Ways code: the short name of its bairro, town or tabanca and a short number, such as Bandim 537 or Gabu 1203. Each code is unique in the whole country on its own and leads to the compound’s gate. Codes start provisional and become confirmed when residents agree in the N-Ways app.
- Remembered form, what people say and type:
Bandim 537. Any case, Portuguese and Kriol spellings (Sintchã = Sinchã), the official name in place of the short one. - Written form, on plates and forms:
Bandim 537. People never see or type a check digit; it is in the machine form only. - Machine form, for systems, QR codes and links:
10-022-00537-4(sector, place, number, check digit). - Spot code, for any point with no compound:
10-4327-9117, computed offline.
Guinea-Bissau has no official address system: its postcodes exist on paper only, and only 1000 BISSAU is attested, so it is shown beside codes in Bissau as context. The model, the engine and the registry of every code are open: github.com/n-ways/open-addresses-guinea-bissau. The white paper explains every rule.
Credit N-Ways wherever you show a code. Show “Home code by N-Ways Addressing” next to codes in your app, and credit “N-Ways Addressing for Guinea-Bissau, © N-WAYS LIMITED (nways.ng)” with a link to the repository in your about screen or documentation. The engine is Apache 2.0, the data ODbL 1.0 and the papers CC BY 4.0.
Look up a code
GET https://map.nways.ng/v1/homecodes/{code}, where code is the remembered, written or machine form, or a spot code on a compound, URL-encoded. No key is needed.
curl "https://map.nways.ng/v1/homecodes/Bandim%20537"{
"country": "GW",
"home": "Bandim 537",
"machine": "10-022-00537-4",
"check": 4,
"name": "Bandim",
"nameProvisional": false,
"municipality": "Bissau",
"postcode": { "value": "1000", "kind": "area", "source": "UPU" },
"fullLine": "Bandim 537 · Bissau",
"spoken": "Bandim, quinhentos e trinta e sete",
"status": "provisional",
"issued": "bulk",
"entrance": { "lat": 11.8521485, "lng": -15.5950371, "kind": "centre", "source": "map" },
"location": { "lat": 11.8521485, "lng": -15.5950371 },
"plusCode": "7C36VC23+VX4",
"lote": { "use": "residential", "kind": "building", "class": "residential.compound-house", "structures": 1, "floorAreaM2": 272.4, "settlement": "cidade" },
"credit": "N-Ways Addressing for Guinea-Bissau, © N-WAYS LIMITED (nways.ng)",
"creditUrl": "https://github.com/n-ways/open-addresses-guinea-bissau"
}| Field | Description |
|---|---|
home, machine | The remembered and machine forms. Show home to people; store machine. |
check, fullLine | The check digit, for systems only, and the written form as on a plate, with the sector. |
officialName | The place’s full name, for small print (Missirá Ama Sidi for Ama Sidi). Missing when it equals name. |
nameProvisional | The sector or the Câmara still has to choose the short name. The number never changes; the name may change once. |
municipality, island | The sector, and the island for a compound in the Bijagós or on another island. Context only: never needed to decode. |
postcode | 1000 in Bissau, the only postcode attested (UPU, 2005). Context only. |
status | provisional, confirmed (residents agreed) or retired (no home there any more; the number is never reused). |
entrance, location | Where to go: the gate when it is mapped, else the compound’s centre. |
lote, structures | The compound and each building’s profile: class, size, floors, status, each with its source. Homes never carry anything about the people who live there. |
Errors: 400 homecode_format when the text isn’t a code; 404 homecode_unknown with a message saying why (a name no place has, a number outside every block, a wrong check digit).
What’s the code here?
GET https://map.nways.ng/v1/homecodes/at?lat=…&lng=… answers for a point: "status": "found" with the code, or "none" where no compound has one yet.
curl "https://map.nways.ng/v1/homecodes/at?lat=11.85215&lng=-15.59504"Search
A code typed into N-Ways search, in any of its forms, finds the compound’s gate as the first result, with "category": "homecode" and the credit in attribution.
Decode offline
The repository’s reference engine (Python, standard library only) decodes every form, checks the check digit and computes spot codes, with no network: python3 engine/reference/gw_codes.py "Bandim 537". Its test vectors (engine/reference/vectors.json) are the conformance test for your own implementation, and registry/ holds every issued code, one gzip file per sector.
Host it yourself
You can serve Guinea-Bissau’s codes from your own servers, with no calls to N-Ways. The repository on GitHub holds every issued code (registry/), the code areas and the model (model/), the reference engine, and a ready-made registry server with its JSON API:
git clone https://github.com/n-ways/open-addresses-guinea-bissau
cd open-addresses-guinea-bissau/server
docker compose up -dThe server imports the registry on first start, then answers lookups and searches on your machine; server/README.md covers configuration, backups and updates, and docs/api.md every endpoint. Your copy is read-only: new codes come from one issuer per country, N-Ways unless the State designates another, so no number is ever given twice. Pull the repository again for the codes issued since.
| What you take | Licence | What it asks of you |
|---|---|---|
| The engine, the server and the tools | Apache 2.0 | Keep the licence and NOTICE when you ship or change them. |
The codes, the areas and the model (registry/, model/, engine/data/) | ODbL 1.0 | Credit “N-Ways Addressing for Guinea-Bissau, © N-WAYS LIMITED (nways.ng)”, linked to the repository, where you show the codes. A database you make from the data and share is shared under ODbL 1.0 too. |
The papers and other documents (docs/) | CC BY 4.0 | Credit N-Ways and say what you changed. |
The full terms, and the credit line for maps and datasets made from the data (it also names OpenStreetMap), are in LICENSING.md. You may say your product uses N-Ways Addressing, not that it is N-Ways or is endorsed by N-Ways.