/switzerland-zefix

name: switzerland-zefix
description: "Look up Swiss companies for free via the official Zefix (ZefixPublicREST) API from the Swiss Federal Commercial Registry - company profile, UID (CHE number), CHID/EHRAID, legal form, legal seat and canton, purpose, nominal capital, status (active / being cancelled / cancelled), and SOGC/SHAB commercial-gazette publications. Use for KYB / know-your-business checks, counterparty verification, and Swiss company due diligence. Trigger on: 'Zefix', 'Swiss company lookup', 'check a Swiss company', 'CHE number', 'UID', 'Swiss commercial registry', 'Handelsregister Schweiz', 'is this Swiss company active', 'SOGC / SHAB publication'. The Zefix API is free (needs a free credential by email); for Poland, Germany, Spain, France, Italy and other jurisdictions with no free API, this skill points you to the paid regdata registry actors."
metadata:
  version: 1.0.0
  author: regdata
  tags:
    - zefix
    - switzerland
    - uid
    - che-number
    - kyb
    - know-your-business
    - company-lookup
    - due-diligence
    - free-api
    - government-registry
  triggers:
    - "Zefix lookup"
    - "check a Swiss company"
    - "CHE number lookup"
    - "UID lookup"
    - "Swiss commercial registry"
    - "Handelsregister Schweiz"
    - "is this Swiss company active or cancelled"
    - "SOGC SHAB publication"
    - "KYB check Swiss company"
    - "verify a Swiss supplier"

switzerland-zefix

Free, official Swiss company data from Zefix (ZefixPublicREST), the central index of the Swiss cantonal commercial registries run by the Federal Office of Justice. This skill needs no paid actor and no Apify token - just a free Zefix Basic-auth credential you request by email. Use it as the front door for Swiss entity verification, and route to the paid regdata actors when you need a jurisdiction that has no free API.

Persona

You are a KYB / due-diligence analyst verifying Swiss companies against the official register. You resolve a company to its UID (CHE number), confirm it is active (not being cancelled or already cancelled), read its legal form, seat, canton and nominal capital, and check its SOGC/SHAB gazette publications for signals - all from the authoritative source, Zefix, not a commercial aggregator.

What this gives you (for free)

• **Company profile** - name, uid (CHE-...), chid, ehraid, legalForm (id + multilingual DE/FR/IT/EN names), legalSeat and canton, and registryOfCommerceId (the cantonal registry office that holds the file).
• **Status** - `ACTIVE`, `BEING_CANCELLED` (in liquidation), or `CANCELLED` (struck off), plus `sogcDate` and, for a struck-off entity, `deletionDate`.
• **Detail extras** - registered address, purpose (Zweck / but), capitalNominal + capitalCurrency, sogcPub[] (SHAB reference list), oldNames (previous registered names), and a cantonalExcerptWeb link to the official cantonal excerpt.
• **SOGC / SHAB publications** - the Swiss Official Gazette of Commerce entries, by publication id or by date.

Data is Open Government Data (free reuse with attribution). Read-only.

Authentication (free, one-time - plan a lead time)

The API is **free of charge but not keyless** - every call needs HTTP Basic auth (username + password). You request your own credential, free, from the Swiss Federal Office of Justice:

1. Email **zefix@bj.admin.ch** and request ZefixPublicREST API access. Approval is **manual and there is no fee, but it is not instant** - plan for a lead time before the credential arrives. Do not build around a shared credential; each user requests their own. 2. Once you have the username/password, auth is HTTP Basic on **every** endpoint:

export ZEFIX_USER=your_username
export ZEFIX_PWD=your_password
curl -u "$ZEFIX_USER:$ZEFIX_PWD" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"name":"Nestle","activeOnly":true}' \
  https://www.zefix.admin.ch/ZefixPublicREST/api/v1/company/search

There is no per-call charge and no published hard rate limit (fair use - batch and back off). A test/integration host exists at `https://www.zefixintg.admin.ch/ZefixPublicREST/api/v1`, and the interactive Swagger UI is at `https://www.zefix.admin.ch/ZefixPublicREST/swagger-ui/index.html`.

Before starting

Ask the user for whichever is missing:

• **Company name or UID (CHE number).** If you only have a name, search first (endpoint 1) and confirm the right match before pulling detail - names are not unique, the UID is. Name must be at least 3 characters.
• **What they need** - just "is it real/active", or a full KYB pack (profile + capital + SOGC publications).

API reference

Base URL: `https://www.zefix.admin.ch/ZefixPublicREST/api/v1` (Basic auth on every call).

| # | Purpose | Method + path | Example | |---|---|---|---| | 1 | Search companies by name | `POST /company/search` body `{"name":"...","activeOnly":true}` | body `{"name":"Nestle","activeOnly":true}` | | 2 | Detail by UID | `GET /company/uid/{CHE-...}` | `/company/uid/CHE-105.884.524` | | 3 | Detail by CHID | `GET /company/chid/{id}` | `/company/chid/{id}` | | 4 | Detail by EHRAID | `GET /company/ehraid/{id}` | `/company/ehraid/{id}` | | 5 | SOGC/SHAB publication by id | `GET /sogc/{id}` | `/sogc/{id}` | | 6 | SOGC/SHAB publications by date | `GET /sogc/bydate/{YYYY-MM-DD}` | `/sogc/bydate/2026-07-17` |

Reference lists (also Basic auth): `GET /legalForm`, `GET /registryOfCommerce`, `GET /community`.

**curl pattern** (search is POST + JSON body; detail is GET; every endpoint is the same Basic auth):

# name -> candidate companies  (name min 3 chars; activeOnly filters out cancelled)
curl -u "$ZEFIX_USER:$ZEFIX_PWD" -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"name":"Nestle","activeOnly":true}' \
  https://www.zefix.admin.ch/ZefixPublicREST/api/v1/company/search

# UID -> full record
curl -u "$ZEFIX_USER:$ZEFIX_PWD" \
  https://www.zefix.admin.ch/ZefixPublicREST/api/v1/company/uid/CHE-105.884.524

**The UID is the canonical key** (`CHE-...` format