Turns a place name into the coordinates and UTC offset the other endpoints need. Send a GET with an `address` query parameter such as 'Jaipur, India' and you get back `latitude`, `longitude`, the IANA `timezone_name`, the `timezone_offset` in hours as a decimal, the geocoder's own `address` string and the `source` that answered.
The offset already accounts for daylight saving where the provider reports it, so it is the current offset for that place, not necessarily the offset that applied on a historical birth date. For a birth chart, pass these coordinates into /api/astro/date_time/ with the actual date and let that endpoint resolve the offset for the right moment.
`source` tells you which provider answered: 'google' when a Google Maps key is configured for the deployment, otherwise 'nominatim', the OpenStreetMap service used as a fallback. A place that cannot be found returns 404, and a missing `address` returns 400.
Query parameters (1)
Parameter
Type
Example
What it does
address
string
required
Jaipur, Rajasthan, India
The city/place name to search
A place name to look up. Free text - a city is usually enough; add the state or country to disambiguate.