Follow the Money

4.8.1 verified Fri May 01 auth: no python

A Python library for modeling, validating, and exporting structured anti-corruption data. It provides a schema (the 'Follow the Money' data model) with entities, properties, and relations, along with tools for data import/export (CSV, Excel, JSON, RDF), entity deduplication, and graph analysis. Current version 4.8.1, supports Python >=3.10, released under MIT license. Active development.

pip install followthemoney

Common errors

error ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'followthemoney.model' ↓

cause Importing from submodule incorrectly.

fix

Use from followthemoney import Model instead of from followthemoney.model import Model.

error followthemoney.exceptions.InvalidData: Invalid entity type: 'Organisation' ↓

cause Entity type name typo or wrong case. Schema uses 'Organization' (with 'z').

fix

Use 'Organization' (US spelling) instead of 'Organisation' (UK spelling).

error AttributeError: 'Model' object has no attribute 'Entity' ↓

cause Trying to access Entity class on Model instance incorrectly.

fix

Use model.make_entity('Person') or from followthemoney import Entity.

error ValueError: Entity ID is required before adding properties ↓

cause Calling `add()` on Entity before calling `make_id()`.

fix

Always call entity.make_id('...') before adding properties.

Warnings

breaking In version 4.0, the proxy API was removed. Use model.make_entity instead of direct Entity construction. ↓

fix Replace `Entity(model, 'Person')` with `model.make_entity('Person')`.

breaking Schema changes between minor versions may rename or remove entity types and properties. Always check migration docs. ↓

fix Run `followthemoney -m` to see current schema, and update code accordingly.

gotcha The `Entity` object is mutable and shares model state; copying entities with `copy()` does a shallow copy of properties. Use deepcopy for full independence. ↓

fix Use `copy.deepcopy(entity)` instead of `entity.copy()`.

deprecated The `followthemoney.cli` namespace and command-line scripts (like `ftm`) are deprecated; use the `followthemoney` module directly. ↓

fix Use `python -m followthemoney` instead of `ftm`.

Imports

Model
wrong
```
from followthemoney.model import Model
```
correct
```
from followthemoney import Model
```
Model is exposed at package level; the model submodule is internal.

Entity

wrong

from followthemoney.entity import Entity

correct

from followthemoney import Entity

Entity is exposed at package level.

schema

wrong

import followthemoney.schema

correct

from followthemoney import schema

schema is a module, import as shown.

Quickstart

Create a Person entity, add properties, validate, and export to dict.

from followthemoney import Model

# Load the default data model
model = Model()

# Create an entity of type 'Person'
entity = model.make_entity('Person')
entity.make_id('some-unique-id')
entity.add('name', 'John Doe')
entity.add('birthDate', '1980-01-01')

# Validate the entity (raises on invalid)
entity.validate()

# Export to dict
print(entity.to_dict())