sugartrail/README.md

Sugartrail

Sugartrail is a network analysis and visualisation tool developed to make it easier and faster for researchers to explore connections between companies, officers and addresses within Companies House. The tool can be used for the following use-cases:

• Get all companies, officers and addresses connected to a company within n degrees of seperation, based upon user-defined connection criteria. If two companies are connected, get the path of companies, officers and addresses connecting those companies.
• Check if a selection of companies, officers and addresses are connected within n degrees of seperation, and visualise the paths that connect them.

Requirements

You will need a Companies House API key. Create a live application to get one by following the Companies House guide.

Installation

This project uses uv for package management.

1. Install uv if you don't have it:

curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh

2. Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/ribenamaplesyrup/sugartrail.git
cd sugartrail

3. Install dependencies (uv will manage the Python version automatically):

uv sync

API Key Setup

Copy the example env file and add your key:

cp .env.example .env

Then open .env and replace your_api_key_here with your actual Companies House API key:

COMPANIES_HOUSE_API_KEY=your_api_key_here

The key is loaded automatically when you import the package. You can also set it at runtime in a notebook or script:

import sugartrail
sugartrail.api.basic_auth.username = "your_api_key_here"

Running

For a quickstart, launch the no-code dashboard:

uv run python -m voila --no-browser --debug dashboard/Sugartrail.ipynb --VoilaConfiguration.file_allowlist="['.*']"

Then navigate to the URL printed in your terminal.

For notebook tutorials:

uv run jupyter notebook notebooks

Open either quickstart.ipynb or 001_getting_started.ipynb.

Examples & Tutorials

Tutorial	Title	Description	Format
000	Quickstart	Get companies, officers and addresses connected to select company and visualise results within basic notebook.	Jupyter Notebook
001	Getting Started	In-depth walkthrough of Sugartrail API.	Jupyter Notebook
002	Candy Connections	Explore how many of Oxford Street’s souvenir and candy shops are connected through a single company 🇺🇸🇬🇧🍬	Jupyter Notebook
003	Virtual Offices	Explore addresses (such as virtual offices) with thousands of companies registered. This tutorial also compares two different methods of retrieving data from Companies House; the Companies House API and the Companies House Data Product download.	Jupyter Notebook
004	Connection Check	Investigate if two different companies are connected and if so how.	Jupyter Notebook
005	Connection Visualise	Visualise how 7 networks interconnect.	Jupyter Notebook
_	Sugartrail Dashboard	Get companies, officers and addresses connected to select company and visualise results within basic interface.	Voila Dashboard