activitypub-academy/docs/Using-the-API/API.md

API overview

Contents

• Available libraries
• Notes
• Methods
  • Posting a status
  • Uploading media
  • Retrieving a timeline
  • Retrieving notifications
  • Following a remote user
  • Fetching data
  • Deleting a status
  • Reblogging a status
  • Favouriting a status
  • Threads (status context)
  • Who reblogged/favourited a status
  • Following/unfollowing accounts
  • Blocking/unblocking accounts
  • Getting instance information
  • Creating OAuth apps
• Entities
  • Status
  • Account
• Pagination

Available libraries

• For Ruby
• For Python
• For JavaScript
• For JavaScript (Node.js)

Notes

When an array parameter is mentioned, the Rails convention of specifying array parameters in query strings is meant. For example, a ruby array like foo = [1, 2, 3] can be encoded in the params as foo[]=1&foo[]=2&foo[]=3. Square brackets can be indexed but can also be empty.

When a file parameter is mentioned, a form-encoded upload is expected.

Methods

Posting a new status

POST /api/v1/statuses

Form data:

• status: The text of the status
• in_reply_to_id (optional): local ID of the status you want to reply to
• media_ids (optional): array of media IDs to attach to the status (maximum 4)
• sensitive (optional): set this to mark the media of the status as NSFW
• visibility (optional): either private, unlisted or public
• spoiler_text (optional): text to be shown as a warning before the actual content

Returns the new status.

POST /api/v1/media

Form data:

• file: Image to be uploaded

Returns a media object with an ID that can be attached when creating a status (see above).

Retrieving a timeline

GET /api/v1/timelines/home GET /api/v1/timelines/public GET /api/v1/timelines/tag/:hashtag

Returns statuses, most recent ones first. Home timeline is statuses from people you follow, mentions timeline is all statuses that mention you. Public timeline is "whole known network", and the last is the hashtag timeline.

Query parameters:

• max_id (optional): Skip statuses younger than ID (e.g. navigate backwards in time)
• since_id (optional): Skip statuses older than ID (e.g. check for updates)

Query parameters for public and tag timelines only:

• local (optional): Only return statuses originating from this instance

Notifications

GET /api/v1/notifications

Returns notifications for the authenticated user. Each notification has an id, a type (mention, reblog, favourite, follow), an account which it came from, and in case of mention, reblog and favourite also a status.

GET /api/v1/notifications/:id

Returns single notification.

POST /api/v1/notifications/clear

Clears all of user's notifications.

Following a remote user

POST /api/v1/follows

Form data:

• uri: username@domain of the person you want to follow

Returns the local representation of the followed account.

Fetching data

GET /api/v1/statuses/:id

Returns status.

GET /api/v1/accounts/:id

Returns account.

GET /api/v1/accounts/verify_credentials

Returns authenticated user's account.

GET /api/v1/accounts/:id/statuses

Returns statuses by user.

Query parameters:

• max_id (optional): Skip statuses younger than ID (e.g. navigate backwards in time)
• since_id (optional): Skip statuses older than ID (e.g. check for updates)
• only_media (optional): Only return statuses that have media attachments
• exclude_replies (optional): Skip statuses that reply to other statuses

GET /api/v1/accounts/:id/following

Returns users the given user is following.

GET /api/v1/accounts/:id/followers

Returns users the given user is followed by.

GET /api/v1/accounts/relationships

Returns relationships (following, followed_by, blocking, muting, requested) of the current user to a list of given accounts.

Query parameters:

• id (can be array): Account IDs

GET /api/v1/accounts/search

Returns matching accounts. Will lookup an account remotely if the search term is in the username@domain format and not yet in the database.

Query parameters:

• q: what to search for
• limit: maximum number of matching accounts to return

GET /api/v1/blocks

Returns accounts blocked by authenticated user.

GET /api/v1/mutes

Returns accounts muted by authenticated user.

GET /api/v1/follow_requests

Returns accounts that want to follow the authenticated user but are waiting for approval.

GET /api/v1/favourites

Returns statuses favourited by authenticated user.

Deleting a status

DELETE /api/v1/statuses/:id

Returns an empty object.

Reblogging a status

POST /api/v1/statuses/:id/reblog

Returns a new status that wraps around the reblogged one.

Unreblogging a status

POST /api/v1/statuses/:id/unreblog

Returns the status that used to be reblogged.

Favouriting a status

POST /api/v1/statuses/:id/favourite

Returns the target status.

Unfavouriting a status

POST /api/v1/statuses/:id/unfavourite

Returns the target status.

Threads

GET /api/v1/statuses/:id/context

Returns ancestors and descendants of the status.

Who reblogged/favourited a status

GET /api/v1/statuses/:id/reblogged_by GET /api/v1/statuses/:id/favourited_by

Returns list of accounts.

Following and unfollowing users

POST /api/v1/accounts/:id/follow POST /api/v1/accounts/:id/unfollow

Returns the updated relationship to the user.

Blocking and unblocking users

POST /api/v1/accounts/:id/block POST /api/v1/accounts/:id/unblock

Returns the updated relationship to the user.

Getting instance information

GET /api/v1/instance

Returns an object containing the title, description, email and uri of the instance. Does not require authentication.

Muting and unmuting users

POST /api/v1/accounts/:id/mute POST /api/v1/accounts/:id/unmute

Returns the updated relationship to the user.

OAuth apps

POST /api/v1/apps

Form data:

• client_name: Name of your application
• redirect_uris: Where the user should be redirected after authorization (for no redirect, use urn:ietf:wg:oauth:2.0:oob)
• scopes: This can be a space-separated list of the following items: "read", "write" and "follow" (see this page for details on what the scopes do)
• website: (optional) URL to the homepage of your app

Creates a new OAuth app. Returns id, client_id and client_secret which can be used with OAuth authentication in your 3rd party app.

These values should be requested in the app itself from the API for each new app install + mastodon domain combo, and stored in the app for future requests.

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Entities

Status

Attribute	Description
id
uri	fediverse-unique resource ID
url	URL to the status page (can be remote)
account	Account
in_reply_to_id	null or ID of status it replies to
reblog	null or Status
content	Body of the status. This will contain HTML (remote HTML already sanitized)
created_at
reblogs_count
favourites_count
reblogged	Boolean for authenticated user
favourited	Boolean for authenticated user
sensitive	Boolean, true if media attachments should be hidden by default
spoiler_text	If not empty, warning text that should be displayed before the actual content
visibility	Either public, unlisted or private
media_attachments	array of MediaAttachments
mentions	array of Mentions
application	Application from which the status was posted

Media Attachment:

Attribute	Description
url	URL of the original image (can be remote)
preview_url	URL of the preview image
type	Image or video

Mention:

Attribute	Description
url	URL of user's profile (can be remote)
acct	Username for local or username@domain for remote users
id	Account ID

Application:

Attribute	Description
name	Name of the app
website	Homepage URL of the app

Account

Attribute	Description
id
username
acct	Equals username for local users, includes @domain for remote ones
display_name
note	Biography of user
url	URL of the user's profile page (can be remote)
avatar	URL to the avatar image
header	URL to the header image
locked	Boolean for when the account cannot be followed without waiting for approval first
followers_count
following_count
statuses_count

Pagination

API methods that return collections of items can return a Link header containing URLs for the next and prev pages. Link header RFC