BlockChalk chalks API

openapi: 3.0.3
info:
  title: BlockChalk API (historical) chalks API
  description: "Reconstruction of the public read-only BlockChalk API as it was documented by BlockChalk on its own /developers page and as observed in captured live responses. BlockChalk was a location-based neighborhood messaging service (2009-2012); a \"chalk\" was a short message pinned to a geographic point. The service is retired and none of these hosts resolve today (blockchalk.com has no active nameservers as of 2026-07-20), so this specification is historical documentation, not an integrable API.\nEndpoint shapes come verbatim from the archived BlockChalk developer page:\n  XML:  http://blockchalk.com/api/xml/chalk?long=[longitude]&lat=[latitude]\n  JSON: http://blockchalk.com/api/json/chalk?long=[longitude]&lat=[latitude]\n  RSS:  http://blockchalk.com/rss/chalk?long=[longitude]&lat=[latitude]\nA later versioned path, /api/v0.6/chalks/{latitude},{longitude}, is evidenced by captured 200 responses (GeoRSS 2.0). BlockChalk itself warned these interfaces were \"early prototypes and are likely to change\"."
  version: 0.6.0
  x-status: retired
  x-provenance:
    generated: '2026-07-20'
    method: derived
    source:
    - http://web.archive.org/web/20090810213933/http://blockchalk.com/developers
    - http://web.archive.org/web/20100509100042/http://blockchalk.com/api/v0.6/chalks/37.7749295,-122.4194155
    - http://web.archive.org/web/20100530070133/http://blockchalk.com/api/v0.6/chalks/40.708682,-74.00116
  contact:
    name: API Evangelist
    email: kin@apievangelist.com
servers:
- url: http://blockchalk.com
  description: Historical production host (retired; DNS no longer resolves)
security: []
tags:
- name: chalks
  description: Location-pinned neighborhood messages.
paths:
  /api/v0.6/chalks/{coordinates}:
    get:
      operationId: getChalksByCoordinates
      tags:
      - chalks
      summary: List chalks near a coordinate pair
      description: Returns the chalks posted near a latitude/longitude, as a GeoRSS 2.0 feed. The path parameter is a single comma-joined "latitude,longitude" segment, e.g. 37.7749295,-122.4194155. Observed responses carry rss/channel/item entries with a georss:point, guid, link, title, pubDate and a human-readable proximity description ("on this block", "within a few blocks", "in South of Market").
      parameters:
      - name: coordinates
        in: path
        required: true
        description: Comma-joined latitude and longitude, e.g. "37.7749295,-122.4194155".
        schema:
          type: string
          pattern: ^-?\d+(\.\d+)?,-?\d+(\.\d+)?$
        example: 37.7749295,-122.4194155
      responses:
        '200':
          description: A GeoRSS 2.0 feed of nearby chalks.
          content:
            application/rss+xml:
              schema:
                type: string
                description: RSS 2.0 document with the georss namespace.
  /api/xml/chalk:
    get:
      operationId: getChalksXml
      tags:
      - chalks
      summary: List chalks near a point (XML)
      description: Documented on the BlockChalk developer page as the XML interface.
      parameters:
      - $ref: '#/components/parameters/Longitude'
      - $ref: '#/components/parameters/Latitude'
      responses:
        '200':
          description: XML document of nearby chalks.
          content:
            application/xml:
              schema:
                type: string
  /api/json/chalk:
    get:
      operationId: getChalksJson
      tags:
      - chalks
      summary: List chalks near a point (JSON)
      description: Documented on the BlockChalk developer page as the JSON interface. No JSON response body was captured before the service retired, so no response schema is asserted here.
      parameters:
      - $ref: '#/components/parameters/Longitude'
      - $ref: '#/components/parameters/Latitude'
      responses:
        '200':
          description: JSON document of nearby chalks. Payload shape not captured.
          content:
            application/json:
              schema:
                type: object
  /rss/chalk:
    get:
      operationId: getChalksRss
      tags:
      - chalks
      summary: Subscribe to chalks near a point (RSS)
      description: Documented on the BlockChalk developer page as the RSS interface.
      parameters:
      - $ref: '#/components/parameters/Longitude'
      - $ref: '#/components/parameters/Latitude'
      responses:
        '200':
          description: RSS 2.0 feed of nearby chalks.
          content:
            application/rss+xml:
              schema:
                type: string
components:
  parameters:
    Latitude:
      name: lat
      in: query
      required: true
      description: Latitude of the point to read chalks around.
      schema:
        type: number
        format: double
      example: 37.7749295
    Longitude:
      name: long
      in: query
      required: true
      description: Longitude of the point to read chalks around.
      schema:
        type: number
        format: double
      example: -122.4194155