Documentation
Documentation
https://www.inaturalist.org/pages/api+reference
RateLimits
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/inaturalist/main/rate-limits/rate-limits.yml
swagger: '2.0'
info:
title: iNaturalist Annotations Messages API
description: '# https://api.inaturalist.org/v1/
[iNaturalist](https://www.inaturalist.org/) is a global community of
naturalists, scientists, and members of the public sharing over a million
wildlife sightings to teach one another about the natural world while
creating high quality citizen science data for science and conservation.
These API methods return data in JSON/JSONP and PNG response formats. They
are meant to supplement the existing [iNaturalist
API](https://www.inaturalist.org/pages/api+reference), implemented in Ruby
on Rails, which has more functionality and supports more write operations,
but tends to be slower and have less consistent response formats. Visit our
[developers page](https://www.inaturalist.org/pages/developers) for more
information. Write operations that expect and return JSON describe a single
`body` parameter that represents the request body, which should be specified
as JSON. See the "Model" of each body parameter for attributes that we
accept in these JSON objects.
Multiple values for a single URL parameter should be separated by commas,
e.g. `taxon_id=1,2,3`.
Map tiles are generated using the
[node-mapnik](https://github.com/mapnik/node-mapnik) library, following the
XYZ map tiling scheme. The "Observation Tile" methods accept nearly all the
parameters of the observation search APIs, and will generate map tiles
reflecting the same observations returned by searches. These
"Observation Tile" methods have corresponding
[UTFGrid](https://github.com/mapbox/utfgrid-spec) JSON
responses which return information needed to make interactive maps.
Authentication in the Node API is handled via JSON Web Tokens (JWT). To
obtain one, make an [OAuth-authenticated
request](http://www.inaturalist.org/pages/api+reference#auth) to
https://www.inaturalist.org/users/api_token. Each JWT will expire after 24
hours. Authentication required for all PUT and POST requests. Some GET
requests will also include private information like hidden coordinates if
the authenticated user has permission to view them.
Photos served from https://static.inaturalist.org and
https://inaturalist-open-data.s3.amazonaws.com have multiple size
variants and not all size variants are returned in responses. To access
other sizes, the photo URL can be modified to replace only the size
qualifier (each variant shares the exact same extension). The domain a photo
is hosted under reflects the license under which the photo is being shared,
and the domain may change over time if the license changes. Photos in
the `inaturalist-open-data` domain are shared under open licenses. These can
be accessed in bulk in the [iNaturalist AWS Open Dataset](
https://registry.opendata.aws/inaturalist-open-data/). Photos in the
`static.inaturalist.org` domain do not have open licenses.
The available photo sizes are:
* original (max 2048px in either dimension)
* large (max 1024px in either dimension)
* medium (max 500px in either dimension)
* small (max 240px in either dimension)
* thumb (max 100px in either dimension)
* square (75px square)
iNaturalist Website: https://www.inaturalist.org/
Open Source Software: https://github.com/inaturalist/
## Terms of Use
Use of this API is subject to the iNaturalist
[Terms of Service](https://www.inaturalist.org/terms) and
[Privacy Policy](https://www.inaturalist.org/privacy). We will block any
use of our API that violates our Terms or Privacy Policy without notice.
The API is intended to support application development, not data scraping.
For pre- generated data exports, see
https://www.inaturalist.org/pages/developers.
Please note that we throttle API usage to a max of 100 requests per minute,
though we ask that you try to keep it to 60 requests per minute or lower,
and to keep under 10,000 requests per day. If we notice usage that has
serious impact on our performance we may institute blocks without
notification.
Terms of Service: https://www.inaturalist.org/terms
Privacy Policy: https://www.inaturalist.org/privacy
'
version: 1.3.0
basePath: /v1
schemes:
- http
- https
produces:
- application/json
tags:
- name: Messages
description: Create, fetch, delete
paths:
/messages:
get:
summary: Retrieve messages for the authenticated user. This does not mark them as read.
description: Show the user's inbox or sent box
parameters:
- $ref: '#/parameters/page'
- name: box
in: query
type: string
description: Whether to view messages the user has received (default) or messages the user has sent
default: inbox
enum:
- inbox
- sent
- any
- name: q
in: query
type: string
description: Search query for subject and body
- name: user_id
in: query
type: string
description: User ID or username of correspondent to filter by
- name: threads
in: query
type: boolean
default: false
description: 'Groups results by `thread_id`, only shows the latest message per
thread, and includes a `thread_messages_count` attribute showing the
total number of messages in that thread. Note that this will not
work with the `q` param, and it probably should only be used with
`box=any` because the `thread_messages_count` will be inaccurate when
you restrict it to `inbox` or `sent`.
'
tags:
- Messages
security:
- api_token: []
responses:
'200':
description: OK
default:
description: 'Returns an object with metadata and an array of messages
'
schema:
$ref: '#/definitions/MessagesResponse'
post:
summary: Create a new message
description: Create and deliver a new message to another user
tags:
- Messages
security:
- api_token: []
parameters:
- name: body
in: body
schema:
$ref: '#/definitions/PostMessage'
responses:
'200':
description: 'Returns the message just created
'
schema:
$ref: '#/definitions/Message'
default:
description: Unexpected error
schema:
$ref: '#/definitions/Error'
/messages/{id}:
get:
summary: Retrieve messages in a thread
description: 'Retrieves all messages in the thread the specified message belongs to
and marks them all as read.
'
tags:
- Messages
security:
- api_token: []
parameters:
- $ref: '#/parameters/path_id'
responses:
'200':
description: 'Returns an object with metadata and an array of messages
'
schema:
properties:
reply_to_user:
description: User to reply to
$ref: '#/definitions/User'
thread_id:
description: Identifier for this thread
type: integer
flaggable_message_id:
description: 'Identifier for the message that should be flagged if the user
chooses to flag this thread
'
type: integer
results:
type: array
items:
$ref: '#/definitions/Message'
default:
description: Unexpected error
schema:
$ref: '#/definitions/Error'
delete:
summary: Delete a message / thread
description: 'This will all of the authenticated user''s copies of the messages in tha
thread to which the specified message belongs.
'
tags:
- Messages
security:
- api_token: []
parameters:
- $ref: '#/parameters/path_id'
responses:
'200':
description: 'No return data, 200 just means deletion was successful
'
'404':
description: 'Specified message doesn''t exist
'
default:
description: Unexpected error
schema:
$ref: '#/definitions/Error'
/messages/unread:
get:
summary: Gets a count of messages the authenticated user has not read
tags:
- Messages
security:
- api_token: []
responses:
'200':
description: Number of unread messages
schema:
properties:
count:
type: integer
description: Number of unread messages
default:
description: Unexpected error
schema:
$ref: '#/definitions/Error'
definitions:
Error:
type: object
properties:
code:
type: integer
message:
type: string
MessagesResponse:
allOf:
- $ref: '#/definitions/BaseResponse'
- required:
- results
properties:
results:
type: array
items:
$ref: '#/definitions/Message'
Message:
type: object
properties:
id:
type: integer
subject:
type: string
body:
type: string
user_id:
type: integer
description: 'ID of the user to whom this message belongs. Messages work like email,
so the sender gets a copy and the recipient gets a copy of each
message. This is always the authenticated user, so there''s no real
need for a full user object.
'
to_user:
$ref: '#/definitions/User'
from_user:
$ref: '#/definitions/User'
thread_id:
type: integer
description: 'Identifier for the message thread, generally the ID of the sender''s
copy of the first message
'
thread_messages_count:
type: integer
description: 'Number of messages in this thread. Only included when threads=true
'
thread_flags:
type: array
description: 'Array of flags on messages in this thread. Only included when
threads=true
'
items:
type: object
BaseResponse:
type: object
properties:
total_results:
type: integer
page:
type: integer
per_page:
type: integer
User:
type: object
properties:
created_at:
type: string
format: date-time
id:
type: integer
icon:
type: string
icon_url:
type: string
identifications_count:
type: integer
journal_posts_count:
type: integer
login:
type: string
name:
type: string
observations_count:
type: integer
orcid:
type: string
roles:
type: array
items:
type: string
enum:
- admin
- app owner
- curator
site_id:
type: integer
species_count:
type: integer
spam:
type: boolean
suspended:
type: boolean
PostMessage:
type: object
properties:
message:
type: object
properties:
to_user_id:
type: integer
description: User ID of the recipient
thread_id:
type: integer
description: 'Identifier for the thread. Should be blank for new threads,
but when replying to an existing message, it should be set to
the thread_id of the message being replied to.
'
subject:
type: string
description: Subject of the message
body:
type: string
description: Body of the message
parameters:
page:
name: page
type: string
in: query
description: Pagination `page` number
path_id:
name: id
in: path
required: true
type: integer
description: ID of the record
securityDefinitions:
api_token:
type: apiKey
name: Authorization
in: header