Operations for retrieving and managing answers to questions on Stack Exchange sites.
openapi: 3.1.0
info:
title: Stack Exchange Answers API
description: The Stack Exchange API v2.3 provides programmatic access to the Stack Exchange network of Q&A sites, including Stack Overflow, Server Fault, Super User, and hundreds of other communities. The API supports reading and writing questions, answers, comments, tags, users, and other content. Authentication is via OAuth 2.0 with access tokens. All responses are JSON-encoded and support GZIP compression.
version: '2.3'
contact:
name: Stack Exchange API Support
url: http://stackapps.com/
email: team+api@stackexchange.com
termsOfService: https://stackexchange.com/legal/api-terms-of-use
servers:
- url: https://api.stackexchange.com/2.3
description: Stack Exchange API v2.3
security:
- oauth2: []
- {}
tags:
- name: Answers
description: Operations for retrieving and managing answers to questions on Stack Exchange sites.
paths:
/questions/{ids}/answers:
get:
operationId: getAnswersForQuestion
summary: Get Answers for Questions
description: Returns the answers for a set of questions identified by a semicolon-delimited list of IDs.
tags:
- Answers
parameters:
- name: ids
in: path
required: true
schema:
type: string
description: Semicolon-delimited list of question IDs
example: '12345'
- $ref: '#/components/parameters/site'
- $ref: '#/components/parameters/page'
- $ref: '#/components/parameters/pagesize'
- $ref: '#/components/parameters/order'
- $ref: '#/components/parameters/sort'
- $ref: '#/components/parameters/filter'
responses:
'200':
description: Answers for the specified questions
content:
application/json:
schema:
$ref: '#/components/schemas/AnswersResponse'
'400':
$ref: '#/components/responses/BadRequest'
/answers:
get:
operationId: getAnswers
summary: Get All Answers
description: Returns all answers on a Stack Exchange site. Results can be filtered and sorted by creation date, activity, and vote score.
tags:
- Answers
parameters:
- $ref: '#/components/parameters/site'
- $ref: '#/components/parameters/page'
- $ref: '#/components/parameters/pagesize'
- $ref: '#/components/parameters/fromdate'
- $ref: '#/components/parameters/todate'
- $ref: '#/components/parameters/order'
- $ref: '#/components/parameters/sort'
- $ref: '#/components/parameters/filter'
responses:
'200':
description: A list of answers
content:
application/json:
schema:
$ref: '#/components/schemas/AnswersResponse'
'400':
$ref: '#/components/responses/BadRequest'
/answers/{ids}:
get:
operationId: getAnswersByIds
summary: Get Answers by IDs
description: Returns the answers identified by a semicolon-delimited list of IDs.
tags:
- Answers
parameters:
- name: ids
in: path
required: true
schema:
type: string
description: Semicolon-delimited list of answer IDs
- $ref: '#/components/parameters/site'
- $ref: '#/components/parameters/filter'
responses:
'200':
description: Answers matching the provided IDs
content:
application/json:
schema:
$ref: '#/components/schemas/AnswersResponse'
/users/{ids}/answers:
get:
operationId: getAnswersByUser
summary: Get Answers by User
description: Returns the answers posted by the users identified in the IDs parameter.
tags:
- Answers
parameters:
- name: ids
in: path
required: true
schema:
type: string
description: Semicolon-delimited list of user IDs
- $ref: '#/components/parameters/site'
- $ref: '#/components/parameters/page'
- $ref: '#/components/parameters/pagesize'
- $ref: '#/components/parameters/order'
- $ref: '#/components/parameters/sort'
- $ref: '#/components/parameters/filter'
responses:
'200':
description: Answers posted by the specified users
content:
application/json:
schema:
$ref: '#/components/schemas/AnswersResponse'
components:
parameters:
order:
name: order
in: query
schema:
type: string
enum:
- asc
- desc
default: desc
description: Sort order for results
site:
name: site
in: query
required: true
schema:
type: string
default: stackoverflow
description: The Stack Exchange site to query. Use the API name of the site, e.g., stackoverflow, serverfault, superuser.
example: stackoverflow
todate:
name: todate
in: query
schema:
type: integer
description: Unix timestamp for the maximum creation date
fromdate:
name: fromdate
in: query
schema:
type: integer
description: Unix timestamp for the minimum creation date
filter:
name: filter
in: query
schema:
type: string
description: A filter to control which fields are returned in the response. Use the /filter endpoint to create custom filters.
page:
name: page
in: query
schema:
type: integer
minimum: 1
default: 1
description: The page number to return (1-indexed)
pagesize:
name: pagesize
in: query
schema:
type: integer
minimum: 0
maximum: 100
default: 30
description: Number of results to return per page (max 100)
sort:
name: sort
in: query
schema:
type: string
description: The field to sort results by (varies by endpoint)
schemas:
Answer:
type: object
description: An answer to a question on a Stack Exchange site
properties:
answer_id:
type: integer
description: Unique identifier of the answer
question_id:
type: integer
description: ID of the question this answer belongs to
body:
type: string
description: The HTML body of the answer
body_markdown:
type: string
description: The Markdown body of the answer
score:
type: integer
description: The net vote score of the answer
is_accepted:
type: boolean
description: Whether this answer has been accepted by the question owner
creation_date:
type: integer
description: Unix timestamp of when the answer was created
last_activity_date:
type: integer
description: Unix timestamp of the last activity on the answer
last_edit_date:
type: integer
description: Unix timestamp of the last edit
owner:
$ref: '#/components/schemas/ShallowUser'
link:
type: string
format: uri
description: Link to the answer on the question page
ErrorResponse:
type: object
properties:
error_id:
type: integer
description: Numeric error identifier
error_message:
type: string
description: Human-readable error description
error_name:
type: string
description: Machine-readable error name
AnswersResponse:
allOf:
- $ref: '#/components/schemas/Wrapper'
- type: object
properties:
items:
type: array
items:
$ref: '#/components/schemas/Answer'
ShallowUser:
type: object
description: A shallow representation of a Stack Exchange user
properties:
user_id:
type: integer
description: Unique identifier of the user
display_name:
type: string
description: The user's display name
reputation:
type: integer
description: The user's reputation score
user_type:
type: string
enum:
- unregistered
- registered
- moderator
- named_moderator
- team_admin
description: The type of user account
profile_image:
type: string
format: uri
description: URL of the user's profile image
link:
type: string
format: uri
description: Link to the user's profile page
accept_rate:
type: integer
description: Percentage of questions the user has accepted answers for
Wrapper:
type: object
description: Standard Stack Exchange API response wrapper containing items, pagination info, and backoff/quota information.
properties:
items:
type: array
description: The list of items returned
items:
type: object
has_more:
type: boolean
description: Whether there are more results available
quota_max:
type: integer
description: Maximum number of requests allowed per day
quota_remaining:
type: integer
description: Number of requests remaining for today
backoff:
type: integer
description: Number of seconds to wait before making additional requests if the API has asked for backoff
total:
type: integer
description: Total number of items available
page:
type: integer
description: Current page number
page_size:
type: integer
description: Number of items per page
type:
type: string
description: The type of items in the response
error_id:
type: integer
description: Error identifier if an error occurred
error_message:
type: string
description: Human-readable error description
error_name:
type: string
description: Machine-readable error name
responses:
BadRequest:
description: Bad request due to missing or invalid parameters
content:
application/json:
schema:
$ref: '#/components/schemas/ErrorResponse'
securitySchemes:
oauth2:
type: oauth2
description: OAuth 2.0 authentication for Stack Exchange API. Register an application at http://stackapps.com/apps/oauth to obtain client credentials.
flows:
authorizationCode:
authorizationUrl: https://stackoverflow.com/oauth
tokenUrl: https://stackoverflow.com/oauth/access_token/json
scopes:
no_expiry: Issues an access token that does not expire
write_access: Allows write access to a user's data
private_info: Access a user's private information
externalDocs:
description: Stack Exchange API Documentation
url: https://api.stackexchange.com/docs