STRING Network API

openapi: 3.2.0
info:
  title: STRING REST Network API
  description: 'STRING is a protein-protein interaction network database providing scored associations between proteins across thousands of organisms. The REST API enables programmatic access to interaction scores, network visualizations, functional enrichment analysis, homology data, and protein annotations. STRING integrates data from genomic context, co-expression, text mining, biochemical and genetic experiments, and curated databases.

    '
  version: '12.0'
  contact:
    name: STRING Consortium
    url: https://string-db.org
  license:
    name: Creative Commons Attribution
    url: https://string-db.org/cgi/access?footer_active_subpage=licensing
  termsOfService: https://string-db.org/cgi/info?footer_active_subpage=cookies
servers:
- url: https://string-db.org
  description: STRING Production Server
security: []
tags:
- name: network
  description: Retrieve protein-protein interaction networks
paths:
  /api/{format}/network:
    get:
      operationId: getNetwork
      summary: Network Image or Interactions
      description: 'Retrieve a protein interaction network as an image or interaction data. Supports image formats (image, highres_image, svg) and data formats (tsv, json, xml, psi-mi, psi-mi-tab).

        '
      tags:
      - network
      parameters:
      - $ref: '#/components/parameters/formatFull'
      - name: identifiers
        in: query
        required: true
        description: Protein identifiers (STRING IDs or gene names), newline-separated (%0d in URL)
        schema:
          type: string
      - $ref: '#/components/parameters/species'
      - $ref: '#/components/parameters/required_score'
      - $ref: '#/components/parameters/network_type'
      - name: network_flavor
        in: query
        required: false
        description: Visual style for network edges
        schema:
          type: string
          enum:
          - evidence
          - confidence
          - actions
          default: evidence
      - name: add_color_nodes
        in: query
        required: false
        description: Number of additional neighborhood proteins to add (shown in color)
        schema:
          type: integer
          default: 0
          minimum: 0
      - name: add_white_nodes
        in: query
        required: false
        description: Number of additional neighborhood proteins to add (shown in white)
        schema:
          type: integer
          default: 0
          minimum: 0
      - name: hide_node_labels
        in: query
        required: false
        description: Hide protein name labels on network nodes (1=hide, 0=show)
        schema:
          type: integer
          enum:
          - 0
          - 1
          default: 0
      - name: hide_disconnected_nodes
        in: query
        required: false
        description: Hide proteins with no interactions in the result set (1=hide)
        schema:
          type: integer
          enum:
          - 0
          - 1
          default: 0
      - $ref: '#/components/parameters/caller_identity'
      responses:
        '200':
          description: Network data or image
          content:
            text/plain:
              schema:
                $ref: '#/components/schemas/TsvResponse'
            application/json:
              schema:
                type: array
                items:
                  $ref: '#/components/schemas/Interaction'
            image/png:
              schema:
                type: string
                format: binary
            image/svg+xml:
              schema:
                type: string
        '400':
          $ref: '#/components/responses/BadRequest'
    post:
      operationId: getNetworkPost
      summary: Network Image or Interactions (POST)
      description: 'Retrieve a protein interaction network via POST. Recommended for queries with many identifiers.

        '
      tags:
      - network
      parameters:
      - $ref: '#/components/parameters/formatFull'
      requestBody:
        required: true
        content:
          application/x-www-form-urlencoded:
            schema:
              type: object
              required:
              - identifiers
              properties:
                identifiers:
                  type: string
                species:
                  type: integer
                required_score:
                  type: integer
                  minimum: 0
                  maximum: 1000
                network_type:
                  type: string
                  enum:
                  - functional
                  - physical
                network_flavor:
                  type: string
                  enum:
                  - evidence
                  - confidence
                  - actions
                add_color_nodes:
                  type: integer
                add_white_nodes:
                  type: integer
                caller_identity:
                  type: string
      responses:
        '200':
          description: Network data or image
          content:
            text/plain:
              schema:
                $ref: '#/components/schemas/TsvResponse'
            application/json:
              schema:
                type: array
                items:
                  $ref: '#/components/schemas/Interaction'
        '400':
          $ref: '#/components/responses/BadRequest'
  /api/{format}/get_link:
    get:
      operationId: getNetworkLink
      summary: Get Network Link
      description: Generate a stable URL linking to a STRING network viewer for the specified proteins.
      tags:
      - network
      parameters:
      - $ref: '#/components/parameters/formatLink'
      - name: identifiers
        in: query
        required: true
        description: Protein identifiers, newline-separated (%0d in URL)
        schema:
          type: string
      - $ref: '#/components/parameters/species'
      - $ref: '#/components/parameters/required_score'
      - $ref: '#/components/parameters/network_type'
      - $ref: '#/components/parameters/caller_identity'
      responses:
        '200':
          description: Link to STRING network viewer
          content:
            text/plain:
              schema:
                $ref: '#/components/schemas/TsvResponse'
            application/json:
              schema:
                type: object
                properties:
                  link:
                    type: string
                    format: uri
        '400':
          $ref: '#/components/responses/BadRequest'
  /api/{format}/interaction_partners:
    get:
      operationId: getInteractionPartners
      summary: Interaction Partners
      description: Retrieve all STRING interaction partners for a set of input proteins.
      tags:
      - network
      parameters:
      - $ref: '#/components/parameters/format'
      - name: identifiers
        in: query
        required: true
        description: Protein identifiers, newline-separated (%0d in URL)
        schema:
          type: string
      - $ref: '#/components/parameters/species'
      - name: limit
        in: query
        required: false
        description: Maximum number of interaction partners to return per protein
        schema:
          type: integer
          default: 10
          minimum: 1
      - $ref: '#/components/parameters/required_score'
      - $ref: '#/components/parameters/network_type'
      - $ref: '#/components/parameters/caller_identity'
      responses:
        '200':
          description: Interaction partners with scores
          content:
            text/plain:
              schema:
                $ref: '#/components/schemas/TsvResponse'
            application/json:
              schema:
                type: array
                items:
                  $ref: '#/components/schemas/Interaction'
        '400':
          $ref: '#/components/responses/BadRequest'
    post:
      operationId: getInteractionPartnersPost
      summary: Interaction Partners (POST)
      tags:
      - network
      parameters:
      - $ref: '#/components/parameters/format'
      requestBody:
        required: true
        content:
          application/x-www-form-urlencoded:
            schema:
              type: object
              required:
              - identifiers
              properties:
                identifiers:
                  type: string
                species:
                  type: integer
                limit:
                  type: integer
                required_score:
                  type: integer
                  minimum: 0
                  maximum: 1000
                network_type:
                  type: string
                  enum:
                  - functional
                  - physical
                caller_identity:
                  type: string
      responses:
        '200':
          description: Interaction partners with scores
          content:
            text/plain:
              schema:
                $ref: '#/components/schemas/TsvResponse'
            application/json:
              schema:
                type: array
                items:
                  $ref: '#/components/schemas/Interaction'
components:
  responses:
    BadRequest:
      description: Bad request (invalid parameters)
      content:
        application/json:
          schema:
            $ref: '#/components/schemas/Error'
        text/plain:
          schema:
            type: string
  parameters:
    caller_identity:
      name: caller_identity
      in: query
      required: false
      description: 'A string identifying your application or organization. Strongly recommended; helps STRING admins contact you if there are issues.

        '
      schema:
        type: string
        example: my_bioinformatics_pipeline
    format:
      name: format
      in: path
      required: true
      description: Output format
      schema:
        type: string
        enum:
        - tsv
        - tsv-no-header
        - json
        - xml
        example: json
    network_type:
      name: network_type
      in: query
      required: false
      description: Type of STRING network to use
      schema:
        type: string
        enum:
        - functional
        - physical
        default: functional
    formatFull:
      name: format
      in: path
      required: true
      description: Output format (data or image)
      schema:
        type: string
        enum:
        - tsv
        - tsv-no-header
        - json
        - xml
        - psi-mi
        - psi-mi-tab
        - image
        - highres_image
        - svg
        example: json
    species:
      name: species
      in: query
      required: false
      description: 'NCBI taxon ID to restrict results to a specific organism. Common values: 9606 (human), 10090 (mouse), 10116 (rat), 7227 (D. melanogaster), 6239 (C. elegans), 4932 (S. cerevisiae), 3702 (A. thaliana), 7955 (zebrafish).

        '
      schema:
        type: integer
        example: 9606
    required_score:
      name: required_score
      in: query
      required: false
      description: 'Minimum combined interaction score threshold (0-1000). Higher values return only higher-confidence interactions. Common thresholds: 150 (low), 400 (medium), 700 (high), 900 (highest).

        '
      schema:
        type: integer
        minimum: 0
        maximum: 1000
        default: 400
    formatLink:
      name: format
      in: path
      required: true
      description: Output format
      schema:
        type: string
        enum:
        - tsv
        - json
        example: json
  schemas:
    TsvResponse:
      type: string
      description: Tab-separated values response with header row
    Interaction:
      type: object
      description: Protein-protein interaction with component scores
      properties:
        stringId_A:
          type: string
          description: STRING identifier for protein A
          example: 9606.ENSP00000269305
        stringId_B:
          type: string
          description: STRING identifier for protein B
          example: 9606.ENSP00000083083
        preferredName_A:
          type: string
          description: Preferred name for protein A
          example: TP53
        preferredName_B:
          type: string
          description: Preferred name for protein B
          example: MDM2
        ncbiTaxonId:
          type: integer
          description: NCBI taxon ID
          example: 9606
        score:
          type: number
          description: Combined interaction score (0-1)
          minimum: 0
          maximum: 1
          example: 0.999
        nscore:
          type: number
          description: Genomic neighborhood score
          minimum: 0
          maximum: 1
        fscore:
          type: number
          description: Gene fusion score
          minimum: 0
          maximum: 1
        pscore:
          type: number
          description: Phylogenetic co-occurrence score
          minimum: 0
          maximum: 1
        ascore:
          type: number
          description: Co-expression score
          minimum: 0
          maximum: 1
        escore:
          type: number
          description: Experimental evidence score
          minimum: 0
          maximum: 1
        dscore:
          type: number
          description: Database/curated evidence score
          minimum: 0
          maximum: 1
        tscore:
          type: number
          description: Text mining score
          minimum: 0
          maximum: 1
    Error:
      type: object
      properties:
        status:
          type: integer
        error:
          type: string
        message:
          type: string
  securitySchemes:
    ApiKeyAuth:
      type: apiKey
      in: query
      name: api_key
      description: 'API key required only for Values/Ranks Enrichment endpoints. Obtain via POST /api/json/get_api_key. All other endpoints are publicly accessible without authentication.

        '
externalDocs:
  description: STRING API Documentation
  url: https://string-db.org/help/api/