# Cataas

**Canonical:** https://apis.io/providers/cataas/  
**Website:** https://cataas.com/  
**APIs profiled:** 4

Cataas (Cat as a Service) is a free, open-source REST API that returns random cat images and GIFs with optional tags, filters, sizing, and text overlays. The service is widely embedded in tutorials, demos, README files, and chat applications as a friction-free image source. The canonical implementation lives at github.com/cataas/cataas and runs at cataas.com.

## Kin Score — 20.6 / 100 (emerging)

Scored 2026-08-20 under rubric 0.12.0. Trend: flat (+0.0 from 20.6).

| Facet | Score |
|---|---|
| Discoverability | 81.5 |
| Contract Quality | 26.8 |
| Governance | 25.0 |
| Contract Governance | 25.0 |
| Operational Transparency | 2.6 |
| Developer Ergonomics | 11.9 |
| Commercial Clarity | 0.0 |
| Access Clarity | 0.0 |

## Agent readiness — 32.1 (agent-aware)

| Dimension | Value |
|---|---|
| Spec Presence | yes |
| Agentic Access | derived |
| Reversibility Documented | no |
| MCP Server | no |
| Auth Clarity | yes |
| Idempotency | no |
| Error Semantics | no |
| OpenAPI Examples | verified |
| Rate Limit Signal | no |
| Event Surface Described | no |
| Agent Skills | no |
| Well Known Catalog | no |
| Consent Identity | no |
| Agent Card | no |
| Dry Run Mode | no |

## Access

Self-serve signup — onboarding: self-serve, pricing: unknown, trial: no (confidence: medium).

## APIs (4)

- **Cataas Admin API** — Administrative operations on the cat catalog (admin token required)
- **Cataas Catalog API** — Browse cats, tags, and stats programmatically (JSON)
- **Cataas Cats API** — Random and tagged cat image retrieval
- **Cataas Upload API** — Submit a cat image (rate-limited / moderated)

## Agentic access (1)

- **Cataas Agentic Access** — 15 operations · 4 acting

## Security (2)

- **Cataas Authentication** — http · 1 scheme
- **Cataas Domain Security** — TLSv1.3 · DMARC

## Use cases (5)

- **Tutorials and Demos** — Embed live cat images in API tutorials, learn-to-code lessons, and conference demos.
- **README Decoration** — Decorate open-source READMEs and personal sites with rotating cat imagery.
- **Chat Bots and Slash Commands** — Slack, Discord, and Teams bots fetch random cats on demand via /cat or /cat/says.
- **Mocking Image-Heavy APIs** — Stand in for a real image-CDN-backed API while prototyping front-end layouts.
- **Image Pipeline Testing** — Exercise resize, format-conversion, and filtering pipelines with predictable image input.

## Tags

Animals, Cats, Image, Open-Source, Public APIs

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Profiled by [API Evangelist](https://apievangelist.com) and published on [APIs.io](https://apis.io/providers/cataas/). Scores are computed from the provider's own public artifacts under a published rubric.