Cesanta

Cesanta is an embedded software and IoT company, established in 2013 to develop and support the Mongoose embedded web server and networking library (HTTP, WebSocket, MQTT, CoAP, TCP/IP) that ships in over 100 million devices from vendors such as Siemens, Bosch, Samsung, Schneider Electric, Broadcom, Google, and Caterpillar — and even runs aboard the International Space Station. Alongside the Mongoose library, Cesanta builds Mongoose OS (an IoT firmware development framework for ESP32, ESP8266, STM32 and other microcontrollers with AWS/Azure/Google Cloud integration), VCON.io (remote firmware update and automated firmware testing), and mDash — a managed IoT device cloud offering device management, over-the-air (OTA) updates, a device database/shadow, remote RPC, access control, and a documented REST API for programmatic fleet management.

Cesanta publishes 4 API contracts indexed on the APIs.io network, including Data API, Devices API, Keys API, and 1 more. Tagged areas include Company, IoT, Embedded, Device Management, and Firmware.

The Cesanta catalog on APIs.io includes 1 Spectral governance ruleset.

Cesanta’s developer surface includes engineering blog, authentication, documentation, API reference, getting-started guide, support, pricing, and 22 more developer resources.

🌐 Visit website 📡 Profile data on GitHub

49.7/100 developing ▬ flat Agent 20/100 agent aware Front door AI 1/6 silent Heartbeat 85/100 alive saas Full breakdown ↓
scored 2026-11-06 · rubric v0.27.0 · Show this score on your site →

AccessFreemiumSelf serve⚡ Free to try

1 published contract 1 Agent Skills

Company IoT Embedded Device Management Firmware OTA Networking MQTT

What this lets a business do 1

Business capabilities this provider's published APIs can perform, derived from its own contracts. Browse all capabilities →

Home, Device & Consumer IoT

AE-200

Devices

Kin Score

Kin Score How this is scored →
scored 2026-11-06 · rubric v0.27.0

Composite quality — 49.7/100 · developing

Contract Quality 9.9 / 19

Developer Ergonomics 8.8 / 15

Access Clarity 10.9 / 15

Operational Transparency 0.3 / 10

Contract Governance 1.6 / 9

Discoverability 5.5 / 8

Regulatory Posture 3.4 / 15

Create-or-Update Ergonomics 0.0 / 10

Agent readiness — 20/100 · agent aware

Machine-Readable Contract 18 / 18

Agentic Access Contract 10 / 10

Documented Reversibility 0 / 6

MCP Server 0 / 12

Machine-Readable Auth 10 / 10

Idempotency 0 / 9

Stable Error Semantics 8 / 8

Request/Response Examples 0 / 7

Rate-Limit Signaling 0 / 7

Typed Event Surface 0 / 6

Agent Skills 5 / 5

Well-Known Catalog 0 / 4

Consent & Bot Identity 0 / 3

A2A Agent Card 0 / 8

Dry-Run / Simulate Mode 0 / 4

Delegated User Identity 0 / 6

Protected Resource Metadata 0 / 5

Registration Without a Human 0 / 6

Agentic Commerce Well-Known Document 0 / 5

Pagination 0 / 5

Distinct Operations 3 / 3

MCP Tool Quality 6 / 6

Regulatory Posture applies to this provider. Its tags matched the Horizontal (data, software, accessibility, platform) regime, so Regulatory Posture carries 15 points of the composite. If this regime is wrong for your business, say so on your provider repo — the applicability map is public and we will correct it.

Create-or-Update Ergonomics applies to this provider. This API accepts writes, so it carries 10 points of the composite. It is scored from the published contracts themselves: whether a caller can create-or-update in one call, whether the write accepts a key the caller already holds, and whether the response says which branch ran. Without that, every write needs a search-and-branch in front of it, and the first time that check is skipped a duplicate record is created. Scored against the observed mean rather than raw — a provider at the catalog average is unchanged by this facet, not penalised by it.

The six quality facets above are damped to 75 points between them, because the conditional facet above carries the other 25. That is why each facet's contribution is shown against a damped maximum: raising a quality facet moves the composite by 75% of its nominal weight, not 100%. The full arithmetic is at apis.io/rating/.

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Agent readiness — checks not met, largest first (exact, from this profile):

MCP Server +12 pts — deployment.mode + probe verdict on the mcp/ manifest, not the pointer; an unprobed slug falls back to authorship
Idempotency +9 pts — OpenAPI mutating operations declare an idempotency key — a header, a request-body property, or a named de-duplication token whose own description says so (verified); else common[].type matches /idempoten/i (documented)
A2A Agent Card +8 pts — a2a/-a2a.yml manifest, graded on conformance.grade against A2A 1.0.0
Rate-Limit Signaling +7 pts — OpenAPI responses document X-RateLimit-* / RateLimit headers (verified), else a rate_limits artifact or RateLimits link (documented)
Request/Response Examples +7 pts — share of operations carrying request/response examples; else an Examples / Code Samples link
Registration Without a Human +6 pts — a `registration_endpoint` in the served RFC 8414 / OIDC discovery document

9 more unmet checks in the Agent Readiness table above.

Kin Score — facets with the most composite points still available (weight × headroom):

Operational Transparency scores 2.6 — up to +12.7 composite points
Contract Quality scores 52.7 — up to +11.8 composite points
Contract Governance scores 18.2 — up to +9.8 composite points

Each check links to what satisfies it. Publish the artifact, or tell us where it already lives, and the score moves on the next scoring run.

Improve this rating by publishing the missing artifacts — every area above can be raised, and the full rubric is at apis.io/rating/. Every facet and dimension name above is a link: it opens that measurement's own page — what it means, the exact checks that feed it, how the whole catalog distributes on it, and the providers at the top of it. This rating is computed from the provider profile at artifacts.apis.io/cesanta/apis.yml: open an issue on github.com/api-evangelist/cesanta to ask a question or point us at an artifact you publish. Submit an artifact on GitHub — free → Manage your own listing — the Influence plan, $499/mo →

Markets this provider is in provisional

The Kin Score Market layer reads a provider inside its market: its position, and how deep its integrations go. Depth is only comparable within a position. Provisional and unweighted: not part of the Kin Score or agent readiness.

Market	Position	Depth	Registered MCP server	Declares compatibility
Artifact Hub Cloud-Native Packages	undeclared	-	-	1

Registered MCP server and declares compatibility are report only — not weighted. Undeclared means we found nothing we can read, so there is no number: we never infer integrations.

Standards implemented 2

Standards this provider implements or carries. De facto ones are profiled and measured by the API Commons; formal ones come from the standards directory and are linked by the provider's own tags. The evidence column says how each claim was established — not that it was made.

MQTT

tagged — the provider's own APIs.json carries the standard as a tag; implementation not verified

OpenAPI

measured — observed by APIs.io (published)

APIs 4

Individual APIs this provider publishes, each with its own machine-readable definition.

Cesanta Data API

Device data storage and retrieval

Cesanta Devices API

Device registration, updates, RPC, and OTA

Cesanta Keys API

API key management

Cesanta Logs API

Notification logs

Open Collections 4

Open, tool-agnostic API collections (OpenAPI-derived and Bruno).

Cesanta mDash REST Data API

OPEN COLLECTION

Cesanta mDash REST Data Devices API

OPEN COLLECTION

Cesanta mDash REST Data Keys API

OPEN COLLECTION

Cesanta mDash REST Data Logs API

OPEN COLLECTION

Agent Skills 1

Packaged agent skills for driving this provider's APIs from an AI assistant.

Manage mDash IoT devices

AGENT SKILL

Cesanta API pricing

Prices published by Cesanta, read 2026-10-28 from mdash.net/home/pricing.html.

Plan	Price
Free	$0 per month Includes: Devices 10
BUSINESS	starting from $150 per month per 500 devices Includes: Devices Unlimited; $150 per 500 devices
ON-PREMISES	custom Includes: Devices Unlimited

Plan details, limits and sources →

Billed by: device · FinOps profile →

Pricing Plans 2

Published pricing tiers and plan structures.

Cesanta Plans Pricing

3 plans

PLANS

Cesanta Price Estimates

0 plans

PLANS

Service Levels 1

Uptime the provider promises or reports, as SLA4OAI. Read from its own pages; APIs.io runs no monitors.

Cesanta

SLA

FinOps 1

Cost, billing, and metering signals for API financial operations.

Cesanta Finops

FINOPS

Spectral Rules 1

Spectral governance rulesets for linting and validating these APIs.

Cesanta API Rules

62 rules · 60 errors 1 warnings 1 info

SPECTRAL

OpenAPI Overlays 1

Overlays applied on top of this provider's contracts. Each card says who wrote it: a document the provider publishes, or one API Evangelist derived or generated.

Cesanta Mdash Overlay

2 actions · update · cesanta-mdash-openapi.yml

DERIVED

Security Posture 2

Authentication, domain security, vulnerability disclosure, and trust-center signals.

Cesanta Authentication

http · 1 scheme

SECURITY

Cesanta Domain Security

TLSv1.3 · DMARC

SECURITY

Agentic Access 1

Recommended x-agentic-access execution contracts for AI agents.

Cesanta Agentic Access

12 operations · 7 acting

AGENTIC

Resources

Get Started 3

Portal, sign-up, and the first successful call

DeveloperPortal

DeveloperPortal

GettingStarted

GettingStarted

Login

Documentation 3

Reference material describing how the API behaves

OpenAPI

OpenAPI

Documentation

Documentation

APIReference

APIReference

Agent Surfaces 5

MCP servers, agent skills, and machine-readable catalogs

X-MCPServerCandidate

LLMsTxt

WellKnown

AgentSkill

AgenticAccess

Design & Contract 5

Pagination, idempotency, versioning, errors, and events

Conventions

ErrorCatalog

DataModel

Lifecycle

Conformance

Build 2

SDKs, sample code, and the tooling you integrate with

Packages

Packages

GitHubOrganization

GitHubOrganization

Access & Security 2

Authentication, authorization, and security posture

Authentication

Authentication

DomainSecurity

DomainSecurity

Operate 1

Status, limits, changes, and where to get help

Support

Support

Commercial 4

Pricing, plans, and the legal terms of use

Plans

Pricing

PrivacyPolicy

TermsOfService

Company 2

The organization behind the API

Blog

Blog

Website

Website

Other 2

Properties that don't map to a standard resource type

CapabilityMap

CapabilityMap

Overlay

Overlay

Source (apis.yml)

aid: cesanta
name: Cesanta
description: Cesanta is an embedded software and IoT company, established in 2013 to develop and support the Mongoose embedded
  web server and networking library (HTTP, WebSocket, MQTT, CoAP, TCP/IP) that ships in over 100 million devices from vendors
  such as Siemens, Bosch, Samsung, Schneider Electric, Broadcom, Google, and Caterpillar — and even runs aboard the International
  Space Station. Alongside the Mongoose library, Cesanta builds Mongoose OS (an IoT firmware development framework for ESP32,
  ESP8266, STM32 and other microcontrollers with AWS/Azure/Google Cloud integration), VCON.io (remote firmware update and
  automated firmware testing), and mDash — a managed IoT device cloud offering device management, over-the-air (OTA) updates,
  a device database/shadow, remote RPC, access control, and a documented REST API for programmatic fleet management.
url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/cesanta/refs/heads/main/apis.yml
deliveryModel:
  model: saas
  open_source: false
  commercial: true
  callable_host: true
  label: Hosted service · you call their endpoint
  confidence: high
  source:
  - openapi
  - pricing
  generated: '2026-08-28'
  method: derived
accessModel:
  pricing: freemium
  onboarding: self-serve
  trial: false
  try_now: true
  public: false
  gated: none
  gated_source:
  - onboarding
  label: Freemium · Self-serve signup
  confidence: medium
  source:
  - plans
  - authentication
  - security
  generated: '2026-11-06'
  method: derived
image: https://cesanta.com/images/logo1.png
x-type: company
x-source: vc-portfolio
x-backed-by:
- 500-global
x-tier: stub
x-tier-reason: portfolio-lead
specificationVersion: '0.23'
created: '2026-07-17'
modified: '2026-10-06'
tags:
- Company
- IoT
- Embedded
- Device Management
- Firmware
- OTA
- Networking
- MQTT
apis:
- aid: cesanta:cesanta-data-api
  name: Cesanta Data API
  description: Device data storage and retrieval
  humanURL: https://mdash.net/home/
  baseURL: https://dash.mongoose-os.com/api/v2
  tags:
  - Data
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/cesanta-data-api-openapi.yml
  - type: APIReference
    url: https://mongoose-os.com/docs/mdash/api.md
- aid: cesanta:cesanta-devices-api
  name: Cesanta Devices API
  description: Device registration, updates, RPC, and OTA
  humanURL: https://mdash.net/home/
  baseURL: https://dash.mongoose-os.com/api/v2
  tags:
  - Devices
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/cesanta-devices-api-openapi.yml
  - type: APIReference
    url: https://mongoose-os.com/docs/mdash/api.md
- aid: cesanta:cesanta-keys-api
  name: Cesanta Keys API
  description: API key management
  humanURL: https://mdash.net/home/
  baseURL: https://dash.mongoose-os.com/api/v2
  tags:
  - Keys
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/cesanta-keys-api-openapi.yml
  - type: APIReference
    url: https://mongoose-os.com/docs/mdash/api.md
- aid: cesanta:cesanta-logs-api
  name: Cesanta Logs API
  description: Notification logs
  humanURL: https://mdash.net/home/
  baseURL: https://dash.mongoose-os.com/api/v2
  tags:
  - Logs
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/cesanta-logs-api-openapi.yml
  - type: APIReference
    url: https://mongoose-os.com/docs/mdash/api.md
maintainers:
- FN: Kin Lane
  email: kin@apievangelist.com
- FN: APIs.json
  email: info@apis.io
common:
- type: CapabilityMap
  url: capabilities/cesanta-capability-edges.yml
  name: Cesanta Business Capability Map
- type: Plans
  url: plans/cesanta-plans-pricing.yml
- url: https://cesanta.com/blog/
  type: Blog
- type: OpenAPI
  url: openapi/_original/cesanta-mdash-openapi.yml
- type: Authentication
  url: authentication/cesanta-authentication.yml
- type: Conventions
  url: conventions/cesanta-conventions.yml
- type: ErrorCatalog
  url: errors/cesanta-problem-types.yml
- type: DataModel
  url: data-model/cesanta-data-model.yml
- type: Lifecycle
  url: lifecycle/cesanta-lifecycle.yml
- type: Conformance
  url: conformance/cesanta-conformance.yml
- type: X-MCPServerCandidate
  url: mcp/cesanta-mcp.yml
  note: 'Renamed from MCPServer 2026-09-03 (roadmap#247): the manifest self-describes as status: candidate — a tool list derived
    from the published API contracts, not an existing server. The scorer already read the manifest and reported mcp_server
    correctly; the MCPServer type was crediting the artifact-type surfaces with a server that does not exist.'
- type: LLMsTxt
  url: llms/cesanta-llms.txt
- type: Overlay
  url: overlays/cesanta-mdash-overlay.yaml
- type: Packages
  url: packages/cesanta-packages.yml
- type: WellKnown
  url: well-known/cesanta-well-known.yml
- type: AgentSkill
  url: skills/_index.yml
- type: AgenticAccess
  url: agentic-access/cesanta-agentic-access.yml
- type: DomainSecurity
  url: security/cesanta-domain-security.yml
- type: DeveloperPortal
  url: https://mdash.net/home/
- type: Documentation
  url: https://mongoose-os.com/docs/
- type: APIReference
  url: https://mongoose-os.com/docs/mdash/api.md
- type: GettingStarted
  url: https://mdash.net/home/tech-guides.html
- type: Support
  url: https://forum.mdash.net
- type: GitHubOrganization
  url: https://github.com/cesanta
- type: Pricing
  url: https://mdash.net/home/pricing.html
- type: Login
  url: https://mdash.net/login
- type: PrivacyPolicy
  url: https://cesanta.com/privacy.html
- type: TermsOfService
  url: https://mongoose-os.com/terms.html
- type: Website
  url: https://cesanta.com
x-enrichment:
  date: '2026-07-19'
  status: backfilled
  pass: local-v1
  note: backfilled from .gitignore signal + verified work evidence

Cesanta API — frequently asked questions

Does Cesanta have an API?

Yes. APIs.io lists 4 APIs from Cesanta, including Cesanta Data API, Cesanta Devices API and Cesanta Keys API, and 1 more.

Is there an OpenAPI specification for the Cesanta API?

Yes. APIs.io indexes 4 OpenAPI specifications for Cesanta, each linked for download from this page.

How do I authenticate with the Cesanta API?

Cesanta uses bearer-token authentication (http · 1 scheme). The details are profiled on APIs.io as Cesanta Authentication.

How much does the Cesanta API cost?

Cesanta publishes its prices; its Free plan is $0 per month as of 2026-10-28. APIs.io lists 3 pricing plans for Cesanta, with each plan's price, limits and inclusions under Pricing on this page.

Is the Cesanta API ready for AI agents?

Cesanta has a Kin Score of 49.7 out of 100 (developing) and an Agent Readiness score of 19.9 (agent-aware), scored by API Evangelist on 2026-11-06.

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