Contra

Contra is an independent-first, commission-free freelance marketplace and professional network for the jobs and skills of the future, founded in 2019 by Ben Huffman and Gajus Kuizinas and backed by Cowboy Ventures, Unusual Ventures, and NEA. Independents build a portfolio, get discovered, and manage work from inquiry to contract to payment without platform commissions. For developers, Contra exposes a read-only Public API (programs, filters, and expert profiles under https://contra.com/public-api/, authenticated with an X-API-Key header), an attribute-driven Webflow SDK, a React UI-kit, and a hosted, OAuth 2.1-protected Model Context Protocol (MCP) server at https://contra.com/mcp (scope mcp:tools).

Contra publishes 1 API on the APIs.io network: Public API. Tagged areas include Company, Future Of Work, Freelance Marketplace, Talent, and Hiring.

Contra’s developer surface includes documentation, engineering blog, pricing, signup flow, authentication, and 18 more developer resources.

🌐 Visit website 📡 Source on GitHub
39.1/100 thin Agent 55/100 agent ready Full breakdown ↓
scored 2026-07-20 · rubric v0.4
1 APIs 1 MCP Servers 0 Features
CompanyFuture Of WorkFreelance MarketplaceTalentHiringProfessional NetworkModel Context ProtocolDeveloper API

API Rating

API Evangelist API Evangelist Rating How this is scored →
scored 2026-07-20 · rubric v0.4
Composite quality — 39.1/100 · thin
Contract Quality 9.4 / 25
Developer Ergonomics 8.7 / 20
Commercial Clarity 8.9 / 20
Operational Transparency 2.7 / 13
Governance 0.0 / 12
Discoverability 9.3 / 10
Agent readiness — 55/100 · agent ready
Machine-Readable Contract 18 / 18
Agentic Access Contract 0 / 15
MCP Server 12 / 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 4 / 4
Consent & Bot Identity 0 / 3
Improve this rating by publishing the missing artifacts — every area above can be raised, and the full rubric is at apis.io/rating/. This rating is computed from github.com/api-evangelist/contra: open an issue to ask a question, or submit a pull request to add artifacts. Want it done for you? Prioritized profiling — $2,500 →

APIs

Contra Public API

Read-only REST API for discovering Contra programs, their filter definitions, and the expert profiles within a program. Authenticated with an X-API-Key header; endpoints live un...

MCP Servers

contra-mcp.yml

MCP SERVER

Resources

Get Started 1

Portal, sign-up, and the first successful call

SignUp
SignUp

Documentation 1

Reference material describing how the API behaves

Documentation
Documentation

Agent Surfaces 4

MCP servers, agent skills, and machine-readable catalogs

MCPServer
MCPServer
 WellKnown
WellKnown
 AgentSkill
AgentSkill
 LLMsTxt
LLMsTxt

Design & Contract 5

Pagination, idempotency, versioning, errors, and events

Conformance
Conformance
 ErrorCatalog
ErrorCatalog
 Lifecycle
Lifecycle
 Conventions
Conventions
 DataModel
DataModel

Build 3

SDKs, sample code, and the tooling you integrate with

GitHubOrganization
GitHubOrganization
 Packages
Packages
 SDKs
SDKs

Access & Security 3

Authentication, authorization, and security posture

Authentication
Authentication
 OAuthScopes
OAuthScopes
 DomainSecurity
DomainSecurity

Operate 1

Status, limits, changes, and where to get help

StatusPage
StatusPage

Commercial 3

Pricing, plans, and the legal terms of use

Pricing
Pricing
 TermsOfService
TermsOfService
 PrivacyPolicy
PrivacyPolicy

Company 2

The organization behind the API

Website
Website
 Blog
Blog

Source (apis.yml)

apis.yml Raw ↑ 
aid: contra
name: Contra
description: Contra is an independent-first, commission-free freelance marketplace and professional network for the jobs and
  skills of the future, founded in 2019 by Ben Huffman and Gajus Kuizinas and backed by Cowboy Ventures, Unusual Ventures,
  and NEA. Independents build a portfolio, get discovered, and manage work from inquiry to contract to payment without platform
  commissions. For developers, Contra exposes a read-only Public API (programs, filters, and expert profiles under https://contra.com/public-api/,
  authenticated with an X-API-Key header), an attribute-driven Webflow SDK, a React UI-kit, and a hosted, OAuth 2.1-protected
  Model Context Protocol (MCP) server at https://contra.com/mcp (scope mcp:tools).
url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/contra/refs/heads/main/apis.yml
image: https://contra.com/static/opengraph-assets/v2/fallbacks/contra-fallback-open-graph-image.png
x-type: company
x-source: vc-portfolio
x-backed-by:
- cowboy-ventures
x-tier: stub
x-tier-reason: portfolio-lead
specificationVersion: '0.20'
created: '2026-07-17'
modified: '2026-07-18'
tags:
- Company
- Future Of Work
- Freelance Marketplace
- Talent
- Hiring
- Professional Network
- Model Context Protocol
- Developer API
apis:
- name: Contra Public API
  description: Read-only REST API for discovering Contra programs, their filter definitions, and the expert profiles within
    a program. Authenticated with an X-API-Key header; endpoints live under https://contra.com/public-api/.
  humanURL: https://github.com/contra/contra-sdk
  baseURL: https://contra.com/public-api
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/contra-openapi-original.json
  - type: Overlay
    url: overlays/contra-openapi-overlay.yaml
maintainers:
- FN: Kin Lane
  email: kin@apievangelist.com
- FN: APIs.json
  email: info@apis.io
common:
- type: Website
  url: https://contra.com
- type: Documentation
  url: https://github.com/contra/contra-sdk
- type: Blog
  url: https://contra.com/blog
- type: Pricing
  url: https://contra.com/pricing
- type: SignUp
  url: https://contra.com/sign-up
- type: TermsOfService
  url: https://contra.com/policies/terms
- type: PrivacyPolicy
  url: https://contra.com/policies/privacy
- type: GitHubOrganization
  url: https://github.com/contra
- type: StatusPage
  url: https://status.contra.com
- type: MCPServer
  url: mcp/contra-mcp.yml
- type: Authentication
  url: authentication/contra-authentication.yml
- type: OAuthScopes
  url: scopes/contra-scopes.yml
- type: WellKnown
  url: well-known/contra-well-known.yml
- type: Packages
  url: packages/contra-packages.yml
- type: SDKs
  url: packages/contra-packages.yml
- type: Conformance
  url: conformance/contra-conformance.yml
- type: ErrorCatalog
  url: errors/contra-error-codes.yml
- type: Lifecycle
  url: lifecycle/contra-lifecycle.yml
- type: Conventions
  url: conventions/contra-conventions.yml
- type: DataModel
  url: data-model/contra-data-model.yml
- type: DomainSecurity
  url: security/contra-domain-security.yml
- type: AgentSkill
  url: skills/_index.yml
- type: LLMsTxt
  url: llms/contra-llms.txt
x-enrichment:
  date: '2026-07-19'
  status: backfilled
  pass: local-v1
  note: backfilled from .gitignore signal + verified work evidence