The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) is a public research university in Clear Water Bay, Hong Kong SAR. Its programmable footprint is real but small and mostly closed. One API on an HKUST host is public and keyless: the Path Advisor campus wayfinding API at pathadvisor.ust.hk, which serves buildings, calibrated floor plans, point-of-interest categories and named map nodes with GeoJSON footprints, CORS-open and with no key. Beyond it, the IT Services Office runs an Azure API Management gateway and portal — live and callable at hkust.azure-api.net, but every product needs an ITSO account, a subscription request and human approval, and the catalog cannot be enumerated anonymously. DataSpace@HKUST is a Dataverse 6.1 instance HKUST self-hosts on its own domain and network, serving 151 published datasets over the upstream Dataverse Native API; its OAI-PMH provider is switched off. The institution's most substantial machine-readable assets are not developer APIs at all: a Shibboleth SAML identity provider published into eduGAIN through the Hong Kong Access Federation, and HKUST Library's Crossref membership under DOI prefix 10.14711, with 14,453 registered records. HKUST publishes no OpenAPI, no changelog, no status page and no security.txt for any of it. A previously catalogued API base URL of api.ust.hk does not exist — HKUST's own authoritative nameservers return NXDOMAIN for that hostname — and has been removed.
Hong Kong University of Science and Technology publishes 1 API on the APIs.io network: HKUST Path Advisor API. Tagged areas include University, Higher Education, Education, Research, and Hong Kong.
The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology catalog on APIs.io includes 1 JSON-LD context and 1 Spectral governance ruleset.
Hong Kong University of Science and Technology’s developer surface includes documentation, API reference, support, authentication, and 21 more developer resources.
Regulatory Posture applies to this provider. Its tags matched the
Education & Research 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 does not apply to this provider. The published contracts declare
no write operations, and a read-only API cannot create-or-update. The facet is excluded from this provider's
denominator entirely — not scored zero. A reference or data API is not deficient for being unable to
upsert.
The six quality facets above are damped to 85 points between them,
because the conditional facet above carries the other
15. That is why each facet's contribution is shown against a damped
maximum: raising a quality facet moves the composite by 85% of its nominal
weight, not 100%. The full arithmetic is at apis.io/rating/.
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 github.com/api-evangelist/hkust: open an issue to ask a question, or submit a pull request to add artifacts.
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HKUST's Azure API Management tenant, operated by the IT Services Office. The gateway is live and callable at hkust.azure-api.net and returns the Azure APIM 401 "missing subscrip...
The institutional research data repository, running Dataverse 6.1 on Payara. HKUST self-hosts it: dataspace.hkust.edu.hk is on the university's own registrable domain and CNAMEs...
HKUST's own SAML 2.0 identity provider, serving machine-readable metadata at idp.ust.hk/idp/shibboleth. Asserts the scopes ust.hk, connect.ust.hk and alumni.ust.hk, and declares...
HKUST Library is Crossref member 5801 and owns DOI prefix 10.14711, under which 14,453 records are registered and retrievable through the Crossref REST API — including the datas...
Central Elastic Stack repository established by ITSO to collect, search and visualise smart-campus data, including the IoT sensor inventory and sensor readings. It is institutio...
aid: hkust
name: Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
x-type: university
x-category: Public Research University
description: 'The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) is a public research university in Clear Water Bay,
Hong Kong SAR. Its programmable footprint is real but small and mostly closed. One API on an HKUST host is public and keyless:
the Path Advisor campus wayfinding API at pathadvisor.ust.hk, which serves buildings, calibrated floor plans, point-of-interest
categories and named map nodes with GeoJSON footprints, CORS-open and with no key. Beyond it, the IT Services Office runs
an Azure API Management gateway and portal — live and callable at hkust.azure-api.net, but every product needs an ITSO account,
a subscription request and human approval, and the catalog cannot be enumerated anonymously. DataSpace@HKUST is a Dataverse
6.1 instance HKUST self-hosts on its own domain and network, serving 151 published datasets over the upstream Dataverse
Native API; its OAI-PMH provider is switched off. The institution''s most substantial machine-readable assets are not developer
APIs at all: a Shibboleth SAML identity provider published into eduGAIN through the Hong Kong Access Federation, and HKUST
Library''s Crossref membership under DOI prefix 10.14711, with 14,453 registered records. HKUST publishes no OpenAPI, no
changelog, no status page and no security.txt for any of it. A previously catalogued API base URL of api.ust.hk does not
exist — HKUST''s own authoritative nameservers return NXDOMAIN for that hostname — and has been removed.'
type: Index
deliveryModel:
model: unknown
open_source: unknown
commercial: false
callable_host: true
label: Institutional service, not a product — one public campus API, the rest affiliation-gated
confidence: medium
source:
- probed
generated: '2026-08-30'
method: probed
accessModel:
pricing: free
onboarding: request
trial: false
try_now: true
public: partial
label: Free — one keyless public API, everything else gated on HKUST affiliation
confidence: high
source:
- url: https://www.ust.hk/
status: 301
note: declared website redirects to https://hkust.edu.hk/ — a different registrable domain (ust.hk -> hkust.edu.hk), possible
rename or acquisition (probed 2026-09-03, roadmap#169)
- probed
- plans
generated: '2026-08-30'
method: probed
position: Consuming
access: 3rd-Party
image: https://kinlane-images.s3.amazonaws.com/shared/apis-json/icons/hkust.png
url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/hkust/refs/heads/main/apis.yml
tags:
- University
- Higher Education
- Education
- Research
- Hong Kong
- China
- Research Data
- Open Data
- Identity Federation
- Course Catalog
- Library
- Smart Campus
- API Gateway
- Wayfinding
created: '2026-06-03'
modified: '2026-08-30'
specificationVersion: '0.23'
x-coverage:
state: covered
reason: covered
detail: 'A first-party, institution-operated, keyless API was found, probed and described: the HKUST Path Advisor API at
pathadvisor.ust.hk/api, which carries a full artifact set built from live observation. Two further institution-operated
machine-readable surfaces were verified — the Shibboleth SAML identity provider at idp.ust.hk, registered into eduGAIN
via the Hong Kong Access Federation, and HKUST Library''s Crossref DOI registration under prefix 10.14711. The remainder
of HKUST''s footprint is genuinely gated rather than unreachable: the Azure API Management gateway answers 401 for missing
subscription key, and its product catalog requires an ITSO account to enumerate. Two negatives were confirmed rather than
assumed — the DataSpace OAI-PMH provider is explicitly disabled (503 "OAI Service is disabled on this Dataverse"), and
the HKUST SPD institutional repository is behind a Cap.js proof-of-work captcha that no machine client can pass.'
generated: '2026-08-30'
method: probed
evidence:
- url: https://pathadvisor.ust.hk/api/floors
status: 200
- url: https://pathadvisor.ust.hk/api/nodes?name=lift
status: 200
- url: https://pathadvisor.ust.hk/api/connectors
status: 401
- url: https://hkust.azure-api.net/sensor-data/_search
status: 401
- url: https://idp.ust.hk/idp/shibboleth
status: 200
- url: https://technical.edugain.org/api.php?action=show_entity&entityid=https://idp.ust.hk/idp/shibboleth
status: 200
- url: https://api.crossref.org/prefixes/10.14711
status: 200
- url: https://dataspace.hkust.edu.hk/api/info/version
status: 200
- url: https://dataspace.hkust.edu.hk/oai?verb=Identify
status: 503
- url: https://repository.hkust.edu.hk/ir/
status: 302
- url: https://api.ust.hk/
status: 0
apis:
- aid: hkust:path-advisor
name: HKUST Path Advisor API
x-operator: institution
description: 'Public, keyless JSON API behind HKUST Path Advisor, the university''s campus wayfinding service. Serves the
campus spatial model: 7 buildings, 43 calibrated floor plans with metres-per-pixel and origin offsets, 26 point-of-interest
categories, and named nodes carrying GeoJSON MultiPolygon footprints. Runs on HKUST''s own domain and network (pathadvisor.ust.hk,
143.89.15.35), names no vendor anywhere in its responses or headers, and answers unauthenticated with Access-Control-Allow-Origin
*. One route, /connectors, is gated behind an unpublished authorization scheme. HKUST publishes no OpenAPI for it; the
description in this repository was written from live probes on 2026-08-30 and is a third-party observation, not an HKUST
artifact.'
humanURL: https://pathadvisor.ust.hk/
baseURL: https://pathadvisor.ust.hk/api
tags:
- Wayfinding
- Campus
- Geospatial
- Open Data
- Smart Campus
properties:
- type: OpenAPI
url: openapi/hkust-path-advisor-openapi.yml
- type: JSONSchema
url: json-schema/hkust-path-advisor-node.json
- type: Examples
url: examples/hkust-path-advisor-examples.yml
- type: Errors
url: errors/hkust-path-advisor-errors.yml
- type: Rules
url: rules/hkust-path-advisor-rules.yml
- aid: hkust:api-gateway
name: HKUST API Gateway and API Portal
x-operator: tenant
description: 'HKUST''s Azure API Management tenant, operated by the IT Services Office. The gateway is live and callable
at hkust.azure-api.net and returns the Azure APIM 401 "missing subscription key" on the two products HKUST documents publicly
— sensor-data and sensor-inventory, the IoT feeds from the Open Data Platform. Access requires an ITSO account, a Product
subscription request, and approval by email; keys travel in the X-Apim-Subscription-Key header. The developer portal is
the stock Azure APIM portal and lists nothing to an anonymous visitor. Recorded as tenant: HKUST chose and configures
the platform, but hkust.azure-api.net is a subdomain of Microsoft''s azure-api.net and the gateway contract is Azure API
Management''s. The previously catalogued base URL https://api.ust.hk is NXDOMAIN on HKUST''s own nameservers and has been
removed.'
humanURL: https://hkust.developer.azure-api.net/
baseURL: https://hkust.azure-api.net
tags:
- API Gateway
- Azure API Management
- Developer Portal
- Campus
- IoT
properties:
- type: DeveloperPortal
url: https://hkust.developer.azure-api.net/
- type: Signup
url: https://hkust.developer.azure-api.net/signup
- type: Documentation
url: https://itso.hkust.edu.hk/services/it-infrastructure/api-gateway-api-portal
- type: APIReference
url: https://itso.hkust.edu.hk/services/it-infrastructure/smart-campus-infrastructure/open-data-platform/retrieve-iot-data-api
- type: Authentication
url: authentication/hkust-authentication.yml
- aid: hkust:dataspace
name: DataSpace@HKUST Research Data Repository API
x-operator: institution
description: 'The institutional research data repository, running Dataverse 6.1 on Payara. HKUST self-hosts it: dataspace.hkust.edu.hk
is on the university''s own registrable domain and CNAMEs to lbnx99.ust.hk on HKUST''s own network, so the deployment
and its operation are genuinely HKUST''s. The API contract is not — it is the upstream Dataverse Native REST API, and
this repository deliberately does NOT republish Dataverse''s generic specification under HKUST''s name. Unauthenticated
reads work: /api/info/version and /api/search answer without credentials across 151 published datasets, with DOIs under
HKUST Library''s own Crossref prefix 10.14711. The OAI-PMH provider Dataverse ships is switched off and returns 503 "OAI
Service is disabled on this Dataverse".'
humanURL: https://dataspace.hkust.edu.hk/
baseURL: https://dataspace.hkust.edu.hk/api
tags:
- Research Data
- Repository
- Dataverse
- Open Data
- DOI
properties:
- type: Documentation
url: https://guides.dataverse.org/en/latest/api/native-api.html
- type: Conformance
url: conformance/hkust-conformance.yml
- aid: hkust:identity-federation
name: HKUST Shibboleth Identity Provider
x-operator: institution
description: HKUST's own SAML 2.0 identity provider, serving machine-readable metadata at idp.ust.hk/idp/shibboleth. Asserts
the scopes ust.hk, connect.ust.hk and alumni.ust.hk, and declares HTTP-POST, HTTP-POST-SimpleSign, HTTP-Redirect and SOAP/ECP
single-sign-on bindings alongside the legacy Shibboleth 1.0 profile. Registered by the Hong Kong Access Federation on
2017-01-07 and published into eduGAIN carrying the REFEDS Research & Scholarship entity category and the SIRTFI security-incident-response
framework, with a security contact of security@ust.hk. This is institution-operated by definition and is the most substantial
machine-readable surface HKUST runs — and it is not a developer API, which is the characteristic shape of a university's
real programmable footprint.
humanURL: https://www.hkaf.edu.hk/
baseURL: https://idp.ust.hk/idp/shibboleth
tags:
- Identity Federation
- SAML
- Shibboleth
- eduGAIN
- Single Sign-On
properties:
- type: Metadata
url: https://idp.ust.hk/idp/shibboleth
- type: Documentation
url: https://technical.edugain.org/api.php?action=show_entity&entityid=https://idp.ust.hk/idp/shibboleth
- type: Authentication
url: authentication/hkust-authentication.yml
- aid: hkust:crossref-doi
name: HKUST Library Crossref DOI Registration
x-operator: tenant
description: HKUST Library is Crossref member 5801 and owns DOI prefix 10.14711, under which 14,453 records are registered
and retrievable through the Crossref REST API — including the dataset DOIs minted by DataSpace@HKUST and the library's
own special-collections material. The registration, the prefix and the deposited metadata are HKUST Library's; the API
serving them is Crossref's, which is why this is recorded as a tenant relationship and no Crossref specification is saved
under HKUST's name. Worth noting that this is a Crossref rather than a DataCite registration, which is unusual for an
institutional research-data repository.
humanURL: https://library.hkust.edu.hk/
baseURL: https://api.crossref.org/prefixes/10.14711
tags:
- Library
- Scholarly Metadata
- DOI
- Crossref
- Research
properties:
- type: Documentation
url: https://api.crossref.org/prefixes/10.14711
- type: Conformance
url: conformance/hkust-conformance.yml
- aid: hkust:open-data-platform
name: HKUST Open Data Platform
x-operator: institution
description: 'Central Elastic Stack repository established by ITSO to collect, search and visualise smart-campus data, including
the IoT sensor inventory and sensor readings. It is institution-operated, but there is no open self-service endpoint:
the data is reached only through the HKUST API Gateway with a subscription key issued after review, and no separate public
API reference is published beyond the IoT retrieval walkthrough.'
humanURL: https://itso.hkust.edu.hk/services/it-infrastructure/smart-campus-infrastructure/open-data-platform
tags:
- Open Data
- Smart Campus
- Elastic Stack
- IoT
- Analytics
properties:
- type: Documentation
url: https://itso.hkust.edu.hk/services/it-infrastructure/smart-campus-infrastructure/open-data-platform
- type: APIReference
url: https://itso.hkust.edu.hk/services/it-infrastructure/smart-campus-infrastructure/open-data-platform/retrieve-iot-data-api
common:
- type: Website
url: https://www.ust.hk/
- type: Documentation
url: https://itso.hkust.edu.hk/services/it-infrastructure/api-gateway-api-portal
- type: APIReference
url: https://itso.hkust.edu.hk/services/it-infrastructure/smart-campus-infrastructure/open-data-platform/retrieve-iot-data-api
- type: DeveloperPortal
url: https://hkust.developer.azure-api.net/
- type: Support
url: https://itso.hkust.edu.hk/
- type: PrivacyPolicy
url: https://dataprivacy.hkust.edu.hk/university-data-privacy-policy-statement/
- type: LinkedIn
url: https://hk.linkedin.com/school/hkust/
- type: OpenData
url: https://itso.hkust.edu.hk/services/it-infrastructure/smart-campus-infrastructure/open-data-platform
- type: ResearchRepository
url: https://dataspace.hkust.edu.hk/
- type: LibraryCatalog
url: https://library.hkust.edu.hk/
- type: CourseCatalog
url: https://w5.ab.ust.hk/wcq/cgi-bin/
- type: IdentityFederation
url: https://idp.ust.hk/idp/shibboleth
- type: AIPolicy
url: https://cei.hkust.edu.hk/en-hk/education-innovation/generative-ai-education
- type: AITooling
url: https://itso.hkust.edu.hk/services/it-infrastructure/azure-openai-api-service
- type: DomainSecurity
url: security/hkust-domain-security.yml
- type: Authentication
url: authentication/hkust-authentication.yml
- type: Scopes
url: scopes/hkust-scopes.yml
- type: Conformance
url: conformance/hkust-conformance.yml
- type: Lifecycle
url: lifecycle/hkust-lifecycle.yml
- type: Vocabulary
url: vocabulary/hkust-vocabulary.yml
- type: JSONLD
url: json-ld/hkust-context.jsonld
- type: Plans
url: plans/hkust-plans-pricing.yml
- type: RateLimits
url: rate-limits/hkust-rate-limits.yml
- type: FinOps
url: finops/hkust-finops.yml
- type: Review
url: review.yml
maintainers:
- FN: Kin Lane
email: kin@apievangelist.com
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