Lobsters

Lobsters is a technology-focused link aggregation and community discussion platform. Its public REST API provides access to stories, comments, tags, and user profiles, returning JSON representations of community-submitted technology links, ranked and filtered by the community.

Lobsters publishes 4 API contracts indexed on the APIs.io network, including Comments API, Stories API, Tags API, and 1 more. Tagged areas include Link Aggregation, Community, Technology, News, and Stories.

The Lobsters catalog on APIs.io includes 1 JSON-LD context and 1 Spectral governance ruleset.

Lobsters’ developer surface includes GitHub presence and 13 more developer resources.

🌐 Visit website 📡 Profile data on GitHub

25.0/100 emerging ▬ flat Agent 23/100 agent aware Front door AI 3/6 light Heartbeat 93/100 alive Full breakdown ↓
scored 2026-11-06 · rubric v0.27.0 · Show this score on your site →

AccessFree

1 published contract

Link AggregationCommunity Technology News Stories Comments Tags

Kin Score

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

Composite quality — 25.0/100 · emerging

Contract Quality 10.9 / 21

Developer Ergonomics 1.6 / 17

Access Clarity 0.9 / 17

Operational Transparency 1.7 / 11

Contract Governance 1.0 / 10

Discoverability 4.9 / 9

Regulatory Posture 2.5 / 15

Agent readiness — 23/100 · agent aware

Machine-Readable Contract 18 / 18

Agentic Access Contract 10 / 10

Documented Reversibility 6 / 6

MCP Server 0 / 12

Machine-Readable Auth 0 / 10

Idempotency 9 / 9

Stable Error Semantics 0 / 8

Request/Response Examples 0 / 7

Rate-Limit Signaling 7 / 7

Typed Event Surface 0 / 6

Agent Skills 0 / 5

Well-Known Catalog 0 / 4

Consent & Bot Identity 0 / 3

A2A Agent Card 0 / 8

Dry-Run / Simulate Mode 4 / 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 5 / 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 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/.

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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
Machine-Readable Auth +10 pts — a served openid-configuration/oauth-authorization-server carrying `issuer` (served), else the securitySchemes class in the provider OpenAPIs — bound (mutualTLS, DPoP, Signature) > negotiable (oauth2 authorizationCode/clientCredentials, openIdConnect) > bearer (http bearer, apiKey)
Stable Error Semantics +8 pts — OpenAPI $refs a shared error schema across 4xx/5xx responses (verified), else common[].type includes ErrorCatalog / ErrorCodes / DeclineCodes
A2A Agent Card +8 pts — a2a/-a2a.yml manifest, graded on conformance.grade against A2A 1.0.0
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

7 more unmet checks in the Agent Readiness table above.

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

Access Clarity scores 5.3 — up to +18.9 composite points
Developer Ergonomics scores 9.5 — up to +18.1 composite points
Contract Quality scores 51.4 — up to +12.2 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/lobsters/apis.yml: open an issue on github.com/api-evangelist/lobsters 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
Raycast Store Extensions (first-party publishers + community-wrapped products)	covered	12.1 (thin)	-	-

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 1

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.

OpenAPI

measured — observed by APIs.io (published)

APIs 4

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

Lobsters Comments API

Community discussion comments on stories

Lobsters Stories API

Technology link aggregation stories submitted by the community

Lobsters Tags API

Community-maintained taxonomy tags for categorizing stories

Lobsters Users API

Lobsters user profiles

Open Collections 4

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

Lobsters Comments API

OPEN COLLECTION

Lobsters Comments Stories API

OPEN COLLECTION

Lobsters Comments Tags API

OPEN COLLECTION

Lobsters Comments Users API

OPEN COLLECTION

Lobsters API pricing

Not yet checked against Lobsters's own pricing page. Compiled by API Evangelist; confirm before you rely on a figure.

Plan	Price
Free	—

Plan details, limits and sources →

Pricing Plans 1

Published pricing tiers and plan structures.

Plans

1 plans

PLANS

Rate Limits 1

Documented rate limits and quota policies.

Rate Limits

0 limits

RATE LIMITS

Service Levels 1

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

Lobsters

SLA

FinOps 1

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

Finops

FINOPS

Semantic Vocabularies 1

JSON-LD contexts and semantic vocabularies used across these APIs.

Lobsters Context

23 classes · 0 properties

JSON-LD

Spectral Rules 1

Spectral governance rulesets for linting and validating these APIs.

Lobsters — jsonschema rules

5 rules · 4 warnings 1 info

SPECTRAL

JSON Schema 4

Standalone JSON Schema definitions for this provider's data models.

Comment

14 properties

JSON SCHEMA

Story

12 properties

JSON SCHEMA

Tag

8 properties

JSON SCHEMA

User

11 properties

JSON SCHEMA

Examples 4

Example request and response payloads for these APIs.

Comment

14 fields

EXAMPLE

Story

12 fields

EXAMPLE

Tag

8 fields

EXAMPLE

User

10 fields

EXAMPLE

Security Posture 2

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

Lobsters Domain Security

TLSv1.3 · HSTS · DMARC

SECURITY

Lobsters Vulnerability Disclosure

security.txt · contact published

SECURITY

Agentic Access 1

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

Lobsters Agentic Access

8 operations

8 operations · 0 acting

AGENTIC

Resources

Documentation 1

Reference material describing how the API behaves

ContributionGuide

ContributionGuide

Agent Surfaces 1

MCP servers, agent skills, and machine-readable catalogs

AgenticAccess

AgenticAccess

Build 1

SDKs, sample code, and the tooling you integrate with

GitHub

GitHub

Access & Security 3

Authentication, authorization, and security posture

SecurityPolicy

SecurityPolicy

VulnerabilityDisclosure

VulnerabilityDisclosure

DomainSecurity

DomainSecurity

Operate 2

Status, limits, changes, and where to get help

RateLimits

RateLimits

IssueTracker

IssueTracker

Commercial 2

Pricing, plans, and the legal terms of use

Plans

Plans

FinOps

FinOps

Company 2

The organization behind the API

Website

Website

About

About

Other 2

Properties that don't map to a standard resource type

Tags

Source (apis.yml)

aid: lobsters
name: Lobsters
description: Lobsters is a technology-focused link aggregation and community discussion platform. Its public REST API provides
  access to stories, comments, tags, and user profiles, returning JSON representations of community-submitted technology links,
  ranked and filtered by the community.
deliveryModel:
  model: unknown
  license_evidence:
    repo: lobsters/lobsters
    spdx: NOASSERTION
    stars: 4842
  open_source: unknown
  commercial: true
  callable_host: true
  label: Delivery model not determined — needs a product licence on record
  confidence: low
  source:
  - openapi
  - pricing
  - repository-unlicensed
  generated: '2026-09-25'
  method: derived
accessModel:
  pricing: free
  onboarding: unknown
  trial: false
  try_now: false
  public: false
  label: Free
  confidence: low
  source:
  - plans
  - security
  generated: '2026-11-06'
  method: derived
image: https://kinlane-images.s3.amazonaws.com/shared/apis-json/icons/lobsters.png
url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/lobsters/refs/heads/main/apis.yml
created: '2026-06-13'
modified: '2026-06-13'
specificationVersion: '0.23'
type: Index
tags:
- Link Aggregation
- Community
- Technology
- News
- Stories
- Comments
- Tags
apis:
- aid: lobsters:lobsters-comments-api
  name: Lobsters Comments API
  description: Community discussion comments on stories
  humanURL: https://lobste.rs
  tags:
  - Comments
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/lobsters-comments-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://github.com/lobsters/lobsters
  - type: GitHubRepository
    url: https://github.com/lobsters/lobsters
  - type: Plans
    url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/lobsters/refs/heads/main/plans/plans.yml
  - type: RateLimits
    url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/lobsters/refs/heads/main/rate-limits/rate-limits.yml
  - type: FinOps
    url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/lobsters/refs/heads/main/finops/finops.yml
- aid: lobsters:lobsters-stories-api
  name: Lobsters Stories API
  description: Technology link aggregation stories submitted by the community
  humanURL: https://lobste.rs
  tags:
  - Stories
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/lobsters-stories-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://github.com/lobsters/lobsters
  - type: GitHubRepository
    url: https://github.com/lobsters/lobsters
  - type: Plans
    url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/lobsters/refs/heads/main/plans/plans.yml
  - type: RateLimits
    url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/lobsters/refs/heads/main/rate-limits/rate-limits.yml
  - type: FinOps
    url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/lobsters/refs/heads/main/finops/finops.yml
- aid: lobsters:lobsters-tags-api
  name: Lobsters Tags API
  description: Community-maintained taxonomy tags for categorizing stories
  humanURL: https://lobste.rs
  tags:
  - Tags
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/lobsters-tags-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://github.com/lobsters/lobsters
  - type: GitHubRepository
    url: https://github.com/lobsters/lobsters
  - type: Plans
    url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/lobsters/refs/heads/main/plans/plans.yml
  - type: RateLimits
    url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/lobsters/refs/heads/main/rate-limits/rate-limits.yml
  - type: FinOps
    url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/lobsters/refs/heads/main/finops/finops.yml
- aid: lobsters:lobsters-users-api
  name: Lobsters Users API
  description: Lobsters user profiles
  humanURL: https://lobste.rs
  tags:
  - User
  tags_raw:
  - Users
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/lobsters-users-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://github.com/lobsters/lobsters
  - type: GitHubRepository
    url: https://github.com/lobsters/lobsters
  - type: Plans
    url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/lobsters/refs/heads/main/plans/plans.yml
  - type: RateLimits
    url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/lobsters/refs/heads/main/rate-limits/rate-limits.yml
  - type: FinOps
    url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/lobsters/refs/heads/main/finops/finops.yml
common:
- type: Plans
  url: plans/plans.yml
- type: RateLimits
  url: rate-limits/rate-limits.yml
- type: FinOps
  url: finops/finops.yml
- type: Website
  url: https://www.lobste.rs/
- type: IssueTracker
  url: https://github.com/lobsters/lobsters/issues
- type: SecurityPolicy
  url: https://github.com/lobsters/lobsters/blob/main/SECURITY.md
- type: ContributionGuide
  url: https://github.com/lobsters/lobsters/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md
- type: AgenticAccess
  url: agentic-access/lobsters-agentic-access.yml
- type: VulnerabilityDisclosure
  url: security/lobsters-vulnerability-disclosure.yml
- type: DomainSecurity
  url: security/lobsters-domain-security.yml
- type: GitHub
  url: https://github.com/lobsters/lobsters
- type: About
  url: https://lobste.rs/about
- type: Tags
  url: https://lobste.rs/tags
- type: RSS
  url: https://lobste.rs/rss
maintainers:
- FN: API Evangelist
  url: https://apievangelist.com
  email: info@apievangelist.com

Lobsters API — frequently asked questions

Does Lobsters have an API?

Yes. APIs.io lists 4 APIs from Lobsters, including Lobsters Comments API, Lobsters Stories API and Lobsters Tags API, and 1 more.

Is there an OpenAPI specification for the Lobsters API?

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

How much does the Lobsters API cost?

APIs.io lists 1 pricing plan for Lobsters, with each plan's price, limits and inclusions under Pricing on this page.

Is the Lobsters API ready for AI agents?

Lobsters has a Kin Score of 25.0 out of 100 (emerging) and an Agent Readiness score of 23.0 (agent-aware), scored by API Evangelist on 2026-11-06.

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