OwnLocal

OwnLocal is an Austin, Texas based automated digital advertising platform for local media companies, founded in 2010 by Lloyd Armbrust and Jason Novek. It helps newspapers, local publishers and media companies power their digital services by automatically converting traditional print advertisements into online marketing campaigns — its AdForge and Origami products turn a submitted print ad PDF into a responsive digital ad unit, a business directory listing and an SEO/search presence, extending advertiser reach across search, social and display channels. OwnLocal publishes a partner-facing REST API (the OwnLocal API, v1) documented with Slate at api.docs.ownlocal.com and backed by a live Swagger 2.0 definition served from its own Swagger UI, covering ads, businesses, categories and performance reporting. API keys are issued by OwnLocal support rather than self-serve. OwnLocal was a 500 Global portfolio company and has acquired Whoosh Traffic, Sidengo, Inbound Press and Wanderful Media.

OwnLocal publishes 4 API contracts indexed on the APIs.io network, including Ads API, Businesses API, Categories API, and 1 more. Tagged areas include Company, Advertising, Local Media, Digital Advertising, and Marketing.

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

OwnLocal’s developer surface includes documentation, API reference, support, authentication, and 22 more developer resources.

🌐 Visit website 📡 Profile data on GitHub

33.3/100 thin ▬ flat Agent 34/100 agent ready Heartbeat 0/100 dormant saas Full breakdown ↓
scored 2026-11-06 · rubric v0.27.0 · Show this score on your site →

5 published contracts 3 Agent Skills

Company AdvertisingLocal MediaDigital Advertising Marketing Newspapers AdTechPrint to DigitalBusiness ListingsLocal Business DataAd Reporting Publishers

What this lets a business do 1

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

Marketing Management

BC-400

Ads

Kin Score

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

Composite quality — 33.3/100 · thin

Contract Quality 8.7 / 19

Developer Ergonomics 5.3 / 15

Access Clarity 1.6 / 15

Operational Transparency 1.8 / 10

Contract Governance 1.6 / 9

Discoverability 5.9 / 8

Regulatory Posture 3.1 / 15

Create-or-Update Ergonomics 0.0 / 10

Agent readiness — 34/100 · agent ready

Machine-Readable Contract 18 / 18

Agentic Access Contract 0 / 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 7 / 7

Rate-Limit Signaling 7 / 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 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 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
Agentic Access Contract +10 pts — agentic_access artifact present (x-agentic-access), graded by author
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
Registration Without a Human +6 pts — a `registration_endpoint` in the served RFC 8414 / OIDC discovery document
Delegated User Identity +6 pts — a served discovery document listing authorization_code in grant_types_supported (served), else an oauth2 authorizationCode flow or openIdConnect declared in an OpenAPI (documented)

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 10.5 — up to +17.9 composite points
Contract Quality scores 46.3 — up to +13.4 composite points
Developer Ergonomics scores 35.1 — up to +13.0 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/ownlocal/apis.yml: open an issue on github.com/api-evangelist/ownlocal 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 →

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.

OwnLocal Ads API

Print ads converted into digital ad units — create, list, retrieve, update and upload the source PDF for an ad.

OwnLocal Businesses API

Local business (advertiser) records — create, list, retrieve, and attach logo/imagery.

OwnLocal Categories API

The OwnLocal business category and sub-category vocabulary used to classify businesses and filter ads.

OwnLocal Reports Data API

Performance reporting for ads and businesses — impressions, interaction breakdowns, leads, digital lift and search-rank history.

Open Collections 4

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

OwnLocal API — Ads

OPEN COLLECTION

OwnLocal API — Businesses

OPEN COLLECTION

OwnLocal API — Categories

OPEN COLLECTION

OwnLocal API — Reports Data API

OPEN COLLECTION

Agent Skills 3

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

ownlocal-onboard-local-business

AGENT SKILL

ownlocal-report-ad-performance

AGENT SKILL

ownlocal-submit-print-ad

AGENT SKILL

OwnLocal API pricing

Pricing Plans 1

Published pricing tiers and plan structures.

Ownlocal Plans Pricing

0 plans

PLANS

Rate Limits 1

Documented rate limits and quota policies.

Ownlocal Rate Limits

0 limits

RATE LIMITS

Spectral Rules 1

Spectral governance rulesets for linting and validating these APIs.

OwnLocal API Rules

43 rules · 40 errors 1 warnings 2 info

SPECTRAL

OpenAPI Overlays 4

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.

Ownlocal Ads Overlay

10 actions · servers · ownlocal-ads-openapi.yml

DERIVED

Ownlocal Businesses Overlay

10 actions · servers · ownlocal-businesses-openapi.yml

DERIVED

Ownlocal Categories Overlay

6 actions · servers · ownlocal-categories-openapi.yml

DERIVED

Ownlocal Reports Data Api Overlay

9 actions · servers · ownlocal-reports-data-api-openapi.yml

DERIVED

Security Posture 2

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

Ownlocal Authentication

apiKey · 1 scheme

SECURITY

Ownlocal Domain Security

TLSv1.3 · HSTS

SECURITY

Resources

Documentation 2

Reference material describing how the API behaves

Documentation

Documentation

APIReference

APIReference

Agent Surfaces 3

MCP servers, agent skills, and machine-readable catalogs

X-MCPServerCandidate

X-MCPServerCandidate

LLMsTxt

LLMsTxt

AgentSkill

AgentSkill

Design & Contract 5

Pagination, idempotency, versioning, errors, and events

Conventions

DataModel

ErrorCatalog

Lifecycle

Conformance

Build 2

SDKs, sample code, and the tooling you integrate with

GitHubOrganization

GitHubOrganization

Packages

Packages

Access & Security 2

Authentication, authorization, and security posture

Authentication

Authentication

DomainSecurity

DomainSecurity

Operate 4

Status, limits, changes, and where to get help

Support

HelpCenter

StatusPage

RateLimits

Commercial 2

Pricing, plans, and the legal terms of use

PrivacyPolicy

PrivacyPolicy

Plans

Plans

Company 1

The organization behind the API

Website

Website

Other 5

Properties that don't map to a standard resource type

CapabilityMap

Overlay

Overlay

Overlay

Overlay

Source (apis.yml)

aid: ownlocal
name: OwnLocal
description: OwnLocal is an Austin, Texas based automated digital advertising platform for local media companies, founded
  in 2010 by Lloyd Armbrust and Jason Novek. It helps newspapers, local publishers and media companies power their digital
  services by automatically converting traditional print advertisements into online marketing campaigns — its AdForge and
  Origami products turn a submitted print ad PDF into a responsive digital ad unit, a business directory listing and an SEO/search
  presence, extending advertiser reach across search, social and display channels. OwnLocal publishes a partner-facing REST
  API (the OwnLocal API, v1) documented with Slate at api.docs.ownlocal.com and backed by a live Swagger 2.0 definition served
  from its own Swagger UI, covering ads, businesses, categories and performance reporting. API keys are issued by OwnLocal
  support rather than self-serve. OwnLocal was a 500 Global portfolio company and has acquired Whoosh Traffic, Sidengo, Inbound
  Press and Wanderful Media.
url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/ownlocal/refs/heads/main/apis.yml
x-type: company
x-source: vc-portfolio
x-backed-by:
- 500-global
x-tier: stub
x-tier-reason: portfolio-lead
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: unknown
  onboarding: unknown
  trial: false
  try_now: false
  public: false
  label: Unknown
  confidence: low
  source:
  - authentication
  - rate-limits
  - security
  generated: '2026-11-06'
  method: derived
specificationVersion: '0.23'
created: '2026-07-17'
modified: '2026-08-12'
image: https://ucarecdn.com/0f20cb5b-5f4e-4207-be36-a5ee95dd54b5/ogimage1800optimized.png
tags:
- Company
- Advertising
- Local Media
- Digital Advertising
- Marketing
- Newspapers
- AdTech
- Print to Digital
- Business Listings
- Local Business Data
- Ad Reporting
- Publishers
apis:
- aid: ownlocal:ownlocal-ads-api
  name: OwnLocal Ads API
  description: Print ads converted into digital ad units — create, list, retrieve, update and upload the source PDF for an
    ad.
  humanURL: https://api.docs.ownlocal.com/
  baseURL: https://admin.austin.ownlocal.com
  tags:
  - Ads
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/ownlocal-ads-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://api.docs.ownlocal.com/
  - type: APIReference
    url: https://api.docs.ownlocal.com/
  - type: Swagger
    url: https://admin.austin.ownlocal.com/api-docs/v1/swagger.json
  - type: Authentication
    url: authentication/ownlocal-authentication.yml
  - type: Conventions
    url: conventions/ownlocal-conventions.yml
  - type: DataModel
    url: data-model/ownlocal-data-model.yml
  - type: ErrorCatalog
    url: errors/ownlocal-problem-types.yml
  - type: RateLimits
    url: rate-limits/ownlocal-rate-limits.yml
  - type: ToolCrosswalk
    url: mcp/ownlocal-tool-crosswalk.yml
- aid: ownlocal:ownlocal-businesses-api
  name: OwnLocal Businesses API
  description: Local business (advertiser) records — create, list, retrieve, and attach logo/imagery.
  humanURL: https://api.docs.ownlocal.com/
  baseURL: https://admin.austin.ownlocal.com
  tags:
  - Business
  tags_raw:
  - Businesses
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/ownlocal-businesses-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://api.docs.ownlocal.com/
  - type: APIReference
    url: https://api.docs.ownlocal.com/
  - type: Swagger
    url: https://admin.austin.ownlocal.com/api-docs/v1/swagger.json
  - type: Authentication
    url: authentication/ownlocal-authentication.yml
  - type: Conventions
    url: conventions/ownlocal-conventions.yml
  - type: DataModel
    url: data-model/ownlocal-data-model.yml
  - type: ErrorCatalog
    url: errors/ownlocal-problem-types.yml
  - type: RateLimits
    url: rate-limits/ownlocal-rate-limits.yml
  - type: ToolCrosswalk
    url: mcp/ownlocal-tool-crosswalk.yml
- aid: ownlocal:ownlocal-categories-api
  name: OwnLocal Categories API
  description: The OwnLocal business category and sub-category vocabulary used to classify businesses and filter ads.
  humanURL: https://api.docs.ownlocal.com/
  baseURL: https://admin.austin.ownlocal.com
  tags:
  - Categories
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/ownlocal-categories-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://api.docs.ownlocal.com/
  - type: APIReference
    url: https://api.docs.ownlocal.com/
  - type: Swagger
    url: https://admin.austin.ownlocal.com/api-docs/v1/swagger.json
  - type: Authentication
    url: authentication/ownlocal-authentication.yml
  - type: Conventions
    url: conventions/ownlocal-conventions.yml
  - type: DataModel
    url: data-model/ownlocal-data-model.yml
  - type: ErrorCatalog
    url: errors/ownlocal-problem-types.yml
  - type: RateLimits
    url: rate-limits/ownlocal-rate-limits.yml
  - type: ToolCrosswalk
    url: mcp/ownlocal-tool-crosswalk.yml
- aid: ownlocal:ownlocal-reports-data-api-api
  name: OwnLocal Reports Data API
  description: Performance reporting for ads and businesses — impressions, interaction breakdowns, leads, digital lift and
    search-rank history.
  humanURL: https://api.docs.ownlocal.com/
  baseURL: https://admin.austin.ownlocal.com
  tags:
  - Reports Data API
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/ownlocal-reports-data-api-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://api.docs.ownlocal.com/
  - type: APIReference
    url: https://api.docs.ownlocal.com/
  - type: Swagger
    url: https://admin.austin.ownlocal.com/api-docs/v1/swagger.json
  - type: Authentication
    url: authentication/ownlocal-authentication.yml
  - type: Conventions
    url: conventions/ownlocal-conventions.yml
  - type: DataModel
    url: data-model/ownlocal-data-model.yml
  - type: ErrorCatalog
    url: errors/ownlocal-problem-types.yml
  - type: RateLimits
    url: rate-limits/ownlocal-rate-limits.yml
  - type: ToolCrosswalk
    url: mcp/ownlocal-tool-crosswalk.yml
maintainers:
- FN: Kin Lane
  email: kin@apievangelist.com
- FN: APIs.json
  email: info@apis.io
common:
- type: CapabilityMap
  url: capabilities/ownlocal-capability-edges.yml
  name: OwnLocal Business Capability Map
- type: Overlay
  url: overlays/ownlocal-ads-overlay.yaml
- type: Overlay
  url: overlays/ownlocal-businesses-overlay.yaml
- type: Overlay
  url: overlays/ownlocal-categories-overlay.yaml
- type: Overlay
  url: overlays/ownlocal-reports-data-api-overlay.yaml
- type: X-MCPServerCandidate
  url: mcp/ownlocal-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: Website
  url: https://ownlocal.com
- type: Documentation
  url: https://api.docs.ownlocal.com/
- type: APIReference
  url: https://api.docs.ownlocal.com/
- type: Support
  url: https://www.ownlocal.com/support/
- type: HelpCenter
  url: https://www.ownlocal.com/support/
- type: GitHubOrganization
  url: https://github.com/OwnLocal
- type: PrivacyPolicy
  url: https://www.ownlocal.com/privacy-policy/
- type: StatusPage
  url: https://status.ownlocal.com/
- type: Authentication
  url: authentication/ownlocal-authentication.yml
- type: Conventions
  url: conventions/ownlocal-conventions.yml
- type: DataModel
  url: data-model/ownlocal-data-model.yml
- type: ErrorCatalog
  url: errors/ownlocal-problem-types.yml
- type: Lifecycle
  url: lifecycle/ownlocal-lifecycle.yml
- type: Conformance
  url: conformance/ownlocal-conformance.yml
- type: RateLimits
  url: rate-limits/ownlocal-rate-limits.yml
- type: Plans
  url: plans/ownlocal-plans-pricing.yml
- type: Packages
  url: packages/ownlocal-packages.yml
- type: LLMsTxt
  url: llms/ownlocal-llms.txt
- type: AgentSkill
  url: skills/_index.yml
- type: DomainSecurity
  url: security/ownlocal-domain-security.yml
x-enrichment:
  date: '2026-08-12'
  status: enriched
  artifacts_added: 26
  pass: local-v1

OwnLocal API — frequently asked questions

Does OwnLocal have an API?

Yes. APIs.io lists 4 APIs from OwnLocal, including OwnLocal Ads API, OwnLocal Businesses API and OwnLocal Categories API, and 1 more.

Is there an OpenAPI specification for the OwnLocal API?

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

How do I authenticate with the OwnLocal API?

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

Is the OwnLocal API ready for AI agents?

OwnLocal has a Kin Score of 33.3 out of 100 (thin) and an Agent Readiness score of 33.5 (agent-ready), scored by API Evangelist on 2026-11-06.

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