University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge (founded 1209) is a public collegiate research university and Russell Group member whose programmable footprint is unusually real for a university, and is operated in-house by University Information Services (UIS) rather than bought in. Verified institution-operated surfaces: the Lookup/Ibis directory web service, which publishes a first-party OpenAPI 3.0 document at www.lookup.cam.ac.uk/openapi-3.0.yaml (39 paths, byte-identical to the copy held here); an API Gateway on the University's own domain (api.apps.cam.ac.uk) whose developer portal lists ten published APIs — Lookup, University Card, University Photo, University Student, University Human Resources, OAuth2, Raven device statistics, Institutional identifier mapping, Undergraduate Admissions and Staff On Costs — fronted by a live OpenID Connect discovery document; a Shibboleth SAML 2.0 identity provider publishing signed IdP metadata; the Apollo institutional repository, self-hosted DSpace 8.1 on Cambridge IP space with a DSpace REST API and an OAI-PMH endpoint serving eleven metadata formats and minting DataCite DOIs under prefix 10.17863; and the Cambridge Digital Library IIIF Presentation and Image APIs. Honest limits: only the Lookup contract is published as a downloadable machine-readable spec, every gateway API requires registered client credentials before it will answer, and there is no public status page for the API platform. Library discovery (iDiscover, Ex Libris Primo VE) and the research information system (Symplectic Elements) run under Cambridge subdomains but are vendor platforms — they are recorded here as tenant relationships, not as Cambridge contracts.
University of Cambridge publishes 4 APIs on the APIs.io network, including group API, ibis API, institution API, and 1 more. Tagged areas include Education, Higher Education, University, Research, and United Kingdom.
The University of Cambridge catalog on APIs.io includes 1 JSON-LD context and 2 Spectral governance rulesets.
University of Cambridge’s developer surface includes authentication, engineering blog, documentation, API reference, support, and 23 more developer resources.
12 APIs
Individual APIs this provider publishes, each with its own machine-readable definition.
Open, tool-agnostic API collections (OpenAPI-derived and Bruno).
Published pricing tiers and plan structures.
Documented rate limits and quota policies.
Cost, billing, and metering signals for API financial operations.
JSON-LD contexts and semantic vocabularies used across these APIs.
Spectral governance rulesets for linting and validating these APIs.
Standalone JSON Schema definitions for this provider's data models.
JSON Structure definitions describing this provider's data shapes.
Example request and response payloads for these APIs.
Authentication, domain security, vulnerability disclosure, and trust-center signals.
Recommended x-agentic-access execution contracts for AI agents.
aid: university-of-cambridge
name: University of Cambridge
description: 'The University of Cambridge (founded 1209) is a public collegiate research university and Russell Group member
whose programmable footprint is unusually real for a university, and is operated in-house by University Information Services
(UIS) rather than bought in. Verified institution-operated surfaces: the Lookup/Ibis directory web service, which publishes
a first-party OpenAPI 3.0 document at www.lookup.cam.ac.uk/openapi-3.0.yaml (39 paths, byte-identical to the copy held here);
an API Gateway on the University''s own domain (api.apps.cam.ac.uk) whose developer portal lists ten published APIs — Lookup,
University Card, University Photo, University Student, University Human Resources, OAuth2, Raven device statistics, Institutional
identifier mapping, Undergraduate Admissions and Staff On Costs — fronted by a live OpenID Connect discovery document; a
Shibboleth SAML 2.0 identity provider publishing signed IdP metadata; the Apollo institutional repository, self-hosted DSpace
8.1 on Cambridge IP space with a DSpace REST API and an OAI-PMH endpoint serving eleven metadata formats and minting DataCite
DOIs under prefix 10.17863; and the Cambridge Digital Library IIIF Presentation and Image APIs. Honest limits: only the
Lookup contract is published as a downloadable machine-readable spec, every gateway API requires registered client credentials
before it will answer, and there is no public status page for the API platform. Library discovery (iDiscover, Ex Libris
Primo VE) and the research information system (Symplectic Elements) run under Cambridge subdomains but are vendor platforms
— they are recorded here as tenant relationships, not as Cambridge contracts.'
type: Index
x-type: university
x-category: Public Research University
accessModel:
pricing: free
onboarding: self-serve
trial: false
try_now: true
public: false
label: Free · Self-serve signup
confidence: high
source:
- plans
- authentication
generated: '2026-07-22'
method: derived
position: Consumer
access: 3rd-Party
image: https://kinlane-images.s3.amazonaws.com/shared/apis-json/icons/university-of-cambridge.png
url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/university-of-cambridge/refs/heads/main/apis.yml
tags:
- Education
- Higher Education
- University
- Research
- United Kingdom
- Russell Group
- Identity
- Identity Federation
- API Gateway
- Developer Portal
- Research Data
- Open Access
- Research Repository
- Library
- Digital Collections
created: '2026-06-03'
modified: '2026-08-19'
specificationVersion: '0.23'
apis:
- aid: university-of-cambridge:raven
x-operator: institution
name: Raven Authentication (OAuth2 / OpenID Connect)
description: The University's central web authentication service. Raven OAuth2 conforms to OpenID Connect; applications
register client credentials to authenticate Cambridge users. An identity/SSO interface rather than a data REST API.
humanURL: https://docs.raven.cam.ac.uk/
tags:
- Identity
- Authentication
- OpenID Connect
- SSO
tags_raw:
- Identity
- Authentication
- OAuth2
- OpenID Connect
- SSO
properties:
- type: Documentation
url: https://docs.raven.cam.ac.uk/
- type: Signup
url: https://docs.raven.cam.ac.uk/en/latest/creating-oauth2-client-credentials/
- type: x-openid-configuration
url: https://api.apps.cam.ac.uk/oauth2/v1/.well-known/openid-configuration
- type: x-jwks
url: https://api.apps.cam.ac.uk/oauth2/v1/.well-known/jwks.json
- type: Authentication
url: authentication/university-of-cambridge-authentication.yml
- aid: university-of-cambridge:gateway
x-operator: institution
name: Cambridge API Gateway (Card / Student / HR)
description: UIS API Gateway (ALPHA) publishing read-oriented REST APIs — University Card, University Student (CamSIS-sourced),
and University Human Resources (CHRIS-sourced). Interactive "try this API" docs on the developer portal. Student and HR
APIs are documented as ALPHA and not under active development.
humanURL: https://developer.api.apps.cam.ac.uk/
baseURL: https://api.apps.cam.ac.uk/
tags:
- Identity
- Students
- Human Resources
- REST
- API Gateway
properties:
- type: Documentation
url: https://developer.api.apps.cam.ac.uk/
- type: DeveloperPortal
url: https://guidebook.devops.uis.cam.ac.uk/services/api-gateway/
- type: APIReference
url: https://developer.api.apps.cam.ac.uk/apis
- type: x-openid-configuration
url: https://api.apps.cam.ac.uk/oauth2/v1/.well-known/openid-configuration
- type: x-design-guide
url: https://guidebook.devops.uis.cam.ac.uk/reference/best-practice/api/
- type: x-lifecycle
url: lifecycle/university-of-cambridge-gateway-lifecycle.yml
- type: x-errors
url: errors/university-of-cambridge-errors.yml
- aid: university-of-cambridge:apollo
x-operator: institution
name: Apollo Institutional Repository API (DSpace)
description: Cambridge's open-access research repository (Apollo) on the DSpace platform, exposing OAI-PMH metadata harvesting
and a DSpace REST API. Managed by Cambridge University Library Open Research Systems.
humanURL: https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/
baseURL: https://api.repository.cam.ac.uk/server/
tags:
- Repository
- Open Access
- DSpace
- OAI-PMH
properties:
- type: Documentation
url: https://www.re3data.org/repository/r3d100010620
- type: Website
url: https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/
- type: x-oai-pmh
url: https://api.repository.cam.ac.uk/server/oai/request?verb=Identify
- type: APIReference
url: https://api.repository.cam.ac.uk/server/api
- type: x-conformance
url: conformance/university-of-cambridge-education-standards.yml
- aid: university-of-cambridge:university-of-cambridge-group-api
x-operator: institution
name: University of Cambridge group API
description: "Methods for querying and manipulating groups.\n\n#### The fetch parameter for groups\n\nAll methods that return\
\ groups also accept an optional `fetch`\nparameter that may be used to request additional information about the\ngroups\
\ returned. For more details about the general rules that apply to\nthe `fetch` parameter, refer to the `PersonMethods`\n\
documentation.\n\nFor groups the `fetch` parameter may be used to fetch references\nto people, institutions or other groups.\
\ In each case, only non-cancelled\npeople, institutions and groups will be included when fetching references.\nThe following\
\ references are supported:\n\n* `\"all_members\"` - fetches all the people who are members of the\n group, including\
\ members of groups included by the group, and groups\n included by those groups, and so on.\n\n* `\"direct_members\"\
` - fetches all the people who are direct\n members of the group, not taking into account any included groups.\n\n* `\"\
members_of_inst\"` - if the group is a membership group for an\n institution, this fetches that institution.\n\n* `\"\
owning_insts\"` - fetches all the institutions to which the\n group belongs.\n\n* `\"manages_insts\"` - fetches all the\
\ institutions that the group\n manages. Typically this only applies to \"Editor\" groups.\n\n* `\"manages_groups\"`\
\ - fetches all the groups that this group\n manages. Note that some groups are self-managed, so this may be a\n self-reference.\n\
\n* `\"managed_by_groups\"` - fetches all the groups that manage this\n group.\n\n* `\"reads_groups\"` - fetches all\
\ the groups that this group has\n privileged access to. This means that members of this group can see the\n members\
\ of the referenced groups regardless of the membership visibility\n settings.\n\n* `\"read_by_groups\"` - fetches all\
\ the groups that have privileged\n access to this group.\n\n* `\"includes_groups\"` - fetches all the groups included\
\ by this\n group.\n\n* `\"included_by_groups\"` - fetches all the groups that include\n this group.\n\nAs with person\
\ `fetch` parameters, the references may be used\nin a chain by using the \"dot\" notation to fetch additional information\n\
about referenced people, institutions or groups. For example\n`\"all_members.email\"` will fetch the email addresses of\
\ all members\nof the group. For more information about what can be fetched from\nreferenced people and institutions,\
\ refer to the documentation for\n`PersonMethods` and `InstitutionMethods`."
humanURL: https://www.lookup.cam.ac.uk/doc/ws-doc/
baseURL: https://www.lookup.cam.ac.uk/api/v1/
tags:
- Group
tags_raw:
- group
properties:
- type: OpenAPI
url: openapi/university-of-cambridge-group-api-openapi.yml
- type: Documentation
url: https://www.lookup.cam.ac.uk/doc/ws-doc/
- type: JSONSchema
url: json-schema/university-of-cambridge-person-schema.json
- type: x-json-structure
url: json-structure/university-of-cambridge-person-structure.json
- type: x-examples
url: examples/university-of-cambridge-person-example.json
- type: x-spectral-rules
url: rules/university-of-cambridge-rules.yml
- type: x-vocabulary
url: vocabulary/university-of-cambridge-vocabulary.yml
- type: x-json-ld-context
url: json-ld/university-of-cambridge-context.jsonld
- aid: university-of-cambridge:university-of-cambridge-ibis-api
x-operator: institution
name: University of Cambridge ibis API
description: Common methods for searching for objects in the Lookup/Ibis database.
humanURL: https://www.lookup.cam.ac.uk/doc/ws-doc/
baseURL: https://www.lookup.cam.ac.uk/api/v1/
tags:
- ibis
properties:
- type: OpenAPI
url: openapi/university-of-cambridge-ibis-api-openapi.yml
- type: Documentation
url: https://www.lookup.cam.ac.uk/doc/ws-doc/
- type: JSONSchema
url: json-schema/university-of-cambridge-person-schema.json
- type: x-json-structure
url: json-structure/university-of-cambridge-person-structure.json
- type: x-examples
url: examples/university-of-cambridge-person-example.json
- type: x-spectral-rules
url: rules/university-of-cambridge-rules.yml
- type: x-vocabulary
url: vocabulary/university-of-cambridge-vocabulary.yml
- type: x-json-ld-context
url: json-ld/university-of-cambridge-context.jsonld
- aid: university-of-cambridge:university-of-cambridge-institution-api
x-operator: institution
name: University of Cambridge institution API
description: "Methods for querying and manipulating institutions.\n\n#### The fetch parameter for institutions\n\nAll methods\
\ that return institutions also accept an optional\n`fetch` parameter that may be used to request additional\ninformation\
\ about the institutions returned. For more details about\nthe general rules that apply to the `fetch` parameter,\nrefer\
\ to the `PersonMethods` documentation.\n\nFor institutions the `fetch` parameter may be used to fetch\nany institution\
\ attribute by specifying the `schemeid` of an\ninstitution attribute scheme. Examples include `\"address\"`,\n`\"jpegPhoto\"\
`, `\"universityPhone\"`, `\"instPhone\"`,\n`\"landlinePhone\"`, `\"mobilePhone\"`, `\"faxNumber\"`,\n`\"email\"` and\
\ `\"labeledURI\"`. The full list (which may be\nextended over time) may be obtained using `#allAttributeSchemes`.\n\n\
In addition the following pseudo-attributes are supported:\n\n* `\"phone_numbers\"` - fetches all phone numbers. This\
\ is\n equivalent to\n `\"universityPhone,instPhone,landlinePhone,mobilePhone\"`.\n\n* `\"all_attrs\"` - fetches all\
\ attributes from all institution\n attribute schemes. This does not include references.\n\n* `\"contact_rows\"` - fetches\
\ all institution contact rows. Any\n chained fetches from contact rows are used to fetch attributes from any\n people\
\ referred to by the contact rows.\n\nThe `fetch` parameter may also be used to fetch referenced\npeople, institutions\
\ or groups. This will only include references to\nnon-cancelled entities. The following references are supported:\n\n\
* `\"all_members\"` - fetches all the people who are members of the\n institution.\n\n* `\"parent_insts\"` - fetches\
\ all the parent institutions. Note\n that currently all institutions have only one parent, but this may change\n in\
\ the future, and client applications should be prepared to handle\n multiple parents.\n\n* `\"child_insts\"` - fetches\
\ all the child institutions.\n\n* `\"inst_groups\"` - fetches all the groups that belong to the\n institution.\n\n*\
\ `\"members_groups\"` - fetches all the groups that form the\n institution's membership list.\n\n* `\"managed_by_groups\"\
` - fetches all the groups that manage the\n institution's data (commonly called \"Editor\" groups).\n\nAs with person\
\ `fetch` parameters, the references may be used\nin a chain by using the \"dot\" notation to fetch additional information\n\
about referenced people, institutions or groups. For example\n`\"all_members.email\"` will fetch the email addresses of\
\ all members\nof the institution. For more information about what can be fetched from\nreferenced people and groups,\
\ refer to the documentation for\n`PersonMethods` and `GroupMethods`."
humanURL: https://www.lookup.cam.ac.uk/doc/ws-doc/
baseURL: https://www.lookup.cam.ac.uk/api/v1/
tags:
- institution
properties:
- type: OpenAPI
url: openapi/university-of-cambridge-institution-api-openapi.yml
- type: Documentation
url: https://www.lookup.cam.ac.uk/doc/ws-doc/
- type: JSONSchema
url: json-schema/university-of-cambridge-person-schema.json
- type: x-json-structure
url: json-structure/university-of-cambridge-person-structure.json
- type: x-examples
url: examples/university-of-cambridge-person-example.json
- type: x-spectral-rules
url: rules/university-of-cambridge-rules.yml
- type: x-vocabulary
url: vocabulary/university-of-cambridge-vocabulary.yml
- type: x-json-ld-context
url: json-ld/university-of-cambridge-context.jsonld
- aid: university-of-cambridge:university-of-cambridge-person-api
x-operator: institution
name: University of Cambridge person API
description: "Methods for querying and manipulating people.\n\n#### Notes on the fetch parameter\n\nAll methods that return\
\ people, institutions or groups also accept an\noptional `fetch` parameter that may be used to request\nadditional information\
\ about the entities returned. Without this\nparameter, only a few basic details about each person, institution or\ngroup\
\ are returned. The `fetch` parameter is quite flexible,\nand may be used in a number of different ways:\n\n* **Attribute\
\ fetching**. Attributes may be fetched by specifying the\n `schemeid` of an attribute scheme. For example to fetch a\n\
\ person's email addresses, use the value `\"email\"`. For people common\n attribute schemes include `\"jpegPhoto\"\
`, `\"misAffiliation\"`,\n `\"title\"`, `\"universityPhone\"`, `\"landlinePhone\"`,\n `\"mobilePhone\"`, `\"pager\"\
`, `\"labeledURI\"` and `\"address\"`.\n The full list of person attribute schemes may be obtained using `#allAttributeSchemes`.\n\
\n* **Pseudo-attributes**. Certain special pseudo-attributes are defined\n for convenience. For people, the following\
\ pseudo-attributes are supported:\n\n * `\"phone_numbers\"` - fetches all phone numbers. This is\n equivalent to\n\
\ `\"universityPhone,instPhone,landlinePhone,mobilePhone,pager\"`.\n\n * `\"all_identifiers\"` - fetches all identifiers.\
\ Currently people\n only have CRSid identifiers, but in the future additional identifiers such\n as USN or staffNumber\
\ may be added.\n\n * `\"all_attrs\"` - fetches all attributes from all person attribute\n schemes. This does not\
\ include identifiers or references.\n\n* **Reference fetching**. For people, the following references are\n supported\
\ (and will fetch only non-cancelled institutions and groups):\n\n * `\"all_insts\"` - fetches all the institutions to\
\ which the person\n belongs (sorted in name order).\n\n * `\"all_groups\"` - fetches all the groups that the person\
\ is a\n member of, including indirect group memberships, via groups that include\n other groups.\n\n * `\"direct_groups\"\
` - fetches all the groups that the person is\n directly a member of. This does not include indirect group memberships\
\ -\n i.e., groups that include these groups.\n\n* **Chained reference fetching**. To fetch properties of referenced\n\
\ objects, the \"dot\" notation may be used. For example, to fetch the email\n addresses of all the institutions to\
\ which a person belongs, use\n `\"all_insts.email\"`. Chains may include a number of reference\n following steps, for\
\ example\n `\"all_insts.managed_by_groups.all_members.email\"` will fetch all the\n institutions to which the person\
\ belongs, all the groups that manage those\n institutions, all the visible members of those groups and all the email\n\
\ addresses of those managing group members. For more information about what\n can be fetched from referenced institutions\
\ and groups, refer to the\n documentation for `InstitutionMethods` and `GroupMethods`.\n\nMultiple values of the `fetch`\
\ parameter should be separated\nby commas.\n\n#### Fetch parameter examples\n\n`fetch = \"email\"`\nThis fetches all\
\ the person's email addresses.\n\n`fetch = \"title,address\"`\nThis fetches all the person's titles (roles) and addresses.\n\
\n`fetch = \"all_attrs\"`\nThis fetches all the person's attributes.\n\n`fetch = \"all_groups,all_insts\"`\nThis fetches\
\ all the groups and institutions to which the person belongs.\n\n`fetch = \"all_insts.parent_insts\"`\nThis fetches all\
\ the person's institutions, and their parent institutions.\n\n`fetch = \"all_insts.email,all_insts.all_members.email\"\
`\nThis fetches all the person's institutions and their email addresses, and\nall the members of those institutions, and\
\ the email addresses of all\nthose members."
humanURL: https://www.lookup.cam.ac.uk/doc/ws-doc/
baseURL: https://www.lookup.cam.ac.uk/api/v1/
tags:
- Persons
tags_raw:
- person
properties:
- type: OpenAPI
url: openapi/university-of-cambridge-person-api-openapi.yml
- type: Documentation
url: https://www.lookup.cam.ac.uk/doc/ws-doc/
- type: JSONSchema
url: json-schema/university-of-cambridge-person-schema.json
- type: x-json-structure
url: json-structure/university-of-cambridge-person-structure.json
- type: x-examples
url: examples/university-of-cambridge-person-example.json
- type: x-spectral-rules
url: rules/university-of-cambridge-rules.yml
- type: x-vocabulary
url: vocabulary/university-of-cambridge-vocabulary.yml
- type: x-json-ld-context
url: json-ld/university-of-cambridge-context.jsonld
- aid: university-of-cambridge:shibboleth-idp
x-operator: institution
name: Cambridge Shibboleth Identity Provider (SAML 2.0 metadata)
description: The University's Shibboleth identity provider, publishing signed SAML 2.0 IdP metadata at https://shib.raven.cam.ac.uk/shibboleth.
The EntityDescriptor carries entityID https://shib.raven.cam.ac.uk/shibboleth, an IDPSSODescriptor advertising SAML 2.0,
SAML 1.1 and Shibboleth 1.0, authoritative shibmd:Scope values of cam.ac.uk and eresources.lib.cam.ac.uk, an mdui:DisplayName
of "University of Cambridge", and mdui:DiscoHints listing Cambridge's own IP ranges (128.232.0.0/16, 129.169.0.0/16, 131.111.0.0/16
and others). This is federation metadata a university operates by definition and cannot outsource — it is the surface
class most institutional profiles miss entirely. Cambridge participates in the UK Access Management Federation, which
republishes this entity through eduGAIN.
humanURL: https://docs.raven.cam.ac.uk/en/latest/
baseURL: https://shib.raven.cam.ac.uk/shibboleth
tags:
- Identity Federation
- SAML
- Shibboleth
- Single Sign-On
- Metadata
properties:
- type: x-saml-metadata
url: https://shib.raven.cam.ac.uk/shibboleth
- type: Documentation
url: https://docs.raven.cam.ac.uk/en/latest/
- type: x-federation
url: https://www.ukfederation.org.uk/
- type: x-conformance
url: conformance/university-of-cambridge-education-standards.yml
- aid: university-of-cambridge:apollo-oai-pmh
x-operator: institution
name: Apollo OAI-PMH metadata harvesting endpoint
description: OAI-PMH 2.0 harvesting interface for Apollo, the University's institutional repository, served from Cambridge's
own host. Identify returns repositoryName "Apollo - University of Cambridge Repository", repositoryIdentifier www.repository.cam.ac.uk,
adminEmail support@repository.cam.ac.uk and an earliestDatestamp of 1959-01-01. ListMetadataFormats advertises eleven
prefixes — oai_dc, qdc, mods, mets, marc, didl, ore, rdf, etdms, uketd_dc and rioxx (RIOXX v3.0, the UK research-funder
metadata profile) — and ListSets returns 100+ sets. Records carry DataCite DOIs under the 10.17863/CAM prefix. The repository
software is DSpace, but the deployment, the host and the metadata are the institution's.
humanURL: https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/
baseURL: https://api.repository.cam.ac.uk/server/oai/request
tags:
- OAI-PMH
- Research Repository
- Open Access
- Metadata Harvesting
- DSpace
properties:
- type: x-oai-pmh
url: https://api.repository.cam.ac.uk/server/oai/request?verb=Identify
- type: Documentation
url: https://www.openresearch.cam.ac.uk/
- type: x-conformance
url: conformance/university-of-cambridge-education-standards.yml
- aid: university-of-cambridge:cudl-iiif
x-operator: institution
name: Cambridge Digital Library IIIF APIs
description: 'The Cambridge University Library digital collections platform exposes IIIF Presentation API 2.1 manifests
at cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/iiif/<item-id> and IIIF Image API 2.1 endpoints at images.lib.cam.ac.uk/iiif/<image>.jp2/info.json,
both on the institution''s own domain. Verified live: the manifest for MS-ADD-03996 (Newton''s Trinity College Notebook)
returns 247KB of application/json declaring @type sc:Manifest against the IIIF presentation/2 context, and the matching
info.json returns application/ld+json with the image/2 context, tile sizes and scale factors. A supporting metadata service
at services.cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk serves TEI XML per item. Institution-built and institution-operated — not a vendor discovery
layer.'
humanURL: https://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/about
baseURL: https://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/iiif/
tags:
- IIIF
- Digital Collections
- Library
- Linked Data
- Cultural Heritage
properties:
- type: x-iiif-presentation
url: https://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/iiif/MS-ADD-03996
- type: x-iiif-image
url: https://images.lib.cam.ac.uk/iiif/MS-ADD-03996-000-00001.jp2/info.json
- type: Documentation
url: https://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/about
- type: Website
url: https://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/
- aid: university-of-cambridge:idiscover-primo
x-operator: tenant
x-vendor: Ex Libris (Clarivate)
name: iDiscover library discovery (Ex Libris Primo VE) — TENANT
description: Cambridge's library discovery layer runs on Ex Libris Primo VE. idiscover.lib.cam.ac.uk is a CNAME to cam.primo.exlibrisgroup.com
-> eu00.primo.exlibrisgroup.com, and the landing URL redirects to /discovery/search?vid=44CAM_INST:44CAM_PROD — an Ex
Libris tenant view identifier, not a Cambridge endpoint. The catalogue data is Cambridge's; the contract, the API surface
and the engineering are Ex Libris'. Recorded here as a relationship so the institutional fact is not lost, and deliberately
NOT saved as a Cambridge contract — a generic Primo/Alma spec attributed to an institution is exactly the misattribution
this profile exists to prevent.
humanURL: https://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/idiscover
baseURL: https://idiscover.lib.cam.ac.uk/discovery/search?vid=44CAM_INST:44CAM_PROD
tags:
- Library
- Discovery
- Tenant
- Ex Libris
- Primo
properties:
- type: Website
url: https://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/idiscover
- type: x-tenant-host
url: https://idiscover.lib.cam.ac.uk/
- aid: university-of-cambridge:elements-symplectic
x-operator: tenant
x-vendor: Symplectic (Digital Science)
name: Symplectic Elements research information system — TENANT
description: Cambridge's current research information system (CRIS) is Symplectic Elements, reached at elements.admin.cam.ac.uk.
The host sits under cam.ac.uk but resolves via CNAME to cam.elements.symplectic.org -> cam-prod.elements.symplectic.org
on Symplectic infrastructure, and answers HTTP 401 to anonymous requests. The University's Open Research site (openresearch.cam.ac.uk)
links it as the institutional deposit route. Cambridge's research data, Symplectic's contract — recorded as a tenant relationship,
with no Symplectic spec saved under this institution.
humanURL: https://www.openresearch.cam.ac.uk/
baseURL: https://elements.admin.cam.ac.uk/
tags:
- Research Information
- CRIS
- Tenant
- symplectic
- Research Data
tags_raw:
- Research Information
- CRIS
- Tenant
- Symplectic
- Research Data
properties:
- type: Website
url: https://www.openresearch.cam.ac.uk/
- type: x-tenant-host
url: https://elements.admin.cam.ac.uk/
common:
- type: AgenticAccess
url: agentic-access/university-of-cambridge-agentic-access.yml
- type: DomainSecurity
url: security/university-of-cambridge-domain-security.yml
- type: Authentication
url: authentication/university-of-cambridge-authentication.yml
- type: Website
url: https://www.cam.ac.uk/
- type: DeveloperPortal
url: https://developer.api.apps.cam.ac.uk/
- type: SourceCode
url: https://gitlab.developers.cam.ac.uk/
- type: Twitter
url: https://x.com/Cambridge_Uni
- type: LinkedIn
url: https://www.linkedin.com/school/university-of-cambridge/
- type: Plans
url: plans/university-of-cambridge-plans-pricing.yml
- type: RateLimits
url: rate-limits/university-of-cambridge-rate-limits.yml
- type: FinOps
url: finops/university-of-cambridge-finops.yml
- type: Review
url: review.yml
- url: https://www.cam.ac.uk/rss/
type: Blog
- type: Documentation
url: https://www.lookup.cam.ac.uk/doc/ws-doc/
- type: APIReference
url: https://developer.api.apps.cam.ac.uk/apis
- type: IdentityFederation
url: https://shib.raven.cam.ac.uk/shibboleth
- type: ResearchRepository
url: https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/
- type: LibraryCatalog
url: https://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/idiscover
- type: ResearchComputing
url: https://www.hpc.cam.ac.uk/
- type: AIPolicy
url: https://guidebook.devops.uis.cam.ac.uk/standards/genai-policy/
- type: AITooling
url: https://gitlab.developers.cam.ac.uk/uis/devops/ai/agent-skills
- type: CourseCatalog
url: https://www.undergraduate.study.cam.ac.uk/courses
- type: TermsOfService
url: https://www.cam.ac.uk/about-this-site/terms-and-conditions
- type: PrivacyPolicy
url: https://www.cam.ac.uk/about-this-site/privacy-policy
- type: Support
url: https://help.uis.cam.ac.uk/
- type: Conformance
url: conformance/university-of-cambridge-education-standards.yml
- type: Lifecycle
url: lifecycle/university-of-cambridge-gateway-lifecycle.yml
- type: Errors
url: errors/university-of-cambridge-errors.yml
maintainers:
- FN: Kin Lane
email: kin@apievangelist.com
x-coverage:
state: covered
reason: institution_operated_surfaces_verified
detail: 'Cambridge is one of the minority of institutions with a genuine, in-house programmable footprint, and every surface
recorded here resolved on a cam.ac.uk host under University Information Services. Ten institution-operated surfaces were
verified live on 2026-08-19: the Lookup/Ibis first-party OpenAPI 3.0 (39 paths, byte-identical to the copy stored in this
repo), the API Gateway developer portal listing ten published APIs, a live OpenID Connect discovery document, Shibboleth
SAML 2.0 IdP metadata, the Apollo DSpace 8.1 REST root, the Apollo OAI-PMH endpoint with eleven metadata formats, and
the Cambridge Digital Library IIIF Presentation and Image APIs. Coverage is not total: only the Lookup contract is downloadable
as a machine-readable spec, so nine of the ten gateway APIs are documented but uncontracted here; the gateway itself answers
401 without registered client credentials; the portal''s /openapi.json path returns an Angular SPA shell rather than a
spec and was rejected as a soft-200; and no public status page exists for the platform. Two vendor platforms running under
Cambridge subdomains — iDiscover (Ex Libris Primo VE) and Elements (Symplectic) — are recorded as tenant relationships
and were deliberately not saved as Cambridge contracts.'
evidence:
- url: https://www.lookup.cam.ac.uk/openapi-3.0.yaml
status: 200
- url: https://api.apps.cam.ac.uk/oauth2/v1/.well-known/openid-configuration
status: 200
- url: https://shib.raven.cam.ac.uk/shibboleth
status: 200
- url: https://api.repository.cam.ac.uk/server/oai/request?verb=Identify
status: 200
- url: https://api.repository.cam.ac.uk/server/api
status: 200
- url: https://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/iiif/MS-ADD-03996
status: 200
- url: https://images.lib.cam.ac.uk/iiif/MS-ADD-03996-000-00001.jp2/info.json
status: 200
- url: https://developer.api.apps.cam.ac.uk/apis
status: 200
- url: https://www.lookup.cam.ac.uk/api/v1/
status: 401
- url: https://api.apps.cam.ac.uk/card/v1beta1/
status: 401
- url: https://elements.admin.cam.ac.uk/
status: 401
- url: https://developer.api.apps.cam.ac.uk/openapi.json
status: 200
- url: https://www.cam.ac.uk/.well-known/security.txt
status: 404
- url: https://www.cam.ac.uk/llms.txt
status: 404
- url: https://status.apps.cam.ac.uk/
status: 0
checked: '2026-08-19'
method: pipeline-university