4chan
4chan is a simple image-based bulletin board where anyone can post comments and share images across topic-specific boards. 4chan exposes a read-only JSON API (launched September 2012) that serves the same board, thread, catalog, and archive data consumed by the public site via static JSON files at a.4cdn.org. The API supports GET/HEAD/OPTIONS only — there is no posting, authentication, or write surface.
Real signal across most facets with visible, nameable gaps — the contract exists but is thin, or the portal is good while governance and commercial terms are absent.
API Evangelist profiles 4chan the way a machine reads it — 51 machine-readable artifacts across 6 APIs, pulled from the provider's own public surface and indexed so a developer, an analyst, or an AI agent can evaluate it against every other provider on the network.
Every provider in the network is reduced to the same set of machine-readable artifacts — OpenAPI contracts, event specifications, GraphQL schemas, runnable collections, pricing and rate-limit signals, security posture, OAuth scopes, and the agent surfaces (MCP servers and skills) that let software drive the API on its own. We profile them because the interface is the part of a company you can actually inspect: it is a truer signal of what a provider does than any marketing page. From those artifacts we compute the Kin Score — 4chan scores 50.6/100 (developing), with a separate agent-readiness read of 39/100 (agent aware). The full breakdown is below, followed by every artifact we hold — each card links through to its machine-readable definition on apis.io.
Kin Score
This is the API Evangelist rating — a single, repeatable read computed from the artifacts on this page. Green fill is points earned; the red track is points possible, so every bar shows earned-versus-possible at a glance.
How we profile 4chan
Each block below is one kind of artifact we hold for 4chan. For each we say what it is and why it earns a place in the profile, then list every one we've indexed — capped at two rows, scroll within the panel for the rest.
APIs 6
Each API is captured as its own OpenAPI definition — every operation, parameter, and response. This is the single most useful machine-readable description of what an API does, and it's what lets us score, lint, mock, and generate against it without asking the provider for anything.
Individual APIs this provider publishes, each with its own machine-readable definition.
4chan Archive API
Per-board list of OP numbers for closed, archived threads.
4chan Boards API
List of all boards on 4chan and 4channel and their per-board settings.
4chan Catalog API
Per-board catalog snapshot containing every OP and its preview replies, grouped by index page.
4chan Indexes API
Per-board, per-page index document of threads (each with a posts array including the OP and a small number of preview replies).
4chan Threadlist API
Per-board summary list of every live thread (id, last-modified, reply count) grouped by index page.
4chan Threads API
Single-thread document containing the OP and every reply.
Open Collections 1
Open, tool-agnostic collections carry the same runnable value as Postman without locking you to one client — the portable, forkable form of the same exercise.
Open, tool-agnostic API collections (OpenAPI-derived and Bruno).
4chan Read-Only JSON API
OPEN COLLECTIONPricing Plans 1
Pricing is part of the interface. Machine-readable plans tell you what a tier costs and includes before you commit — one of the six things the Kin Score reads for commercial clarity.
Published pricing tiers and plan structures.
4Chan Plans Pricing
PLANSRate Limits 1
Rate limits are the difference between a demo that works and a production integration that doesn't fall over. Publishing them is an operational-transparency signal — and a hard requirement for any agent that plans its own throughput.
Documented rate limits and quota policies.
4Chan Rate Limits
RATE LIMITSSemantic Vocabularies 1
JSON-LD contexts give the data shared meaning across APIs. We profile them because semantics are what let a machine reconcile 'customer' here with 'customer' somewhere else.
JSON-LD contexts and semantic vocabularies used across these APIs.
4Chan Context
JSON-LDSpectral Rules 2
Governance rulesets we run against this provider's specs — the automated checks behind parts of the score. Profiling them makes the quality bar explicit and re-runnable, not a matter of opinion.
4chan API Rules
SPECTRAL4chan API Rules
SPECTRALJSON Schema 13
Standalone JSON Schema definitions describe the data models behind the API. We profile them so the shapes are validatable on their own — useful long after a single request is forgotten.
Standalone JSON Schema definitions for this provider's data models.
ArchiveResponse
JSON SCHEMABoard
JSON SCHEMABoardsResponse
JSON SCHEMACatalogPage
JSON SCHEMACatalogResponse
JSON SCHEMACooldowns
JSON SCHEMAIndexPageResponse
JSON SCHEMAIndexPageThread
JSON SCHEMAPost
JSON SCHEMAThreadResponse
JSON SCHEMAThreadlistEntry
JSON SCHEMAThreadlistPage
JSON SCHEMAThreadlistResponse
JSON SCHEMAScroll within the panel for all 13 ·
JSON Structure 13
JSON Structure captures the data shapes in a form built for tooling — a complement to JSON Schema that keeps the model machine-legible.
JSON Structure definitions describing this provider's data shapes.
4Chan Api Archive Response Structure
JSON STRUCTURE4Chan Api Board Structure
JSON STRUCTURE4Chan Api Boards Response Structure
JSON STRUCTURE4Chan Api Catalog Page Structure
JSON STRUCTURE4Chan Api Catalog Response Structure
JSON STRUCTURE4Chan Api Cooldowns Structure
JSON STRUCTURE4Chan Api Index Page Response Structure
JSON STRUCTURE4Chan Api Index Page Thread Structure
JSON STRUCTURE4Chan Api Post Structure
JSON STRUCTURE4Chan Api Thread Response Structure
JSON STRUCTURE4Chan Api Threadlist Entry Structure
JSON STRUCTURE4Chan Api Threadlist Page Structure
JSON STRUCTURE4Chan Api Threadlist Response Structure
JSON STRUCTUREScroll within the panel for all 13 ·
Examples 10
Real request and response payloads are what turn a spec from abstract into obvious — and they're one of the twelve things an agent needs to call an API correctly on the first try.
Example request and response payloads for these APIs.
Scroll within the panel for all 10 ·
Security Posture 2
Authentication, domain security, vulnerability disclosure, and trust-center signals — the evidence that a provider takes security seriously enough to document it. We profile it because you can't govern what you can't see.
Authentication, domain security, vulnerability disclosure, and trust-center signals.
Agentic Access 1
An x-agentic-access contract marks which operations are safe for an agent to run on its own and which need a human in the loop. It is the difference between an API an agent can use and one it can use safely.
Recommended x-agentic-access execution contracts for AI agents.
Resources
Every other property we hold for 4chan — documentation, portals, status pages, policies, and corporate surface — grouped by the job it does, following the integrator's arc from getting started to running in production.
Documentation 1
Reference material describing how the API behaves
Agent Surfaces 1
MCP servers, agent skills, and machine-readable catalogs
Design & Contract 3
Pagination, idempotency, versioning, errors, and events
Build 10
SDKs, sample code, and the tooling you integrate with
Scroll within the panel for all 10 ·
Access & Security 2
Authentication, authorization, and security posture
Operate 2
Status, limits, changes, and where to get help
Commercial 1
Pricing, plans, and the legal terms of use
Company 1
The organization behind the API
Other 1
Properties that don't map to a standard resource type
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