Vanilla Forums
Vanilla Forums is the cloud community-forum platform now sold as Higher Logic Vanilla, powering B2B/B2C customer communities and association member communities. Every Vanilla community serves a REST API (API v2) at /api/v2 with a per-site OpenAPI 3 description, personal-access-token and JWT bearer authentication, short-lived cacheable role tokens, webhooks with HMAC-signed deliveries, CSV export, and an official MCP server (launched May 2026) that connects AI tools like ChatGPT, Claude, and Cursor to live community data. Originally a Techstars-backed open source project, Vanilla was acquired by Higher Logic in 2021.
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 Vanilla Forums the way a machine reads it — 63 machine-readable artifacts across 58 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 — Vanilla Forums scores 54.1/100 (developing), with a separate agent-readiness read of 67/100 (agent native). 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.
Kin Score
How this is scored →scored 2026-07-27 · rubric v0.5
How we profile Vanilla Forums
Each block below is one kind of artifact we hold for Vanilla Forums. 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 58
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.
Vanilla Forums Addons API
The Addons API from Vanilla Forums — 2 operation(s) for addons.
Vanilla Forums AI Processing Preferences API
The AI Processing Preferences API from Vanilla Forums — 1 operation(s) for ai processing preferences.
Vanilla Forums AI Settings API
The AI Settings API from Vanilla Forums — 3 operation(s) for ai settings.
Vanilla Forums Analytics API
The Analytics API from Vanilla Forums — 10 operation(s) for analytics.
Vanilla Forums Appeals API
The Appeals API from Vanilla Forums — 2 operation(s) for appeals.
Vanilla Forums Assets API
The Assets API from Vanilla Forums — 1 operation(s) for assets.
Vanilla Forums Audit Logs API
The Audit Logs API from Vanilla Forums — 2 operation(s) for audit logs.
Vanilla Forums Authenticators API
The Authenticators API from Vanilla Forums — 5 operation(s) for authenticators.
Vanilla Forums Automation Rules API
The Automation Rules API from Vanilla Forums — 3 operation(s) for automation rules.
Vanilla Forums Calls API
The Calls API from Vanilla Forums — 1 operation(s) for calls.
Vanilla Forums Categories API
The Categories API from Vanilla Forums — 6 operation(s) for categories.
Vanilla Forums Collections API
The Collections API from Vanilla Forums — 5 operation(s) for collections.
Vanilla Forums Comments API
The Comments API from Vanilla Forums — 6 operation(s) for comments.
Vanilla Forums Config API
The Config API from Vanilla Forums — 1 operation(s) for config.
Vanilla Forums Conversations API
The Conversations API from Vanilla Forums — 6 operation(s) for conversations.
Vanilla Forums Dashboard API
The Dashboard API from Vanilla Forums — 1 operation(s) for dashboard.
Vanilla Forums DataSource API
The DataSource API from Vanilla Forums — 3 operation(s) for datasource.
Vanilla Forums Discussion Statuses API
The Discussion Statuses API from Vanilla Forums — 3 operation(s) for discussion statuses.
Vanilla Forums Discussions API
The Discussions API from Vanilla Forums — 28 operation(s) for discussions.
Vanilla Forums Drafts API
The Drafts API from Vanilla Forums — 3 operation(s) for drafts.
Vanilla Forums email-templates API
The email-templates API from Vanilla Forums — 1 operation(s) for email-templates.
Vanilla Forums Emails API
The Emails API from Vanilla Forums — 3 operation(s) for emails.
Vanilla Forums emailTemplates API
The emailTemplates API from Vanilla Forums — 4 operation(s) for emailtemplates.
Vanilla Forums Exports API
The Exports API from Vanilla Forums — 3 operation(s) for exports.
Vanilla Forums Features API
The Features API from Vanilla Forums — 2 operation(s) for features.
Vanilla Forums Icons API
The Icons API from Vanilla Forums — 6 operation(s) for icons.
Vanilla Forums Job Queue API
The Job Queue API from Vanilla Forums — 2 operation(s) for job queue.
Vanilla Forums Locales API
The Locales API from Vanilla Forums — 2 operation(s) for locales.
Vanilla Forums Media API
The Media API from Vanilla Forums — 11 operation(s) for media.
Vanilla Forums Moderation Messages API
The Moderation Messages API from Vanilla Forums — 3 operation(s) for moderation messages.
Vanilla Forums Notification Preferences API
The Notification Preferences API from Vanilla Forums — 2 operation(s) for notification preferences.
Vanilla Forums Notifications API
The Notifications API from Vanilla Forums — 3 operation(s) for notifications.
Vanilla Forums Polls API
The Polls API from Vanilla Forums — 4 operation(s) for polls.
Vanilla Forums Posts API
The Posts API from Vanilla Forums — 1 operation(s) for posts.
Vanilla Forums Product Messages API
The Product Messages API from Vanilla Forums — 4 operation(s) for product messages.
Vanilla Forums Profile Fields API
The Profile Fields API from Vanilla Forums — 3 operation(s) for profile fields.
Vanilla Forums Ranks API
The Ranks API from Vanilla Forums — 3 operation(s) for ranks.
Vanilla Forums Reactions API
The Reactions API from Vanilla Forums — 3 operation(s) for reactions.
Vanilla Forums Reports & Escalations API
The Reports & Escalations API from Vanilla Forums — 14 operation(s) for reports & escalations.
Vanilla Forums Resources API
The Resources API from Vanilla Forums — 3 operation(s) for resources.
Vanilla Forums Rich API
The Rich API from Vanilla Forums — 1 operation(s) for rich.
Vanilla Forums Role Requests API
The Role Requests API from Vanilla Forums — 4 operation(s) for role requests.
Vanilla Forums Roles API
The Roles API from Vanilla Forums — 4 operation(s) for roles.
Vanilla Forums Rules API
The Rules API from Vanilla Forums — 2 operation(s) for rules.
Vanilla Forums Search API
The Search API from Vanilla Forums — 1 operation(s) for search.
Vanilla Forums Sessions API
The Sessions API from Vanilla Forums — 1 operation(s) for sessions.
Vanilla Forums Site Totals API
The Site Totals API from Vanilla Forums — 1 operation(s) for site totals.
Vanilla Forums Statistics API
The Statistics API from Vanilla Forums — 1 operation(s) for statistics.
Vanilla Forums Statuses (Deprecated) API
The Statuses (Deprecated) API from Vanilla Forums — 3 operation(s) for statuses (deprecated).
Vanilla Forums Tags API
The Tags API from Vanilla Forums — 4 operation(s) for tags.
Vanilla Forums Theme Assets API
The Theme Assets API from Vanilla Forums — 12 operation(s) for theme assets.
Vanilla Forums Themes API
The Themes API from Vanilla Forums — 5 operation(s) for themes.
Vanilla Forums Tokens API
The Tokens API from Vanilla Forums — 4 operation(s) for tokens.
Vanilla Forums Translations API
The Translations API from Vanilla Forums — 4 operation(s) for translations.
Vanilla Forums User Mentions API
The User Mentions API from Vanilla Forums — 2 operation(s) for user mentions.
Vanilla Forums User Notes API
The User Notes API from Vanilla Forums — 7 operation(s) for user notes.
Vanilla Forums Users API
The Users API from Vanilla Forums — 16 operation(s) for users.
Vanilla Forums Widgets API
The Widgets API from Vanilla Forums — 2 operation(s) for widgets.
Scroll within the panel for all 58 ·
MCP Servers 1
Model Context Protocol servers expose these APIs directly to AI agents. We profile them because agent-native access is the fastest-growing way this provider's capabilities actually get used.
Model Context Protocol servers that expose these APIs to AI agents.
vanilla-forums-mcp.yml
MCP SERVERRate 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.
Vanilla Forums Rate Limits
RATE LIMITSEvent Specifications 1
Not every API is request/response. AsyncAPI describes the event-driven and streaming side — the webhooks and channels — so the asynchronous half of the interface is documented the same way the synchronous half is.
AsyncAPI definitions for this provider's event-driven and streaming APIs.
Vanilla Forums Webhooks
ASYNCAPISecurity 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.
Vanilla Forums Authentication
http bearer (personal access token)/http bearer (JWT)/apiKey in query (access_token)/apiKey in query (role-token) · 3 schemes
SECURITYResources
Every other property we hold for Vanilla Forums — 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.
Get Started 3
Portal, sign-up, and the first successful call
Documentation 2
Reference material describing how the API behaves
Agent Surfaces 4
MCP servers, agent skills, and machine-readable catalogs
Design & Contract 6
Pagination, idempotency, versioning, errors, and events
Build 3
SDKs, sample code, and the tooling you integrate with
Access & Security 2
Authentication, authorization, and security posture
Operate 4
Status, limits, changes, and where to get help
Commercial 3
Pricing, plans, and the legal terms of use
Company 2
The organization behind the API
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