Overview
The GitBook API is currently in beta. This means you should not rely on it's availability, and that it may change without prior warning. If you wish to be one of our testers, please contact our team at [email protected].
The GitBook REST API can be used to fetch and update content on GitBook.
Authentication
There is currently one way to authenticate with GitBook API v1: by providing an authentication token. A token can be created in your GitBook user account settings.
This token can then be provided in the Authorization header of your HTTP request.
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curl -H "Authorization: Bearer [YOUR_TOKEN]" https://$HOSTNAME/v1/user
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Pagination
Some methods return paginated results. The formatting of a paginated result is always:
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{
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"items": [
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...
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],
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"next": {
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"page": "..."
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},
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"previous": {
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"page": "..."
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}
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}
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The objects
previous and next will be omitted if there are no previous or next items respectively.The
next.page and previous.page values can be added to the query parameters of the original query under the page key in order to get the next or previous page.Example
You make a GET request to a paginated endpoint
https://api.example.com/foo/bar, and receive the following response1
{
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"items": [],
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"next": {
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"page": "next-page-id"
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}
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}
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In order to get the next page of results, you would take the ID at position
.next.page in the response body, and provide it as the value of the page key in a query to the same endpoint. The full URL including query parameters of your request to get the next page of the listing is:1
https://api.example.com/foo/bar?page=next-page-id
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Errors
GitBook uses conventional HTTP response codes to indicate the success or failure of an API request.
As a general rule:
- Codes in the
2xxrange indicate success - Codes in the
4xxrange indicate incorrect or incomplete parameters (e.g. a required parameter was omitted, or an operation failed with a 3rd party, etc.) - Codes in the
5xxrange indicate an error with GitBook's servers.
GitBook also outputs an error message and an error code formatted in JSON:
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{
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"error": {
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"code": 404,
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"message": "Page not found in this space"
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}
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}
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Rate limiting
Different types of API methods on GitBook.com are subject to different rate limits.
The response's HTTP headers are the authoritative source for the current number of API calls available to you or your app at any given time. The returned HTTP headers of any API request show your current rate limit status, as described below.
Header Name
Description
X-RateLimit-LimitThe maximum number of requests you're permitted to make in the current rate limit window.
X-RateLimit-RemainingThe number of requests remaining in the current rate limit window.
X-RateLimit-ResetIf you exceed the rate limit, an error response returns:
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> HTTP/2 429
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> X-RateLimit-Limit: 60
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> X-RateLimit-Remaining: 0
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> X-RateLimit-Reset: 1377013266
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​
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> {
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> "error": {
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> "code": 429
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> "message": "API rate limit exceeded. Please try again in 60 seconds"
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> }
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> }
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Last modified 4mo ago
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