Are.na API

Name: Are.na API
Brand: Are.na API
Availability: InStock

★ Only Publicly Available OpenAPI DocumentProductivityCollaborationbearer12 EndpointsREST

For Agents

Read and curate Are.na channels, add or move blocks between channels, and manage collaborators on shared research libraries.

Install Jentic One Beta

Connect the Are.na API to your agent

Jentic One is a self-hosted execution layer for AI agents. It lets your agent call the Are.na API, or any other public or private API you need. You set the rules, the agent never sees your credentials, and every call is logged.

Two steps, two machines. Install the instance in a safe environment, then register your agent from wherever it runs.

Step 1: Jentic One Host machine

# On the machine that will host your Jentic One instance:
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jentic/jentic-one/main/tools/install.sh | sh

Step 2: Agent machine

# On the machine where your agent runs (keep this separate from the instance):
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jentic/jentic-one/main/tools/install.sh | sh
jentic register       # connects your agent to your Jentic One instance

Jentic One is in public beta. The setup above keeps your agent separate from the instance, which is what you want before using real credentials: an agent running as the same OS user as Jentic One can read its stored keys directly. Just evaluating? A single local install is fine to start. See the secure deployment guide for the tiers.

Capabilities

What an agent can do with Are.na API.

List and paginate through channels owned by a user or organisation

Fetch a channel by slug along with its connected blocks and metadata

Add image, link, text, or media blocks into a target channel

Move or copy blocks between channels via channel connections

GET STARTED

Start building with Are.na API

Explore with Jentic

View OpenAPI Document

Use Cases

Patterns agents use Are.na API for, with concrete tasks.

★ Automated Research Curation

Build research and inspiration libraries by programmatically saving links, images, and notes into Are.na channels organised by topic. The API exposes channel and block endpoints so a curation pipeline can deduplicate sources, tag them by channel, and keep a running visual archive without manual copy-paste. Suitable for personal research workflows or team knowledge bases handling hundreds of sources per channel.

Add a new link block with URL https://example.com/article to the channel with slug 'design-research' and confirm it appears in the channel contents

Shared Editorial Workflow

Coordinate editorial or design teams around a shared Are.na channel by adding collaborators, posting source material as blocks, and reorganising blocks between draft and published channels. Channel collaborator and connection endpoints make it possible to manage permissions and move work through review stages programmatically.

Add user 'sophie' as a collaborator to channel slug 'editorial-q3' then move three blocks from 'inbox' channel into 'editorial-q3'

Embedding and Display

Render Are.na channels inside external websites, dashboards, or newsletters by fetching channel content and thumbnails. The /channels/{slug} and /channels/{slug}/thumb endpoints return blocks and preview images, letting a build pipeline cache the latest channel state into a static site or feed.

Fetch the latest 20 blocks from channel slug 'weekly-reading' and the channel thumbnail, then render them as an HTML grid

Agent Knowledge Capture via Jentic

Use Jentic to give an AI agent a single tool that captures sources into a personal Are.na knowledge graph. The agent searches Jentic for 'add a block to an Are.na channel', loads the schema, and posts blocks every time the user shares a useful link in chat - without managing tokens directly.

Search Jentic for 'add a block to an Are.na channel', load the schema, and post a block containing a summarised article into channel slug 'agent-notes'

Key Endpoints

12 endpoints — jentic publishes the only available openapi specification for are.

METHOD

PATH

DESCRIPTION

GET

/channels

List channels

GET

/channels/{slug}

Fetch a channel by slug

GET

/channels/{slug}/blocks

List blocks inside a channel

GET

/channels/{id}/contents

Fetch channel contents

GET

/channels/{id}/connections

Fetch channels connected to this channel

GET

/channels/{id}/collaborators

List channel collaborators

GET

/channels/{slug}/thumb

Fetch channel thumbnail

GET

/channels

List channels

GET

/channels/{slug}

Fetch a channel by slug

GET

/channels/{slug}/blocks

List blocks inside a channel

GET

/channels/{id}/contents

Fetch channel contents

GET

/channels/{id}/connections

Fetch channels connected to this channel

Why Jentic?

Three things that make agents converge on Jentic-routed access.

Credential isolation

Your Are.na access token is stored once, encrypted, by your own Jentic One instance and injected at execution time. It never enters the agent's prompt, logs, or context.

Intent-based discovery

Agents search Jentic by intent such as 'list blocks in an Are.na channel', and Jentic returns the matching Are.na operation with its input schema so the agent calls the right endpoint without browsing docs.

Time to first call

FAQs

Specific to using Are.na API through Jentic.

Why is there no official OpenAPI spec for Are.na API?

Are.na does not publish an OpenAPI specification. Jentic generates and maintains this spec so that AI agents and developers can call Are.na API via structured tooling. It is validated against the live API and kept up to date. Get started with Jentic One, the self-hosted execution layer.

What authentication does the Are.na API use?

Are.na uses HTTP Bearer authentication. You pass a personal access token in the Authorization header. When called through Jentic, the token is stored encrypted in your Jentic One instance and injected at execution time, so the agent never sees the raw secret.

Can I add blocks to a channel through the Are.na API?

Yes. Blocks are managed under channels - you add them via the channel's blocks collection (/channels/{slug}/blocks). Block payloads support links, images, text, and media references.

What are the rate limits for the Are.na API?

Are.na's published rate limit is around 60 requests per minute per access token for the v2 API. For sustained workloads, batch reads through channel listings rather than fetching blocks one at a time.

How do I list a user's channels with the Are.na API through Jentic?

Run pip install jentic, then search Jentic with the query 'list are.na channels', load the returned operation schema for GET /channels, and execute with your access token. The response is a paginated list of channel objects.

Can I manage collaborators on private channels?

Yes. The /channels/{id}/collaborators endpoint lets you list collaborators on group or private channels. Collaborator membership is tied to channel privacy settings on Are.na.

Can I limit what my agent is allowed to do with the Are.na API?

Yes. Because you run Jentic One yourself, your own rules decide which Are.na operations and credentials the agent may use, and Are.na puts the channel slug or id in the URL path (/channels/{slug}, /channels/{id}/contents), so a rule can pin the agent to reading a single channel's blocks, contents, and connections. You choose the operations it can call, so you can grant only read access and leave collaborator or block-creation endpoints off the list. The agent then reads just the channels you have added, never touching the raw access token.