# Animal Checklist

> A free progressive web app. Tick off every animal you have seen. Every species includes names in eight languages, habitats, countries, a Wikipedia summary and a photo with its source and licence. The catalogue holds 954755 species in 7 categories.

Site: https://animalchecklist.com. No advertising tracking. Optional support uses PostHog after you open it. Optional accounts use a session cookie. English lives at `/`; the other seven languages use a prefix such as `/de/`.

## When to use Animal Checklist

Use this API for animal species, names in another language, habitats, countries or a short encyclopaedic summary with a photo.
Call `GET /api/v1/categories` first to learn the seven groups. Then call `GET /api/v1/animals` with `q`, `category`, `habitat` or `country`. Read one species with `GET /api/v1/animals/{id}`.
Do not use this API for live sightings of a named person, for taxonomy research beyond species level, for conservation status, or for identification from a photo. Public reads hold no personal data. Private account endpoints require a session.

## Public read API

Base URL `https://animalchecklist.com/api/v1`. No key. CORS is open for GET. Answers are `{ "data": ... }`; errors are `{ "error": { "code", "message" } }` with a matching HTTP status. `lang` selects the display language (default `en`).

- `GET /api/v1/animals?q=&category=&habitat=&country=&page=1&per=60&lang=` — `{ data: { items, total, page, per } }`, ranked by iNaturalist observations. `q` matches every language, scientific names and category words.
- `GET /api/v1/animals?ids=a,b,c&lang=` — `{ data: AnimalSummary[] }`, at most 500 ids in one request.
- `GET /api/v1/animals/{id}?lang=` — `{ data: Animal }` with all names, habitats, countries, image credit and text.
- `GET /api/v1/categories?lang=` — `{ data: Category[] }` with species totals.
- `GET /api/v1/countries` — `{ data: Country[] }` with a species count per ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 code.

## Private endpoints

- `POST /api/v1/accounts` — creates an anonymous sync code. 20 per IP per hour.
- `GET /api/v1/sightings` — header `Authorization: Bearer AC-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX`.
- `PUT /api/v1/sightings` — body `{ sightings: Sighting[] }`, merged last-writer-wins on `updatedAt`.

These three belong to one person's device. An agent must never create a code on its own initiative or read a code it was not given.

## Pages

- [Checklist](https://animalchecklist.com/): every species, search, category, habitat and country filters.
- [Animal articles](https://animalchecklist.com/stories): published species profiles and scientific stories.
- `/animal/:id/article`: a long-form article for that species, in English, German, Spanish or French, when one is published. Linked from `/animal/:id` when it exists.
- `/stories/:slug`: a published species-news or animal-facts article. Open the article index for available stories.
- [For agents](https://animalchecklist.com/for-agents): API guide, examples, limits and rules for AI agents.
- [Developer portal](https://animalchecklist.com/developers): quickstart, MCP, schemas, errors and versioning.
- [Privacy](https://animalchecklist.com/privacy): local sightings, sync codes, accounts and data rights.
- [Account](https://animalchecklist.com/account): sign-in, passkeys, data export and deletion.
- [Contact](https://animalchecklist.com/contact): email and legal notice.
- [Sync](https://animalchecklist.com/sync): the anonymous code that moves sightings between devices.
- [About](https://animalchecklist.com/about): licences, privacy, contact and legal notice.
- [Content licences](https://animalchecklist.com/licences): source rights and reuse conditions.
- [Takedown](https://animalchecklist.com/takedown): report a photo or text.

## Licences and credit

- Photos: check `image.license`. It can be CC0, Public domain, Pexels License or Pixabay Content License.
- Show any named photo author and the source link. Do not redistribute a Pexels or Pixabay photo on its own.
- Summary texts: Wikipedia excerpts under CC BY-SA 4.0. Keep `text.attribution`, `sourceUrl`, `licenseUrl`, `changes` and supplied notices.
- Check the source article for its history, additional credits and any licence exceptions. Identify your changes and follow ShareAlike for adaptations.
- Structured Wikidata records use CC0. The iNaturalist taxonomy archive supplies no explicit licence; its metadata describes factual data.
- Reuse conditions: https://animalchecklist.com/licences. Third-party content keeps its own rights.

## Machine-readable files

- [OpenAPI 3.1](https://animalchecklist.com/openapi.json): every public endpoint, schema and error.
- [Agent guide](https://animalchecklist.com/agents.md): call order, limits and disclosure rules.
- [llms-full.txt](https://animalchecklist.com/llms-full.txt): the long version with categories and habitats.
- [Markdown home](https://animalchecklist.com/index.md): append .md to any page URL, for example /animal/red-fox.md.
- [Agent mode](https://animalchecklist.com/?mode=agent): append ?mode=agent to any page URL for markdown.
- [Sitemap index](https://animalchecklist.com/sitemap.xml): one sitemap per language.
- [ARD catalog](https://animalchecklist.com/.well-known/ard.json): agentic resource discovery entries.
- [API catalog](https://animalchecklist.com/.well-known/api-catalog): RFC 9727 linkset.
- [MCP server](https://animalchecklist.com/mcp): Streamable HTTP; tools list_categories, search_animals, get_animal, list_countries.
- [MCP server card](https://animalchecklist.com/.well-known/mcp/server-card.json): tools and resources of /mcp.

## Categories

- Mammals (`mammals`): 14342 species
- Birds (`birds`): 41205 species
- Reptiles (`reptiles`): 20792 species
- Amphibians (`amphibians`): 12233 species
- Fish (`fish`): 45615 species
- Insects & spiders (`insects`): 679561 species
- Other animals (`other`): 141007 species