Headers

• Commune-Version string

  The contract version this request is written against. Every version published so far is a release date (YYYY-MM-DD), which is why the examples look like one, but the value is an opaque identifier: match it against the versions this API publishes rather than parsing it, because a future one may not be only a date. An unknown value answers 400 with invalid_version.

  Omitting the header pins the request to the version that was current when the API key was issued, so an integration keeps working when a newer version ships.

  Minimum length is 1.

Path parameters

• user string Required

  The user's id or their username, with or without a leading @.

Query parameters

• fields string

  Comma-separated allow-list of top level properties to return on each object, so a client can trim a response it does not need in full. id and object are always returned. An unknown property name answers 400. Properties omitted by an operation, such as content on any article list, cannot be brought back with fields.

Responses

• 200 application/json

  The user.

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  • object string Required

    Always user.

    Value is user.

  • id string Required

    Stable identifier.

  • username string | null

    The unique handle the profile resolves on at /@{username}. Null for an account that has not finished signing up.

  • display_name string | null

    The name shown next to their messages and bylines.

  • avatar string(uri) | null

    Profile picture. Commune falls back to a generated avatar when the person never set one, so this is rarely null in practice.

• 400 application/json

  The request was malformed, and the same request will fail the same way until it is changed. param names the parameter or header at fault when there is exactly one, and allowed_values lists what it accepts when that is a finite set. The code is bad_request for every case below except the last.

  • A query parameter: one the operation does not have, a value outside its set, range or format (an unparseable cursor, an unknown expand path or fields name, an identifier that is not a UUID), or a required one left out, such as q on a search or newsletter when the credential reaches more than one.
  • The request body: not JSON, not the shape the operation reads, a property it does not write, or a value of the wrong type, length or format. param is absent here, since the body is not a parameter, and the message names the property.
  • The Idempotency-Key header, on an operation that changes something: missing, or a value this API will not store.
  • An unrecognised Commune-Version, which answers with its own code, invalid_version, because it is never fixed by changing the body.
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  • error object Required

    Additional properties are NOT allowed.

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    • code string Required

      The stable, machine readable reason a request failed. New codes may be added in a minor version, so treat an unrecognised code as a generic failure of its HTTP status class.

      Two of these share a status with a neighbour and exist because what a caller does next is different. invalid_version is a 400 that is never fixed by changing the request body. not_commune_newsletter is a 422 that is never fixed by changing the request at all: it says the newsletter's articles are published somewhere else and mirrored into Commune afterwards, so Commune cannot write one. Its page at https://usecommune.dev/errors/not_commune_newsletter, like every code's, is its docs_url, and it covers moving a newsletter onto Commune's own publishing, which is the only thing that resolves it.

      Values are bad_request, invalid_version, unauthorized, forbidden, insufficient_scope, payment_required, not_found, conflict, unprocessable, not_commune_newsletter, rate_limited, internal_error, or service_unavailable.

    • message string Required

      A human readable sentence describing what went wrong. Written for a developer reading a log, not for an end user. Do not branch on it, branch on code.

    • param string

      The query, path or body parameter the error is attributed to, when the error is attributable to exactly one. Absent otherwise.

    • allowed_values array[string]

      Everything param would have accepted, when what it accepts is a finite set. Absent when it is not: a cursor, an identifier or a numeric range has nothing to enumerate, and an empty array would read as "nothing is allowed".

      It repeats what message says in prose, so a caller can correct a request from this one response: the array is what a program branches on, the sentence is what a person or a model reads.

      On an unknown parameter name rather than an unknown value, this carries the parameter names the operation does accept, since that is the set the caller has to pick from.

      On an insufficient_scope failure there is usually no parameter at fault and param is absent, and this carries the one permission that was needed, written the way the permission table writes it, such as content: read. The exception is a credential that may call the operation but not with one value of a parameter, such as ?expand=subscriber on listNewsletterInsights without audience: read: then param names the parameter and this carries the values this credential may send instead.

    • request_id string

      Identifier for this request, echoed in the Commune-Request-Id response header. Quote it in support requests.

    • docs_url string(uri)

      Link to the documentation for this error code: always https://usecommune.dev/errors/ followed by the code, a page on what the code means, what usually causes it and how to fix it.

• 401 application/json

  No credential was presented, or it is malformed, unknown, revoked or expired, or it is an access token minted for a different audience.

  Every one of these answers identically, down to the wording and the headers, so a refusal never confirms that a string was once real.

  Hide headers attribute Show headers attribute

  • WWW-Authenticate string

    The authentication scheme this API accepts, and where to find out how to get a credential for it. Always Bearer realm="Commune API", resource_metadata="https://api.usecommune.com/.well-known/oauth-protected-resource".

    resource_metadata is the RFC 9728 pointer to this API's protected resource metadata, which names the authorization server an OAuth client should send its user to. A client holding an API key can ignore it. The header carries no error parameter, not even error="invalid_token", because it describes what this API accepts rather than what was wrong with the credential sent, and the reasons above are deliberately indistinguishable.

    There is no second scheme and no query-parameter fallback, because a credential that can travel in a URL ends up in access logs and referer headers.

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  • error object Required

    Additional properties are NOT allowed.

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    • code string Required

      The stable, machine readable reason a request failed. New codes may be added in a minor version, so treat an unrecognised code as a generic failure of its HTTP status class.

      Two of these share a status with a neighbour and exist because what a caller does next is different. invalid_version is a 400 that is never fixed by changing the request body. not_commune_newsletter is a 422 that is never fixed by changing the request at all: it says the newsletter's articles are published somewhere else and mirrored into Commune afterwards, so Commune cannot write one. Its page at https://usecommune.dev/errors/not_commune_newsletter, like every code's, is its docs_url, and it covers moving a newsletter onto Commune's own publishing, which is the only thing that resolves it.

      Values are bad_request, invalid_version, unauthorized, forbidden, insufficient_scope, payment_required, not_found, conflict, unprocessable, not_commune_newsletter, rate_limited, internal_error, or service_unavailable.

    • message string Required

      A human readable sentence describing what went wrong. Written for a developer reading a log, not for an end user. Do not branch on it, branch on code.

    • param string

      The query, path or body parameter the error is attributed to, when the error is attributable to exactly one. Absent otherwise.

    • allowed_values array[string]

      Everything param would have accepted, when what it accepts is a finite set. Absent when it is not: a cursor, an identifier or a numeric range has nothing to enumerate, and an empty array would read as "nothing is allowed".

      It repeats what message says in prose, so a caller can correct a request from this one response: the array is what a program branches on, the sentence is what a person or a model reads.

      On an unknown parameter name rather than an unknown value, this carries the parameter names the operation does accept, since that is the set the caller has to pick from.

      On an insufficient_scope failure there is usually no parameter at fault and param is absent, and this carries the one permission that was needed, written the way the permission table writes it, such as content: read. The exception is a credential that may call the operation but not with one value of a parameter, such as ?expand=subscriber on listNewsletterInsights without audience: read: then param names the parameter and this carries the values this credential may send instead.

    • request_id string

      Identifier for this request, echoed in the Commune-Request-Id response header. Quote it in support requests.

    • docs_url string(uri)

      Link to the documentation for this error code: always https://usecommune.dev/errors/ followed by the code, a page on what the code means, what usually causes it and how to fix it.

• 404 application/json

  No such resource, or the key is not allowed to know that it exists. Commune answers 404 rather than 403 where distinguishing the two would leak the existence of private content.

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  • error object Required

    Additional properties are NOT allowed.

    Hide error attributes Show error attributes object

    • code string Required

      The stable, machine readable reason a request failed. New codes may be added in a minor version, so treat an unrecognised code as a generic failure of its HTTP status class.

      Two of these share a status with a neighbour and exist because what a caller does next is different. invalid_version is a 400 that is never fixed by changing the request body. not_commune_newsletter is a 422 that is never fixed by changing the request at all: it says the newsletter's articles are published somewhere else and mirrored into Commune afterwards, so Commune cannot write one. Its page at https://usecommune.dev/errors/not_commune_newsletter, like every code's, is its docs_url, and it covers moving a newsletter onto Commune's own publishing, which is the only thing that resolves it.

      Values are bad_request, invalid_version, unauthorized, forbidden, insufficient_scope, payment_required, not_found, conflict, unprocessable, not_commune_newsletter, rate_limited, internal_error, or service_unavailable.

    • message string Required

      A human readable sentence describing what went wrong. Written for a developer reading a log, not for an end user. Do not branch on it, branch on code.

    • param string

      The query, path or body parameter the error is attributed to, when the error is attributable to exactly one. Absent otherwise.

    • allowed_values array[string]

      Everything param would have accepted, when what it accepts is a finite set. Absent when it is not: a cursor, an identifier or a numeric range has nothing to enumerate, and an empty array would read as "nothing is allowed".

      It repeats what message says in prose, so a caller can correct a request from this one response: the array is what a program branches on, the sentence is what a person or a model reads.

      On an unknown parameter name rather than an unknown value, this carries the parameter names the operation does accept, since that is the set the caller has to pick from.

      On an insufficient_scope failure there is usually no parameter at fault and param is absent, and this carries the one permission that was needed, written the way the permission table writes it, such as content: read. The exception is a credential that may call the operation but not with one value of a parameter, such as ?expand=subscriber on listNewsletterInsights without audience: read: then param names the parameter and this carries the values this credential may send instead.

    • request_id string

      Identifier for this request, echoed in the Commune-Request-Id response header. Quote it in support requests.

    • docs_url string(uri)

      Link to the documentation for this error code: always https://usecommune.dev/errors/ followed by the code, a page on what the code means, what usually causes it and how to fix it.

• 429 application/json

  Too many requests. Back off and retry after the interval named by the Retry-After response header.

  One of the budgets in RateLimit-Policy ran out, and the RateLimit-* headers on this response say which and when it resets.

  Hide headers attribute Show headers attribute

  • Retry-After integer

    Seconds to wait before retrying.

    Minimum value is 1.

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  • error object Required

    Additional properties are NOT allowed.

    Hide error attributes Show error attributes object

    • code string Required

      The stable, machine readable reason a request failed. New codes may be added in a minor version, so treat an unrecognised code as a generic failure of its HTTP status class.

      Two of these share a status with a neighbour and exist because what a caller does next is different. invalid_version is a 400 that is never fixed by changing the request body. not_commune_newsletter is a 422 that is never fixed by changing the request at all: it says the newsletter's articles are published somewhere else and mirrored into Commune afterwards, so Commune cannot write one. Its page at https://usecommune.dev/errors/not_commune_newsletter, like every code's, is its docs_url, and it covers moving a newsletter onto Commune's own publishing, which is the only thing that resolves it.

      Values are bad_request, invalid_version, unauthorized, forbidden, insufficient_scope, payment_required, not_found, conflict, unprocessable, not_commune_newsletter, rate_limited, internal_error, or service_unavailable.

    • message string Required

      A human readable sentence describing what went wrong. Written for a developer reading a log, not for an end user. Do not branch on it, branch on code.

    • param string

      The query, path or body parameter the error is attributed to, when the error is attributable to exactly one. Absent otherwise.

    • allowed_values array[string]

      Everything param would have accepted, when what it accepts is a finite set. Absent when it is not: a cursor, an identifier or a numeric range has nothing to enumerate, and an empty array would read as "nothing is allowed".

      It repeats what message says in prose, so a caller can correct a request from this one response: the array is what a program branches on, the sentence is what a person or a model reads.

      On an unknown parameter name rather than an unknown value, this carries the parameter names the operation does accept, since that is the set the caller has to pick from.

      On an insufficient_scope failure there is usually no parameter at fault and param is absent, and this carries the one permission that was needed, written the way the permission table writes it, such as content: read. The exception is a credential that may call the operation but not with one value of a parameter, such as ?expand=subscriber on listNewsletterInsights without audience: read: then param names the parameter and this carries the values this credential may send instead.

    • request_id string

      Identifier for this request, echoed in the Commune-Request-Id response header. Quote it in support requests.

    • docs_url string(uri)

      Link to the documentation for this error code: always https://usecommune.dev/errors/ followed by the code, a page on what the code means, what usually causes it and how to fix it.

• 500 application/json

  Something failed inside Commune. The request may be retried.

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  • error object Required

    Additional properties are NOT allowed.

    Hide error attributes Show error attributes object

    • code string Required

      The stable, machine readable reason a request failed. New codes may be added in a minor version, so treat an unrecognised code as a generic failure of its HTTP status class.

      Two of these share a status with a neighbour and exist because what a caller does next is different. invalid_version is a 400 that is never fixed by changing the request body. not_commune_newsletter is a 422 that is never fixed by changing the request at all: it says the newsletter's articles are published somewhere else and mirrored into Commune afterwards, so Commune cannot write one. Its page at https://usecommune.dev/errors/not_commune_newsletter, like every code's, is its docs_url, and it covers moving a newsletter onto Commune's own publishing, which is the only thing that resolves it.

      Values are bad_request, invalid_version, unauthorized, forbidden, insufficient_scope, payment_required, not_found, conflict, unprocessable, not_commune_newsletter, rate_limited, internal_error, or service_unavailable.

    • message string Required

      A human readable sentence describing what went wrong. Written for a developer reading a log, not for an end user. Do not branch on it, branch on code.

    • param string

      The query, path or body parameter the error is attributed to, when the error is attributable to exactly one. Absent otherwise.

    • allowed_values array[string]

      Everything param would have accepted, when what it accepts is a finite set. Absent when it is not: a cursor, an identifier or a numeric range has nothing to enumerate, and an empty array would read as "nothing is allowed".

      It repeats what message says in prose, so a caller can correct a request from this one response: the array is what a program branches on, the sentence is what a person or a model reads.

      On an unknown parameter name rather than an unknown value, this carries the parameter names the operation does accept, since that is the set the caller has to pick from.

      On an insufficient_scope failure there is usually no parameter at fault and param is absent, and this carries the one permission that was needed, written the way the permission table writes it, such as content: read. The exception is a credential that may call the operation but not with one value of a parameter, such as ?expand=subscriber on listNewsletterInsights without audience: read: then param names the parameter and this carries the values this credential may send instead.

    • request_id string

      Identifier for this request, echoed in the Commune-Request-Id response header. Quote it in support requests.

    • docs_url string(uri)

      Link to the documentation for this error code: always https://usecommune.dev/errors/ followed by the code, a page on what the code means, what usually causes it and how to fix it.