# Kiota

> Kiota is Microsoft's open source (MIT) API client generator: a command line tool that turns any
> OpenAPI-described API into a strongly-typed, lightweight client in C#, Dart, Go, Java, PHP, Python,
> Ruby or TypeScript. The goal is to remove the need to take a dependency on a different hand-written
> SDK for every API you call. Kiota generates only the source it needs on top of a small per-language
> core library, keeps external dependencies minimal, and can generate a client for just a filtered
> subset of a description. It also emits agent-facing plugin packages (apiplugin, openai, apimanifest)
> rather than only code SDKs. Kiota consumes API descriptions; it does not publish an API of its own,
> so there is no base URL, no rate limit and no status page here — the "surface" is a CLI, a set of
> runtime libraries in eight package registries, and a published OpenAPI extension vocabulary.

Provenance: generated by the API Evangelist enrichment pipeline from this repository's apis.yml and
artifacts on 2026-08-06. Microsoft does not publish an llms.txt for Kiota
(https://learn.microsoft.com/llms.txt returned 404 on 2026-08-06).

## Docs

- [Welcome to Kiota](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/openapi/kiota/overview): what Kiota is and the feature list.
- [Install Kiota](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/openapi/kiota/install): binaries, Docker, .NET tool, VS Code extension, build from source.
- [Using the Kiota tool](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/openapi/kiota/using): every command, every parameter, the environment variables, and the description validation rules.
- [Quick starts](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/openapi/kiota/quickstarts/): .NET, Dart, Go, Java, PHP, Python, TypeScript.
- [Authentication](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/openapi/kiota/authentication): the provider model generated clients require.
- [Kiota design](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/openapi/kiota/design): how generation works and how to extend it.
- [Releases and support](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/openapi/kiota/support): semver policy, release cadence, language maturity ladder.

## Source and support

- [microsoft/kiota](https://github.com/microsoft/kiota): the generator. MIT licensed.
- [CHANGELOG.md](https://github.com/microsoft/kiota/blob/main/CHANGELOG.md): Keep a Changelog format, per release.
- [Releases](https://github.com/microsoft/kiota/releases): tagged builds and OS binaries.
- [Issues](https://github.com/microsoft/kiota/issues): the primary support channel.
- [Discussions](https://github.com/microsoft/kiota/discussions): questions about using the project.
- [CLI command specifications](https://github.com/microsoft/kiota/tree/main/specs/cli): one spec file per command.
- [OpenAPI extensions](https://github.com/microsoft/kiota/blob/main/specs/extensions/openapi-extensions.md): the x-* vocabulary Kiota reads.
- [workspace.json schema](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/microsoft/kiota/main/specs/schemas/workspace.json): JSON Schema 2020-12.

## Command surface

- `kiota search <term>` — find APIs and descriptions in registries (APIs.guru, GitHub). Needs internet.
- `kiota download <key>` — pull a description locally so you can inspect it and work out filters.
- `kiota show -d <url> -i <glob>` — print the API path tree; use before generating against a large description.
- `kiota generate -d <url> -l <language>` — generate the client. Writes kiota-lock.json; re-running is a no-op unless the description or parameters changed.
- `kiota update` — regenerate existing clients from the recorded parameters.
- `kiota info [-l <language>]` — supported languages, maturity level, and required runtime dependencies.
- `kiota login github device` / `kiota logout` — reach private description repositories.
- `kiota workspace init | migrate` — create or migrate to .kiota/workspace.json.
- `kiota client add | edit | generate | remove` — manage clients declared in workspace.json.
- `kiota plugin add | edit | generate | remove` — manage plugins (apiplugin, openai, apimanifest).

## Packages

- .NET tool (generator): `dotnet tool install --global Microsoft.OpenApi.Kiota`
- npm (generator): `npm install -g @microsoft/kiota`
- Container (generator): `mcr.microsoft.com/openapi/kiota`
- Runtime libraries: NuGet `Microsoft.Kiota.*`, npm `@microsoft/kiota-*`, PyPI `microsoft-kiota-*`,
  Maven `com.microsoft.kiota:microsoft-kiota-*`, Go `github.com/microsoft/kiota-abstractions-go`,
  Packagist `microsoft/kiota-abstractions`, RubyGems `microsoft_kiota_abstractions`.
- Full inventory with versions: packages/kiota-packages.yml in this repository.

## Repository artifacts

- packages/kiota-packages.yml — every first-party package in eight registries, plus distribution channels.
- cli/kiota-cli.yml — the full command surface, flags, environment variables and generated artifacts.
- changelog/kiota-changelog.yml — structured recent release entries.
- lifecycle/kiota-lifecycle.yml — semver policy, release cadence, support window, language maturity ladder.
- rules/kiota-validation-rules.yml — the nine OpenAPI description validation rules Kiota runs before generating.
- vocabulary/kiota-vocabulary.yml — Kiota's concepts plus its published OpenAPI x-* extension vocabulary.
- conformance/kiota-conformance.yml — which specifications Kiota consumes, implements, or does not support.
- authentication/kiota-authentication.yml — CLI sign-in plus the auth provider model generated clients inherit.
- json-schema/kiota-workspace-schema.json — the workspace configuration schema, verbatim.
- well-known/kiota-well-known.yml — the /.well-known/ probe results for every related host.
- security/ — domain security probe, and Microsoft's vulnerability disclosure program.

## Notes for agents

- There is no Kiota API, no API key, no base URL and no hosted endpoint. Anything claiming otherwise is wrong.
- There is no Kiota MCP server. Kiota emits `apiplugin`, `openai` and `apimanifest` plugin types; MCP is not among them.
- There is no A2A agent card on any Kiota-related host (probed 2026-08-06, all 404).
- Kiota is free and MIT licensed; there is no pricing page, no signup and no plan tiers.
- Version at capture: 1.34.1, released 2026-07-09.