# Plex

> Plex, Inc. builds Plex Media Server — self-hosted software that organizes,
> transcodes and streams a person's own movies, TV, music and photos to Plex apps on
> nearly every platform — alongside a free ad-supported live TV and on-demand
> catalog, Discover, Rentals, the Plexamp music player and the paid Plex Pass tier.
> In September 2025 Plex published official documentation for the Plex Media Server
> HTTP API for the first time: an OpenAPI 3.1 contract of 258 operations across 205
> paths, a new public-key JWT authentication flow on plex.tv, and an
> OAuth-protected remote MCP server for agents.

Generated 2026-08-05 by the API Evangelist enrichment pipeline. Plex serves no
llms.txt of its own — https://plex.tv/llms.txt and
https://developer.plex.tv/llms.txt both return 404. (An llms.txt does exist at
https://plexapi.dev/llms.txt, but plexapi.dev is a community documentation site,
not a Plex property.)

## Key facts for an agent

- Plex Media Server is **self-hosted**. There is no shared production API host. A
  server is reached on the LAN at `http://<ip>:32400` or remotely at
  `https://<ip-with-dashes>.<machineIdentifier>.plex.direct:32400`.
- Authentication is the `X-Plex-Token` header on every request. The value is either
  a legacy long-lived token or a 7-day Plex JWT (Ed25519 / EdDSA).
- Responses are **XML by default**. Send `Accept: application/json` for JSON.
- Pagination is by `X-Plex-Container-Start` / `X-Plex-Container-Size` request
  headers; verify the response actually paginated before trusting it.
- API version is declared by the `X-Plex-Pms-Api-Version` request header. Absent
  the header the server assumes `0.0` and the pre-1.0 field semantics.
- There is **no idempotency contract**, **no rate-limit signalling**, and **no
  structured error body**. Errors are HTTP status only.

## APIs

- [Plex Media Server API](https://developer.plex.tv/pms/): the official HTTP API on
  every Plex Media Server — libraries, metadata, playlists, collections, play
  queues, sessions, activities, butler tasks, preferences, download queue,
  transcoding, DVR / EPG / Live TV, and WebSocket + SSE notification streams.
- [Plex Account and Authentication API](https://clients.plex.tv/api/v2): PIN device
  linking, JWK registration, nonce issuance and device-JWT exchange for a Plex JWT.
- [Plex MCP Server](https://plex.tv/internal/mcp): first-party remote Model Context
  Protocol server, OAuth 2.1 + PKCE, single scope `mcp`. Tool list is auth-gated.

## Specs

- [OpenAPI 3.1 — Plex Media Server 1.2.2](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/plex/refs/heads/main/openapi/plex-media-server-openapi.json)
  (harvested from the Redoc state embedded in developer.plex.tv/pms/; Plex serves no
  raw spec file at a stable URL)
- [Overlay of API Evangelist annotations](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/plex/refs/heads/main/overlays/plex-media-server-overlay.yaml)

## Discovery documents

- [security.txt (RFC 9116)](https://plex.tv/.well-known/security.txt)
- [OpenID Connect discovery](https://plex.tv/.well-known/openid-configuration)
- [OAuth authorization server metadata (RFC 8414)](https://plex.tv/.well-known/oauth-authorization-server)
- [OAuth protected resource metadata (RFC 9728)](https://plex.tv/.well-known/oauth-protected-resource)
- [JWKS](https://plex.tv/api/v2/auth/keys)

No agent card is published. `/.well-known/agent-card.json` and
`/.well-known/agent.json` return 404 on plex.tv, www.plex.tv and developer.plex.tv.
No `/.well-known/api-catalog`. No AsyncAPI. No GraphQL.

## Docs

- [Developer portal](https://developer.plex.tv/)
- [API reference](https://developer.plex.tv/pms/)
- [Authenticating with Plex](https://developer.plex.tv/pms/#section/API-Info/Authenticating-with-Plex)
- [Pagination](https://developer.plex.tv/pms/#section/API-Info/Pagination)
- [API versioning and changes](https://developer.plex.tv/pms/#section/API-Info/API-Versioning)
- [Media queries](https://developer.plex.tv/pms/#section/API-Info/Media-Queries)
- [Webhooks (Plex Pass)](https://support.plex.tv/articles/115002267687-webhooks/)
- [Reporting security issues](https://support.plex.tv/articles/reporting-security-issues/)
- [Announcement: Plex Pro Week '25 — API Unlocked](https://www.plex.tv/blog/plex-pro-week-25-api-unlocked/)

## Derived artifacts (API Evangelist)

- [Authentication profile](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/plex/refs/heads/main/authentication/plex-authentication.yml)
- [Scopes](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/plex/refs/heads/main/scopes/plex-scopes.yml)
- [API conventions](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/plex/refs/heads/main/conventions/plex-conventions.yml)
- [Error catalog](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/plex/refs/heads/main/errors/plex-problem-types.yml)
- [Lifecycle and versioning](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/plex/refs/heads/main/lifecycle/plex-lifecycle.yml)
- [Changelog](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/plex/refs/heads/main/changelog/plex-changelog.yml)
- [Data model](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/plex/refs/heads/main/data-model/plex-data-model.yml)
- [Webhook and streaming catalog](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/plex/refs/heads/main/asyncapi/plex-webhooks.yml)
- [MCP server manifest](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/plex/refs/heads/main/mcp/plex-mcp.yml)
- [Agent skills](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/plex/refs/heads/main/skills/_index.yml)
- [Packages and SDKs](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/plex/refs/heads/main/packages/plex-packages.yml)
- [Conformance](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/plex/refs/heads/main/conformance/plex-conformance.yml)
- [Well-known index](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/plex/refs/heads/main/well-known/plex-well-known.yml)
- [Domain security](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/plex/refs/heads/main/security/plex-domain-security.yml)
- [Agentic access contracts](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/plex/refs/heads/main/agentic-access/plex-agentic-access.yml)

## Company

- [Website](https://www.plex.tv/)
- [Plans and pricing](https://www.plex.tv/plans/)
- [Sign up](https://www.plex.tv/sign-up/)
- [Downloads](https://www.plex.tv/media-server-downloads/)
- [Support](https://support.plex.tv/)
- [Forums](https://forums.plex.tv/)
- [Blog](https://www.plex.tv/blog/)
- [Status](https://status.plex.tv/)
- [GitHub](https://github.com/plexinc)
- [Terms of service](https://www.plex.tv/about/privacy-legal/plex-terms-of-service/)
- [Privacy and legal](https://www.plex.tv/about/privacy-legal/)