# Sensel

> Sensel builds high-resolution force-sensing touch hardware — the Morph pressure-sensitive input
> device and the force-sensing touchpad technology shipped in laptops such as Lenovo's ThinkPad X1
> Titanium Yoga. The "Sensel API" is NOT a web API: it is an open-source, MIT-licensed C library
> (LibSensel) that an application links and uses to talk to a Sensel device over USB/serial.
> There is no HTTP endpoint, no base URL, no API key, no account and no rate limit.
> Cirque Corporation (an Alps Alpine company) licensed the haptic forcepad technology in April
> 2025 and now states it acquired Sensel's key IP, physical assets and trademarks;
> sensel.com redirects to cirque.com/sensel.

## What an agent can and cannot do here

- There is NO callable network API. An agent cannot invoke Sensel functionality remotely.
- Using this API requires physical Sensel hardware attached to the machine running the code.
- No OpenAPI, AsyncAPI, GraphQL SDL, Protobuf, WSDL, MCP server or A2A agent card is published.
  All /.well-known/* paths 404 on every Sensel host (probed 2026-08-26).

## Documentation

- [Sensel Morph Documentation](https://guide.sensel.com/): documentation hub — hardware, SenselApp, Overlay Designer, and the API guides.
- [API primer](https://guide.sensel.com/api/): getting started with polling the sensor; explains the force array (185x105 sensels on the Morph) and the labels array.
- [API advanced](https://guide.sensel.com/api_adv/): custom sensor configuration and full device details.
- [API with Arduino](https://guide.sensel.com/api_arduino/): the Arduino binding.
- [API calls reference](https://guide.sensel.com/sensel_h.html): sensel.h reference.
- [API force calls reference](https://guide.sensel.com/sensel_decompress_h.html): sensel_decompress.h reference.

## Source and SDKs

- [sensel-api](https://github.com/sensel/sensel-api): LibSensel + LibSenselDecompress source, platform installers, and C / C# / Python examples (MIT). No tags, no releases; last code push 2022-05-12.
- [sensel-api-arduino](https://github.com/sensel/sensel-api-arduino): Arduino binding (MIT).
- [sensel-api-processing](https://github.com/sensel/sensel-api-processing): Processing binding (Apache-2.0).
- [PD-objects](https://github.com/sensel/PD-objects): Pure Data externals (MIT), distributed via Deken.
- [C74-Max-Examples](https://github.com/sensel/C74-Max-Examples): Cycling '74 Max examples (MIT); the `sensel` object ships via the Max Package Manager.
- [sensel-controller-scripts](https://github.com/sensel/sensel-controller-scripts): DAW controller scripts; latest release 1.2 (2020-04-27).
- [GitHub organization](https://github.com/sensel): all first-party repositories.

No first-party Sensel package exists on npm, PyPI, RubyGems, crates.io, Maven Central, NuGet,
pkg.go.dev or the Arduino Library Manager. Everything is cloned or installed from source.

## API shape

44 published `senselXxx()` entry points covering: device discovery and open/close
(`senselGetDeviceList`, `senselOpen`, `senselOpenDeviceByID`, `senselOpenDeviceBySerialNum`,
`senselOpenDeviceByComPort`, `senselClose`, `senselSoftReset`); sensor info
(`senselGetSensorInfo`, `senselGetFirmwareInfo`); scan configuration (`senselSetScanMode`,
`senselSetScanDetail`, `senselSetMaxFrameRate`, `senselSetBufferControl`,
`senselSetContactsMinForce`, `senselSetContactsMask`, `senselSetContactsEnableBlobMerge`,
`senselSetDynamicBaselineEnabled`); frames (`senselAllocateFrameData`, `senselFreeFrameData`,
`senselSetFrameContent`, `senselStartScanning`, `senselStopScanning`, `senselReadSensor`,
`senselGetNumAvailableFrames`, `senselGetFrame`); LEDs (`senselGetNumAvailableLEDs`,
`senselSetLEDBrightness`, `senselGetLEDBrightness`, `senselGetMaxLEDBrightness`); and raw
register access (`senselReadReg`, `senselWriteReg`, `senselReadRegVS`, `senselWriteRegVS`).

Every call returns `SenselStatus`, which has exactly two values: `SENSEL_OK` (0) and
`SENSEL_ERROR` (-1). There are no error codes, messages or remediation hints.

## Company

- [Website](https://sensel.com/) (301 -> https://www.cirque.com/sensel)
- [Cirque/Sensel announcement, 2025-04-22](https://www.cirque.com/news-and-events-blog/cirque-sensel-announcement)
- [Privacy policy (Cirque, which now governs sensel.com)](https://www.cirque.com/privacy-policy)
- [Support / issues](https://github.com/sensel/sensel-api/issues)

## Profile metadata

- Profiled by API Evangelist, 2026-08-26. Method: searched + probed. See apis.yml in this repository.