aid: stackexchange name: Stack Exchange description: >- Stack Exchange is the network of Q&A communities founded by Joel Spolsky and Jeff Atwood and headlined by Stack Overflow, the largest community of software developers on the web. The Stack Exchange API v2.3 (api.stackexchange.com) is a single, read-mostly HTTP/JSON interface that spans 180+ Q&A sites — Stack Overflow, Server Fault, Super User, Ask Ubuntu, Stats, Math Overflow, and the long tail of topical communities — and exposes the entire Q&A graph (questions, answers, comments, users, tags, badges, reputation, revisions, notifications, inbox, suggested-edits, network sites) under a uniform method surface. Stack Exchange also operates Stack Overflow for Teams (private knowledge bases with its own v3 REST API) and ships an official Stack Overflow MCP server that grounds AI agents in community-verified content. url: https://api.stackexchange.com/ specificationVersion: '0.20' created: '2026-05-28' modified: '2026-05-29' x-source: public-apis/public-apis x-category: Development x-tier: 1 x-tier-reason: developer-flagship-community-knowledge-graph-with-mcp x-type: company tags: - Q And A - Developer Community - Knowledge Graph - Stack Overflow - Stack Exchange - Reputation - Tags - Community - MCP - AI Grounding apis: - name: Stack Exchange API v2.3 description: >- Public, read-mostly HTTP/JSON API spanning all 180+ Stack Exchange sites. All method families — questions, answers, comments, users, tags, badges, sites, search, /me, access-tokens, notifications, inbox, events, revisions, info, reputation, privileges, suggested-edits, posts — live under a single base URL with a uniform response wrapper (items, has_more, page, quota_max, quota_remaining, backoff). Read access requires no auth; writes (posting, voting, flagging, accepting) require OAuth 2.0 with the appropriate scopes (write_access, private_info, no_expiry). humanURL: https://api.stackexchange.com/docs baseURL: https://api.stackexchange.com/2.3 tags: - Stack Exchange - Public API - Q And A - Read-Mostly - OAuth 2.0 properties: - type: Documentation url: https://api.stackexchange.com/docs - type: OpenAPI url: openapi/stackexchange-api-v2-3.yaml - type: SignUp url: https://stackapps.com/apps/oauth/register - type: Authentication url: https://api.stackexchange.com/docs/authentication - type: TermsOfService url: https://stackoverflow.com/legal/api-terms-of-use - type: Throttling url: https://api.stackexchange.com/docs/throttle - type: Filters url: https://api.stackexchange.com/docs/filters - type: ChangeLog url: https://api.stackexchange.com/docs/revisions - type: SDK url: https://github.com/StackExchange/StacMan title: .NET (StacMan) - type: NaftikoCapability url: capabilities/stack-exchange-questions.yaml - type: NaftikoCapability url: capabilities/stack-exchange-answers.yaml - type: NaftikoCapability url: capabilities/stack-exchange-comments.yaml - type: NaftikoCapability url: capabilities/stack-exchange-users.yaml - type: NaftikoCapability url: capabilities/stack-exchange-me.yaml - type: NaftikoCapability url: capabilities/stack-exchange-tags.yaml - type: NaftikoCapability url: capabilities/stack-exchange-badges.yaml - type: NaftikoCapability url: capabilities/stack-exchange-sites.yaml - type: NaftikoCapability url: capabilities/stack-exchange-search.yaml - type: NaftikoCapability url: capabilities/stack-exchange-posts.yaml - type: NaftikoCapability url: capabilities/stack-exchange-revisions.yaml - type: NaftikoCapability url: capabilities/stack-exchange-suggested-edits.yaml - type: NaftikoCapability url: capabilities/stack-exchange-events.yaml - type: NaftikoCapability url: capabilities/stack-exchange-info.yaml - type: NaftikoCapability url: capabilities/stack-exchange-access-tokens.yaml - type: NaftikoCapability url: capabilities/stack-exchange-filters.yaml - name: Stack Overflow for Teams API v3 description: >- Newer REST API powering Stack Overflow for Teams (private/internal instances). Resource-oriented (questions, answers, articles, comments, tags, users, collections, communities) with full CRUD and bearer-token auth. This is the API the official TypeScript SDK and Terraform provider target; it is distinct from the public v2.3 API. humanURL: https://stackoverflowteams.help/en/articles/9085836-api-v3-overview baseURL: https://api.stackoverflowteams.com/v3/teams/{team}/ tags: - Stack Overflow for Teams - Internal API - REST - Bearer Token properties: - type: Documentation url: https://stackoverflowteams.help/en/articles/9085836-api-v3-overview - type: SDK url: https://www.npmjs.com/package/@stackoverflow/teams-sdk title: TypeScript SDK - type: SDK url: https://github.com/StackExchange/StackOverflowSDK title: TypeScript SDK Source - type: Tools url: https://github.com/StackExchange/terraform-provider-stackoverflow title: Terraform Provider - type: Tools url: https://github.com/StackExchange/backstage-stackoverflow title: Backstage Plugin - type: Tools url: https://github.com/StackExchange/langchain-stack-overflow-for-teams title: LangChain Integration common: - type: Website url: https://stackexchange.com/ - type: Documentation url: https://api.stackexchange.com/docs - type: DeveloperPortal url: https://stackapps.com/ - type: GitHubOrganization url: https://github.com/StackExchange - type: Blog url: https://stackoverflow.blog/ - type: TermsOfService url: https://stackoverflow.com/legal/api-terms-of-use - type: PrivacyPolicy url: https://stackoverflow.com/legal/privacy-policy - type: StatusPage url: https://stackstatus.tumblr.com/ - type: ApplicationRegistration url: https://stackapps.com/apps/oauth/register - type: PublicAPIsListing url: https://github.com/public-apis/public-apis - type: Tools title: MCP Server (Stack Overflow) url: https://github.com/StackExchange/Stack-MCP - type: Tools title: MCP Server Documentation url: https://api.stackexchange.com/docs/mcp-server - type: Tools title: Stack Exchange Data Explorer url: https://github.com/StackExchange/StackExchange.DataExplorer - type: Tools title: Stacks Design System url: https://github.com/StackExchange/Stacks - type: Plans url: plans/stackexchange-plans-pricing.yml - type: RateLimits url: rate-limits/stackexchange-rate-limits.yml - type: Rules url: rules/stackexchange-spectral-rules.yml - type: Vocabulary url: vocabulary/stackexchange-vocabulary.yml features: - name: Network-Wide Q&A Graph description: >- Single API surface spans 180+ communities. Use the `site` parameter (`stackoverflow`, `serverfault`, `superuser`, `askubuntu`, `stats`, `mathoverflow`, …) to switch context without changing endpoints. - name: Vectorized IDs description: >- Most methods accept up to 100 semicolon-delimited IDs in a single request (e.g., `/questions/{ids}`, `/users/{ids}`, `/answers/{ids}`), making bulk fetch and join workloads cheap. - name: Filter System description: >- Custom response filters let consumers project exactly the fields they need, dramatically reducing payload size. Filters are created once via `/filters/create` and reused. - name: Compressed JSON description: >- All responses are gzip-compressed by default; the wire payload is roughly 30-50% the size of an unconditioned JSON body. - name: Quota and Backoff Discipline description: >- Every response advertises `quota_max`, `quota_remaining`, and an optional `backoff` integer. Clients must honor the backoff before re-querying the same method or risk being throttled at 503 / banned. - name: OAuth 2.0 Write Access description: >- Read is unauthenticated. Write methods (post answer, create comment, vote, flag, accept) require an OAuth 2.0 access token issued via explicit or implicit flows registered on stackapps.com. - name: /me Convenience Methods description: >- Every `/users/{ids}/...` method has a `/me/...` equivalent that infers the user from the access token, simplifying agent code paths. - name: Site Discovery description: >- `/sites` enumerates every Q&A community on the network with its `api_site_parameter`, audience, launch date, and styling — the canonical way to bootstrap a multi-site integration. - name: AI Grounding via MCP description: >- The official Stack Overflow MCP server exposes search, retrieve, and ground tools so MCP-compatible clients (Claude Desktop, Cursor, VS Code) can reach community-verified answers without bespoke integration. useCases: - name: AI Answer Grounding description: >- Ground LLM responses in real Stack Overflow questions and answers — either directly via /search and /questions methods or through the official MCP server — to reduce hallucinations on technical topics. - name: Developer Reputation Scoring description: >- Pull /users, /users/{ids}/reputation, badge counts, and tag scores to build developer reputation, expertise, and hiring-signal pipelines. - name: Community Analytics description: >- Aggregate /questions, /tags, /tags/{tags}/info, and /sites data to track technology adoption, tag velocity, and community health across the network. - name: Personal Activity Dashboards description: >- Use /me, /me/inbox, /me/notifications, /me/timeline, /me/answers, and /me/questions to build personal dashboards of a user's own activity, reputation, and unread events. - name: Tag Tracking and Triage description: >- Watch /tags/{tags}/info, /questions?tagged=…, /search/advanced, and /questions/no-answers to triage incoming questions for OSS projects and vendor support teams. - name: Knowledge Base Mirroring description: >- Periodically sweep /questions with a filter and a since-date to mirror Q&A into an internal knowledge base or RAG index, respecting the API quota and backoff. - name: Moderation Workbench description: >- Combine /suggested-edits, /flags, /posts, and /revisions surfaces (with a moderator access token) to build moderation review queues. - name: Stack Overflow for Teams Integrations description: >- Use the v3 Teams API plus the Terraform provider and Backstage plugin to provision questions, articles, and tags from CI/CD pipelines. integrations: - name: Claude Desktop / Cursor / VS Code via MCP description: >- The Stack Overflow MCP server plugs directly into any MCP-compatible client, giving AI agents a typed search/retrieve interface to community content. - name: LangChain description: >- Official LangChain integration for Stack Overflow for Teams enables retrieval and chat over private Teams content from LangChain pipelines. - name: Backstage description: >- Backstage plugin (`backstage-stackoverflow`) surfaces Stack Overflow for Teams content inside Backstage developer portals. - name: Terraform description: >- Terraform provider (`terraform-provider-stackoverflow`) manages questions, answers, and articles in Stack Overflow for Teams as code. - name: StacMan (.NET) description: >- Long-standing .NET client for Stack Exchange API v2 (StackExchange/StacMan) covering the public v2.3 surface. solutions: - name: Public API v2.3 description: >- Read-mostly, unauthenticated public access to the full Q&A graph across 180+ sites. Default integration path for developer tools, dashboards, community analytics, and AI grounding. - name: Stack Overflow for Teams API v3 description: >- Private REST API for Stack Overflow for Teams customers, used by the TypeScript SDK, Terraform provider, Backstage plugin, and LangChain integration. - name: Stack Overflow MCP Server description: >- Beta MCP server that lets MCP-compatible AI clients search, retrieve, and ground answers in Stack Overflow content with simple OAuth onboarding. - name: Stack Exchange Data Explorer description: >- SQL-style query interface for the Stack Exchange data dumps, used for analytics workloads that exceed the API quota. maintainers: - FN: Kin Lane email: kin@apievangelist.com