SiftingSignal v1 API

Authentication

All /v1/* endpoints require a Authorization: Bearer <api_key> header. Keys start with ss_ followed by 48 hex chars. The cleartext key is shown once at creation time and SHA256-hashed for storage — there is no key recovery path. Rotate by revoking and creating a new key.

Authorization: Bearer ss_a1b2c3d4e5f6...

Optional IP allowlists are configurable per key (defense in depth for headless deployments).

Response envelope

Every /v1/* response wraps the payload with a meta block carrying source, license, attribution flags, and the request id:

{
 "meta": {
 "source": "SiftingSignal",
 "source_url": "siftingsignal.com",
 "license": "CC-BY-4.0 with required attribution: \"Source: SiftingSignal (siftingsignal.com)\"",
 "attribution_required": true,
 "attribution_text": "Source: SiftingSignal (siftingsignal.com)",
 "request_id": "req_a1b2c3d4e5f60718",
 "rate_limit_remaining": 9994,
 "rate_limit_reset_at": 1748272800,
 "plan_tier": "api_starter",
 "api_version": "v1",
 "generated_at": "2026-05-25T18:42:01.123Z"
 },
 "data": {... }
}

Rate limits

Every response includes the headers X-RateLimit-Limit, X-RateLimit-Remaining, X-RateLimit-Reset. On exceed: HTTP 429 with structured JSON error and reset epoch.

Errors

All errors return a structured JSON body with HTTP-aligned status codes:

{ "error": { "code": "quota_exceeded", "message": "...", "status": 403 } }

Attribution & license

All data is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC-BY-4.0).

• API Starter: required attribution. Any public-facing derivative must include "Source: SiftingSignal (siftingsignal.com)" visibly.
• API Pro: commercial use permitted; attribution still encouraged but not contractually required.

The meta.attribution_text field in every response gives you the exact attribution string to render. Bots, journalists, and academic citations: see our open datasets with DOIs for canonical citations.

Endpoints

Try it (sandbox)

Use the demo sandbox key ss_sandbox_demo_KEY to test the wire format. The sandbox has a 100 reads/day cap and is rate-limited at 1 RPS. Replace with your real key before going to production.

// response will appear here

Snippets

curl

curl -H "Authorization: Bearer ss_sandbox_demo_KEY" \
 "https://siftingsignal.com/v1/consensus-maps?niche=ai&limit=5"

Python

import httpx

resp = httpx.get(
 "https://siftingsignal.com/v1/consensus-maps",
 params={"niche": "ai", "limit": 5},
 headers={"Authorization": "Bearer ss_sandbox_demo_KEY"},
 timeout=30.0,
)
resp.raise_for_status
body = resp.json
for row in body["data"]["items"]:
 print(row["topic_display"], row["disagreement_index"])
print(body["meta"]["attribution_text"]) # surface this if attribution_required

JavaScript

const resp = await fetch(
 "https://siftingsignal.com/v1/consensus-maps?niche=ai&limit=5",
 { headers: { "Authorization": "Bearer ss_sandbox_demo_KEY" } },
);
const body = await resp.json;
console.log(body.meta.attribution_text);
for (const row of body.data.items) {
 console.log(row.topic_display, row.disagreement_index);
}