Build on the Commons

An open API. Free. For anyone to build on.

Query the Commons by type and area, or pull bulk dumps per country. Open by default — that's what makes it a commons. Reads are open and anonymous, within fair-use rate limits; writes need a free account token. We rate-limit and monitor for abuse so it stays fast and free for everyone.

Endpoints

GET/v1/featuresfilter by type, bbox, region

GET/v1/regions/{id}/bestthe curated best-of for a region

GET/v1/export/{country}.geojsonbulk ODbL dump

POST/v1/featurescontribute (token + goes to review)

Example request

# all drinking water in a bounding box
curl "https://api.cyclingcommons.org/v1/features\
?type=water&bbox=5.6,50.3,6.1,50.6"

Response

{
"type":"FeatureCollection",
"licence":"ODbL-1.0",
"features":[{
  "category":"water",
  "name":"Fountain · Spa",
  "potable":true,
  "confirmed":3
}]
}

Required attribution

The rules

Rate limits & fair use. Anonymous reads are rate-limited — a commons isn't a CDN and we don't have infinite servers. A free API key raises your limit; for heavy or repeated use, pull the per-country bulk exports instead of hammering the live API. Writes need a free account token and pass through review. Licences: data ODbL 1.0, media CC BY-SA 4.0 — see the plain-language summary. Attribute, share-alike, keep open; commercial use is fine.