Medium’s API documentation

This repository contains the documentation for Medium’s API.

Contents

Overview
Authentication
- Browser-based authentication
- Self-issued access tokens
Resources
- Users
- Publications
- Posts
- Images
Testing
SDKs

1. Overview

Medium’s API is a JSON-based OAuth2 API. All requests are made to endpoints beginning: https://api.medium.com/v1

All requests must be secure, i.e. https, not http.

Developer agreement

By using Medium’s API, you agree to our terms of service.

2. Authentication

In order to publish on behalf of a Medium account, you will need an access token. An access token grants limited access to a user’s account. We offer two ways to acquire an access token: browser-based OAuth authentication, and self-issued access tokens.

Unless there is a compelling reason, you should use browser-based authentication.

2.1. Browser-based authentication

First you must register an application on Medium. Then we will supply you a clientId and a clientSecret with which you may access Medium’s API. Each integration should have its own clientId and clientSecret. The clientSecret should be treated like a password and stored securely.

The first step is to acquire a short term authorization code by sending the user to our authorization URL so they can grant access to your integration.

https://medium.com/m/oauth/authorize?client_id={{clientId}}
    &scope=basicProfile,publishPost
    &state={{state}}
    &response_type=code
    &redirect_uri={{redirectUri}}

With the following parameters:

Parameter	Type	Required?	Description
`client_id`	string	required	The clientId we will supply you that identifies your integration.
`scope`	string	required	The access that your integration is requesting, comma separated. Currently, there are three valid scope values, which are listed below. Most integrations should request `basicProfile` and `publishPost`
`state`	string	required	Arbitrary text of your choosing, which we will repeat back to you to help you prevent request forgery.
`response_type`	string	required	The field currently has only one valid value, and should be `code`.
`redirect_uri`	string	required	The URL where we will send the user after they have completed the login dialog. This must exactly match one of the callback URLs you provided when creating your app. This field should be URL encoded.

The following scope values are valid:

Scope	Description	Extended
basicProfile	Grants basic access to a user’s profile (not including their email).	No
listPublications	Grants the ability to list publications related to the user.	No
publishPost	Grants the ability to publish a post to the user’s profile.	No
uploadImage	Grants the ability to upload an image for use within a Medium post.	Yes

Integrations are not permitted to request extended scope from users without explicit prior permission from Medium. Attempting to request these permissions through the standard user authentication flow will result in an error if extended scope has not been authorized for an integration.

If the user grants your request for access, we will send them back to the specified redirect_uri with a state and code parameter:

https://example.com/callback/medium?state={{state}}
    &code={{code}}

With the following parameters:

Parameter	Type	Required?	Description
`state`	string	required	The state you specified in the request.
`code`	string	required	A short-lived authorization code that may be exchanged for an access token.

If the user declines access, we will send them back to the specified redirect_uri with an error parameter:

https://example.com/callback/medium?error=access_denied

Once you have an authorization code, you may exchange it for a long-lived access token with which you can make authenticated requests on behalf of the user. To acquire an access token, make a form-encoded server-side POST request:

POST /v1/tokens HTTP/1.1
Host: api.medium.com
Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded
Accept: application/json
Accept-Charset: utf-8

code={{code}}&client_id={{client_id}}&client_secret={{client_secret}}&grant_type=authorization_code&redirect_uri={{redirect_uri}}

With the following parameters:

Parameter	Type	Required?	Description
`code`	string	required	The authorization code you received in the previous step.
`client_id`	string	required	Your integration’s `clientId`
`client_secret`	string	required	Your integration’s `clientSecret`
`grant_type`	string	required	The literal string "authorization_code"
`redirect_uri`	string	required	The same redirect_uri you specified when requesting an authorization code.

If successful, you will receive back an access token response:

HTTP/1.1 201 OK
Content-Type: application/json; charset=utf-8

{
  "token_type": "Bearer",
  "access_token": {{access_token}},
  "refresh_token": {{refresh_token}},
  "scope": {{scope}},
  "expires_at": {{expires_at}}
}

With the following parameters:

Parameter	Type	Required?	Description
`token_type`	string	required	The literal string "Bearer"
`access_token`	string	required	A token that is valid for 60 days and may be used to perform authenticated requests on behalf of the user.
`refresh_token`	string	required	A token that does not expire which may be used to acquire a new `access_token`.
`scope`	string array	required	The scopes granted to your integration.
`expires_at`	int64	required	The timestamp in unix time when the access token will expire

Each access token is valid for 60 days. When an access token expires, you may request a new token using the refresh token. Refresh tokens do not expire. Both access tokens and refresh tokens may be revoked by the user at any time. You must treat both access tokens and refresh tokens like passwords and store them securely.

Both access tokens and refresh tokens are consecutive strings of hex digits, like this:

181d415f34379af07b2c11d144dfbe35d

To acquire a new access token using a refresh token, make the following form-encoded request:

POST /v1/tokens HTTP/1.1
Host: api.medium.com
Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded
Accept: application/json
Accept-Charset: utf-8

refresh_token={{refresh_token}}&client_id={{client_id}}
&client_secret={{client_secret}}&grant_type=refresh_token

With the following parameters:

Parameter	Type	Required?	Description
`refresh_token`	string	required	A valid refresh token.
`client_id`	string	required	Your integration’s `clientId`
`client_secret`	string	required	Your integration’s `clientSecret`
`grant_type`	string	required	The literal string "refresh_token"

2.2. Self-issued access tokens

Self-issued access tokens (described in user-facing copy as integration tokens) are explicitly designed for desktop integrations where implementing browser-based authentication is non-trivial, or software like plugins where it is impossible to secure a client secret. You should not request that a user give you an integration token if you don’t meet these criteria. Users will be cautioned within Medium to treat integration tokens like passwords, and dissuaded from making them generally available.

Users can generate an access token from the Settings page of their Medium account.

You should instruct your user to visit this URL and generate an integration token from the Integration Tokens section. You should suggest a description for this token - typically the name of your product or feature - and use it consistently for all users.

Self-issued access tokens currently grant the basicProfile and publishPost scope. A future iteration of the API will require a user to select the scope they wish to grant access to.

Self-issued access tokens do not expire, though they may be revoked by the user at any time.

3. Resources

The API is RESTful and arranged around resources. All requests must be made with an integration token. All requests must be made using https.

Typically, the first request you make should be to acquire user details. This will confirm that your access token is valid, and give you a user id that you will need for subsequent requests.

3.1. Users

Getting the authenticated user’s details

Returns details of the user who has granted permission to the application.

GET https://api.medium.com/v1/me

Example request:

GET /v1/me HTTP/1.1
Host: api.medium.com
Authorization: Bearer 181d415f34379af07b2c11d144dfbe35d
Content-Type: application/json
Accept: application/json
Accept-Charset: utf-8

The response is a User object within a data envelope.

Example response:

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Content-Type: application/json; charset=utf-8

{
  "data": {
    "id": "5303d74c64f66366f00cb9b2a94f3251bf5",
    "username": "majelbstoat",
    "name": "Jamie Talbot",
    "url": "https://medium.com/@majelbstoat",
    "imageUrl": "https://images.medium.com/0*fkfQiTzT7TlUGGyI.png"
  }
}

Where a User object is:

Field	Type	Description
id	string	A unique identifier for the user.
username	string	The user’s username on Medium.
name	string	The user’s name on Medium.
url	string	The URL to the user’s profile on Medium
imageUrl	string	The URL to the user’s avatar on Medium

Possible errors:

Error code	Description
401 Unauthorized	The `accessToken` is invalid or has been revoked.

3.2. Publications

Listing the user’s publications

Returns a full list of publications that the user is related to in some way: This includes all publications the user is subscribed to, writes to, or edits. This endpoint offers a set of data similar to what you’ll see at https://medium.com/me/publications when logged in.

The REST API endpoint exposes this list of publications as a collection of resources under the user. A request to fetch a list of publications for a user looks like this:

GET https://api.medium.com/v1/users/{{userId}}/publications

The response is a list of publication objects. An empty array is returned if user doesn’t have relations to any publications. The response array is wrapped in a data envelope.

Example response:

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Content-Type: application/json; charset=utf-8

{
  "data": [
    {
      "id": "b969ac62a46b",
      "name": "About Medium",
      "description": "What is this thing and how does it work?",
      "url": "https://medium.com/about",
      "imageUrl": "https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/fit/c/200/200/0*ae1jbP_od0W6EulE.jpeg"
    },
    {
      "id": "b45573563f5a",
      "name": "Developers",
      "description": "Medium’s Developer resources",
      "url": "https://medium.com/developers",
      "imageUrl": "https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/fit/c/200/200/1*ccokMT4VXmDDO1EoQQHkzg@2x.png"
    }
  ]
}

Where a Publication object is:

Field	Type	Description
id	string	A unique identifier for the publication.
name	string	The publication’s name on Medium.
description	string	Short description of the publication
url	string	The URL to the publication’s homepage
imageUrl	string	The URL to the publication’s image/logo

Possible errors:

Error code	Description
401 Unauthorized	The `accessToken` is invalid, lacks the `listPublications` scope or has been revoked.
401 Forbidden	The request attempts to list publications for another user.

Fetching contributors for a publication

This endpoint returns a list of contributors for a given publication. In other words, a list of Medium users who are allowed to publish under a publication, as well as a description of their exact role in the publication (for now, either an editor or a writer). The API endpoint exposes the contributors as list of resources under a publication. An example request looks like this:

GET https://api.medium.com/v1/publications/{{publicationId}}/contributors

In the response, each contributor is represented with the ID of the publication, the ID of the user as well as the role of this user in this publication. An example response looks like this:

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Content-Type: application/json; charset=utf-8

{
  "data": [
    {
      "publicationId": "b45573563f5a",
      "userId": "13a06af8f81849c64dafbce822cbafbfab7ed7cecf82135bca946807ea351290d",
      "role": "editor"
    },
    {
      "publicationId": "b45573563f5a",
      "userId": "1c9c63b15b874d3e354340b7d7458d55e1dda0f6470074df1cc99608a372866ac",
      "role": "editor"
    },
    {
      "publicationId": "b45573563f5a",
      "userId": "1cc07499453463518b77d31650c0b53609dc973ad8ebd33690c7be9236e9384ad",
      "role": "editor"
    },
    {
      "publicationId": "b45573563f5a",
      "userId": "196f70942410555f4b3030debc4f199a0d5a0309a7b9df96c57b8ec6e4b5f11d7",
      "role": "writer"
    },
    {
      "publicationId": "b45573563f5a",
      "userId": "14d4a581f21ff537d245461b8ff2ae9b271b57d9554e25d863e3df6ef03ddd480",
      "role": "writer"
    }
  ]
}

Where a contributor is:

Field	Type	Description
publicationId	string	An ID for the publication. This can be lifted from response of publications above
userId	string	A user ID of the contributor.
role	string	Role of the user identified by userId in the publication identified by publicationId. 'editor' or 'writer'

Possible errors:

Error code	Description
401 Unauthorized	The `accessToken` is invalid, or has been revoked.

3.3. Posts

Creating a post

Creates a post on the authenticated user’s profile.

POST https://api.medium.com/v1/users/{{authorId}}/posts

Where authorId is the user id of the authenticated user.

Example request:

POST /v1/users/5303d74c64f66366f00cb9b2a94f3251bf5/posts HTTP/1.1
Host: api.medium.com
Authorization: Bearer 181d415f34379af07b2c11d144dfbe35d
Content-Type: application/json
Accept: application/json
Accept-Charset: utf-8

{
  "title": "Liverpool FC",
  "contentFormat": "html",
  "content": "<h1>Liverpool FC</h1><p>You’ll never walk alone.</p>",
  "canonicalUrl": "http://jamietalbot.com/posts/liverpool-fc",
  "tags": ["football", "sport", "Liverpool"],
  "publishStatus": "public"
}

With the following fields:

Parameter	Type	Required?	Description
title	string	required	The title of the post. Note that this title is used for SEO and when rendering the post as a listing, but will not appear in the actual post—for that, the title must be specified in the `content` field as well. Titles longer than 100 characters will be ignored. In that case, a title will be synthesized from the first content in the post when it is published.
contentFormat	string	required	The format of the "content" field. There are two valid values, "html", and "markdown"
content	string	required	The body of the post, in a valid, semantic, HTML fragment, or Markdown. Further markups may be supported in the future. For a full list of accepted HTML tags, see here. If you want your title to appear on the post page, you must also include it as part of the post content.
tags	string array	optional	Tags to classify the post. Only the first three will be used. Tags longer than 25 characters will be ignored.
canonicalUrl	string	optional	The original home of this content, if it was originally published elsewhere.
publishStatus	enum	optional	The status of the post. Valid values are “public”, “draft”, or “unlisted”. The default is “public”.
license	enum	optional	The license of the post. Valid values are “all-rights-reserved”, “cc-40-by”, “cc-40-by-sa”, “cc-40-by-nd”, “cc-40-by-nc”, “cc-40-by-nc-nd”, “cc-40-by-nc-sa”, “cc-40-zero”, “public-domain”. The default is “all-rights-reserved”.
notifyFollowers	bool	optional	Whether to notifyFollowers that the user has published.

The response is a Post object within a data envelope. Example response:

HTTP/1.1 201 OK
Content-Type: application/json; charset=utf-8

{
  "data": {
    "id": "e6f36a",
    "title": "Liverpool FC",
    "authorId": "5303d74c64f66366f00cb9b2a94f3251bf5",
    "tags": ["football", "sport", "Liverpool"],
    "url": "https://medium.com/@majelbstoat/liverpool-fc-e6f36a",
    "canonicalUrl": "http://jamietalbot.com/posts/liverpool-fc",
    "publishStatus": "public",
    "publishedAt": 1442286338435,
    "license": "all-rights-reserved",
    "licenseUrl": "https://medium.com/policy/9db0094a1e0f"
  }
}

Where a Post object is:

Field	Type	Description
id	string	A unique identifier for the post.
title	string	The post’s title
authorId	string	The userId of the post’s author
tags	string array	The post’s tags
url	string	The URL of the post on Medium
canonicalUrl	string	The canonical URL of the post. If canonicalUrl was not specified in the creation of the post, this field will not be present.
publishStatus	string	The publish status of the post.
publishedAt	timestamp	The post’s published date. If created as a draft, this field will not be present.
license	enum	The license of the post.
licenseUrl	string	The URL to the license of the post.

Possible errors:

Error code	Description
400 Bad Request	Required fields were invalid, not specified.
401 Unauthorized	The access token is invalid or has been revoked.
403 Forbidden	The user does not have permission to publish, or the authorId in the request path points to wrong/non-existent user.

Creating a post under a publication

This API allows creating a post and associating it with a publication on Medium. The request also shows this association, considering posts a collection of resources under a publication:

POST https://api.medium.com/v1/publications/{{publicationId}}/posts

Here publicationId is the id of the publication the post is being created under. The publicationId can be acquired from the API for listing user’s publications.

Example request:

POST /v1/publications/b45573563f5a/posts HTTP/1.1
Host: api.medium.com
Authorization: Bearer 181d415f34379af07b2c11d144dfbe35d
Content-Type: application/json
Accept: application/json
Accept-Charset: utf-8

{
  "title": "Hard things in software development",
  "contentFormat": "html",
  "content": "<p>Cache invalidation</p><p>Naming things</p>",
  "tags": ["development", "design"],
  "publishStatus": "draft"
}

The definition of request data is equal to the regular call to create a post above. The response is identical except for adding one additional field:

Field	Type	Description
publicationId	string	ID of the publication this post was created under. This matches the publication ID requested in the URL of the request

There are additional rules around publishing that each request to this API must respect:

If the authenticated user is an 'editor' for the publication, they can create posts with any publish status. Posts published as 'public' or 'unlisted' will appear in collection immediately, while posts created as 'draft' will remain in pending state under publication.
If the authenticated user is a 'writer' for the chosen publication, they can only create a post as a 'draft'. That post will remain in pending state under publication until an editor for the publication approves it.
If the authenticated user is neither a 'writer' nor an 'editor', they are not allowed to create any posts in a publication.

Possible errors:

Error code	Description
400 Bad Request	Required fields were invalid, not specified.
401 Unauthorized	The access token is invalid or has been revoked.
403 Forbidden	The `publicationId` in request path doesn’t point to a publication that the user can publish into.

3.4. Images

Uploading an image

Most integrations will not need to use this resource. Medium will automatically side-load any images specified by the src attribute on an <img> tag in post content when creating a post. However, if you are building a desktop integration and have local image files that you wish to send, you may use the images endpoint.

Unlike other API endpoints, this requires multipart form-encoded data.

POST https://api.medium.com/v1/images

Example request:

POST /v1/images HTTP/1.1
Host: api.medium.com
Authorization: Bearer 181d415f34379af07b2c11d144dfbe35d
Content-Type: multipart/form-data; boundary=FormBoundaryXYZ
Accept: application/json
Accept-Charset: utf-8

--FormBoundaryXYZ
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="image"; filename="filename.png"
Content-Type: image/png

IMAGE_DATA
--FormBoundaryXYZ--

The field name must be image. All lines in the body must be terminated with \r\n. Only one image may be sent per request. The following image content types are supported:

image/jpeg
image/png
image/gif
image/tiff

Animated gifs are supported. Use your power for good.

The response is an Image object within a data envelope. Example response:

HTTP/1.1 201 OK
Content-Type: application/json; charset=utf-8

{
  "data": {
    "url": "https://images.medium.com/0*fkfQiTzT7TlUGGyI.png",
    "md5": "fkfQiTzT7TlUGGyI"
  }
}

Where an Image object is:

Field	Type	Description
url	string	The URL of the image.
md5	string	An MD5 hash of the image data.

You may choose to persist the md5 and url of uploaded images in a local store, so that you can quickly determine in future whether an image needs to be uploaded to Medium, or if an existing URL can be reused.

4. Testing

We do not have a sandbox environment yet. To test, please feel free to create a testing account. We recommend you do this by registering using an email address rather than Facebook or Twitter, as registering with the latter two automatically creates follower relationships on Medium between your connections on those networks.

These endpoints will perform actions on production data on medium.com. Please test with care.

5. SDKs

A number of SDKs, both official and unofficial, are available.

fazlerocks/medium-api-docs

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