Stack Exchange

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: [email protected]