Introduction

The Skills API provides access to Lightcast’s collection of defined skills. Each skill includes a unique identifier and type, organized within Lightcast’s standardized skills taxonomy.

For more information, refer to the Lightcast Skills Taxonomy.

Note: By default, all clients are allowed a maximum of 5 requests per second. Contact us if you require higher limits.

📑Latest OpenAPI Specification

Request Headers

(*) Indicates the action to be required

All requests must include the following headers:

Header Key	Value	Description
*Authorization	Bearer `<ACCESS_TOKEN>`	This is the token obtained from the Authentication API. Include it in this header to authorize the request. (This must be included in all authenticated requests)
Content-Type	application/json	Required for endpoints that accept a request body. Specifies that the body is in JSON format.

Authentication

All endpoints in this category require an OAuth 2.0 Bearer Token for authentication. Tokens are granted through Lightcast’s Authentication API and are valid for 1 hour.

To access the Skills API, the token must include one of the following scopes:

lightcast_open_free (for open tier access)
emsi_open (for expanded access)

Sample Request

curl --request POST \
  --url https://auth.emsicloud.com/connect/token \
  --header 'Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded' \
  --data client_id=CLIENT_ID \
  --data client_secret=CLIENT_SECRET \
  --data grant_type=client_credentials \
  --data scope=lightcast_open_free

Request Parameters

Parameter	Type	Description
client_id	string	The client ID provided by Lightcast.
client_secret	string	The client secret associated with your client ID.
grant_type	string	Must be set to `client_credentials.`
scope	string	Use `lightcast_open_free` or `emsi_open` based on your access.

Sample Response

{
  "access_token": "<ACCESS_TOKEN>",
  "expires_in": 3600,
  "token_type": "Bearer"
}

Note that the Tokens expire after 3600 seconds. To maintain uninterrupted access, refresh the token before it expires. To know more about this, refer to the Authentication guide.

Response Parameters

Parameter	Type	Description
access_token	string	The token used to authorize the API requests.
expires_in	integer	Number of seconds before the token expires.
token_type	string	Indicates the type of token. (Always Bearer)

Status Code Summary

Code	Meaning	Description
200	OK	Request was successful.
400	Bad Request	The request was unacceptable, often due to missing a required parameter.
401	Unauthorized	Authentication error.
404	Not Found	Resource not found.

🔗
For a complete list of HTTP status codes and their meanings, refer here.

Licensing and Attribution

Some responses may include skill descriptions sourced from Wikipedia. These are distributed under the CC BY-SA License.