Skip to content
xivapi

Open Source

Without the broad community of developers that has formed around FFXIV since its release, and the uncountable hours put into building and maintaing the tools and ecosystem we’ve come to expect, this API simply could not exist.

XIVAPI makes use of, is, and will always be open source. Many of the projects associated with it can be found in the github organisation.

Behind the Scenes

These projects are directly used by, or form part of, XIVAPI itself.

xivapi/static
The website you’re reading this on! Supplementary pages, including documentation and utilities, are served as a static site built using Astro.
ackwell/boilmaster
The API server itself, responsible for everything under /api. Boilmaster has been written from the outset to form an extensible and maintainable platform that can power XIVAPI for years to come.
xivdev/EXDSchema
The default excel schema used throughout the API. Without EXDSchema and the prior art of the SaintCoinach schema, finding and utilising the content found in sheets would be significantly harder.
Thaliak
The service that powers automatic version discovery throughout the API. With Thaliak, we can be sure that the API remains up to date with the latest game data.

API Clients

As a web API, XIVAPI can be utilised without any further support libraries in any environment that is capable of making outbound requests. Libraries are available that build further language-specific utilities and support around the underlying API, maintained by the community:

The API also exposes an OpenAPI document at /api/openapi.json that is generated from the current API implementation, and powers the API reference at /api/docs.

Alternatives

XIVAPI is not perfect for every use-case - and doesn’t try to be! There is an incredibly broad selection of alternative tools and services available from across the FFXIV developer community. The list below is a small selection of these that may be better suited to what you are trying to achieve.

Lodestone Data

FFXIV’s official website, Lodestone, has publicly accessible pages with information about characters, free companies, and the like. A few libraries and/or services are available that can read this information for use.

You can also write your own library using the shared css selectors found at xivapi/lodestone-css-selectors

Didn’t the API use to support Lodestone?

Yes, it did. Unfortunately, this meant that every request that hit the Lodestone came from the API, rather than an individual consumer. Despite efforts at the time, downstream overuse of Lodestone data lead to increasingly high error rates in responses. Eventually the API was completely blocked by Lodestone.

There are no current plans to re-introduce this functionality.

Local Game Files

The API is primarily intended for use on the web, where game files aren’t readily accessible. If you know your code will have access to an installation of the game, using a game data library will likely prove significantly faster and more capable than the API.

NotAdam/Lumina
C#/.NET. The most broadly used game data library in the community. Supports many game file formats, and offers a generated class library for ergonomic consumption of sheet data.
ackwell/ironworks
Rust. The data library powering XIVAPI. Modular, with support for common file formats and reading directly from game patch files.

Exploration

While access to data is great if you know what you’re looking for, it can be daunting to look through. A few tools collate and/or provide an interface for research and exploration of the data available.

NotNite/Alpha
Alpha is a modern data exploration toolkit, containing a variety of tools for navigating game data.
Godbert
Data exploration tool primarily focusing on sheets. Part of SaintCoinach - while Godbert is a useful tool, it’s strongly recommended to use Lumina if building a new project in .NET.
goaaats/ffxiv-explorer-fork
One of the older tools, FFXIV Explorer remains a no-frills tool for navigating game file content.
ResLogger2
Centralised repository of all known asset paths in the game. Used widely by many of the tools and services above.

Runtime

For data not available from static game files or lodestone, it may be possible to build the project as a plugin, where runtime information from a game session can be used in real time.

Dalamud
Dalamud is the predominant plugin ecosystem for FFXIV, and is an excellent starting point for building runtime tools and utilities.