---
title: "Claim an image as your own work"
method: POST
path: "/v1/images/{id}/claim"
tags: ["Uploads"]
---

# Claim an image as your own work

`POST /v1/images/{id}/claim`

## Request

- Base URL: `https://api.memestack.ai`
- URL: `https://api.memestack.ai/v1/images/{id}/claim`
- Auth: HTTP bearer

File a creator work claim on an image somebody else uploaded ("This is my work"). Claims are adjudicated by hand; a granted claim moves the image to the claimant's account with creator credit. The image must be approved, visible to the caller, not the caller's own upload, and from a claimable source: every AI-generated origin (generated:, grok-mcp:, grok-anon:) and Our World in Data charts are unclaimable. Rate limited 5/min and 20/day per user. Gated by the WORK_CLAIMS_ENABLED feature flag: while it is off this route answers 404, exactly as if it did not exist.

## Path parameters

- `id` string, uuid, required

## Request body

- object
  - `proof_url` string, uri, required: An https:// URL where you publish the original work (your site, or the post you first shared it from). Measured after URL normalization.
  - `statement` string, required: Free-form statement of authorship for the reviewer.

## Response `201`

Claim filed and awaiting review.

- object
  - `claim` object
    - `id` string, uuid
    - `status` 'pending'

## Other responses

- `400`: Validation error. Body validation messages name the offending field (`proof_url: …` / `statement: …`) and carry no code; the two semantic refusals carry one: CANNOT_CLAIM_OWN (you uploaded this image) and SOURCE_NOT_CLAIMABLE (AI-generated or public-dataset origin).
- `401`: Authentication required.
- `404`: Image not found, not approved, not visible to you — or the WORK_CLAIMS_ENABLED flag is off.
- `409`: You already have a pending claim on this image.
- `429`: Rate limit exceeded (5/min or 20/day), or you already hold the maximum of 25 open claims — code TOO_MANY_OPEN_CLAIMS in the latter case.

---

[API](https://skmtc.dev/memestack/apis/memestack-api.md) · [All operations](https://skmtc.dev/memestack/apis/memestack-api/llms.txt) · [OpenAPI document](https://skmtc.dev/memestack/apis/memestack-api/revisions/9d3a19565f75?raw)