---
title: "Get an entry"
method: GET
path: "/api/v1/entities/{vhid}"
tags: ["Entries"]
---

# Get an entry

`GET /api/v1/entities/{vhid}`

## Request

- Base URL: `https://verifiedhandles.org`
- URL: `https://verifiedhandles.org/api/v1/entities/{vhid}`
- Auth: none required

Everything the entry’s page shows, as data: its title, description, images with their rights, and handles. It is built by the same code as the page, so the two never disagree. An old name or a merged entry’s key answers with the entry it now leads to, without a redirect; `vhid` and `url` say which entry that is. The same body is served at `/{key}.json`.

Any origin may read it: `Access-Control-Allow-Origin: *`, methods GET and OPTIONS, no credentials. An `OPTIONS` preflight answers 204. No key is needed. A request that sends one (`Authorization: Bearer`) has it checked, so a wrong, revoked or expired key is refused 401, and is counted against the key’s read limit; it gets the same answer, marked `no-store`.

## Path parameters

- `vhid` string, required

## Response `200`

The entry.

- Entity: An entry: the same data its page shows, from the same code. Email addresses are masked. The text is CC0, except a description taken from Wikipedia (`description_license`).
  - `vhid` string, required: The entry’s VHID: 11 digits, permanent.
  - `short` string, nullable, required: The entry’s short name (`/<short>`), if it has one.
  - `title` string, required
  - `subtitle` string, nullable, required
  - `entity_type` string, nullable, required: What it is, from its Wikidata item: `person`, `organization` or `brand`; null when unknown. `entity_kind` says more.
  - `entity_kind` 'person' | 'musical_group' | 'sports_organization' | 'broadcaster' | 'publisher' | 'educational_institution' | 'research_organization' | 'religious_organization' | 'museum' | 'financial_institution' | 'chain' | 'nonprofit' | 'company' | 'organization' | 'show' | 'website' | 'software' | 'brand', nullable, required: The finer kind of thing it is, from its Wikidata item’s classes; null when unknown (an organisation or a brand not yet read since kinds were added reads null until the sync next reads its item). Each kind belongs to one `entity_type`, and `person`, `organization` and `brand` are also the kinds of an entry of that type with no finer one. The kinds, with their type: `person` (person: person), `musical_group` (organization: musical group), `sports_organization` (organization: sports organisation), `broadcaster` (organization: broadcaster), `publisher` (organization: publisher), `educational_institution` (organization: educational institution), `research_organization` (organization: research organisation), `religious_organization` (organization: religious organisation), `museum` (organization: museum), `financial_institution` (organization: financial institution), `chain` (organization: retail or hospitality chain), `nonprofit` (organization: charity or non-profit), `company` (organization: company), `organization` (organization: organisation), `show` (brand: show), `website` (brand: website or app), `software` (brand: software), `brand` (brand: brand). New kinds may be added; treat an unknown value as its `entity_type`.
  - `verified` boolean, required: Verified Handles has verified the entry.
  - `description` string, nullable, required: The description as sanitised HTML, links to other entries named as they are today.
  - `description_source` DescriptionSource, required: The English Wikipedia page an entry’s description was taken from: an article, or a draft (`draft: true`).
    - `kind` string, required: The source’s kind (`wikipedia`).
    - `title` string, required: The page’s title, underscored (`Draft:` first for a draft).
    - `url` string, required: The page.
    - `adapted` boolean: Present and true when the text has been edited on the site since.
    - `revision` integer: The page’s revision the text was taken from: its permalink is `https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=<title>&oldid=<revision>`. Absent on a credit from before revisions were kept.
    - `draft` true: Present and true when the page is an English Wikipedia draft (the Draft namespace), not yet an article.
  - `description_license` 'CC-BY-SA-4.0', nullable, required: The description’s licence, as an SPDX id: `CC-BY-SA-4.0` when it was taken from Wikipedia (`description_source` is set), which means crediting the article and sharing alike. Null otherwise: the description is CC0 like the rest of the text.
  - `url` string, required: The entry’s canonical page.
  - `image` string, nullable, required: The lead image (the same as `images[0].url`), or null.
  - `image_rights` ImageRights, required: Who owns an image and how it may be reused. An entry’s text is CC0 (bar a description taken from Wikipedia); its images are licensed separately, by their owners.
    - `source` 'wikimedia_commons' | 'upload', required: Where the image came from.
    - `license` 'cc0-1.0' | 'public-domain' | 'cc-by-4.0' | 'cc-by-sa-4.0' | 'supplied' | 'permission' | 'none', nullable, required: An upload’s licence, by id. Null for a Commons image (see `license_name`) or when none was recorded.
    - `license_name` string, nullable, required: The licence’s name, e.g. "CC BY-SA 4.0". Null until it is known.
    - `license_url` string, nullable, required: The licence’s text.
    - `freely_licensed` boolean, nullable, required: May be reused under a free licence. Null when no licence is recorded.
    - `credit` string, nullable, required: The credit line to show when reusing the image.
    - `source_page` string, nullable, required: The image’s Wikimedia Commons file page, which states its licence and author.
    - `details_url` string, required: The entry’s "About this image" page.
  - `images` EntityImage[], required: Every image the entry shows, the lead first. Empty when it shows none.
    - `url` string, required: The image, as a path on this site (`/img/w/480q75/<id>`).
    - `main` boolean, required: True for the lead image, false for the gallery images after it.
    - `image_rights` ImageRights, required: Who owns an image and how it may be reused. An entry’s text is CC0 (bar a description taken from Wikipedia); its images are licensed separately, by their owners.
      - `source` 'wikimedia_commons' | 'upload', required: Where the image came from.
      - `license` 'cc0-1.0' | 'public-domain' | 'cc-by-4.0' | 'cc-by-sa-4.0' | 'supplied' | 'permission' | 'none', nullable, required: An upload’s licence, by id. Null for a Commons image (see `license_name`) or when none was recorded.
      - `license_name` string, nullable, required: The licence’s name, e.g. "CC BY-SA 4.0". Null until it is known.
      - `license_url` string, nullable, required: The licence’s text.
      - `freely_licensed` boolean, nullable, required: May be reused under a free licence. Null when no licence is recorded.
      - `credit` string, nullable, required: The credit line to show when reusing the image.
      - `source_page` string, nullable, required: The image’s Wikimedia Commons file page, which states its licence and author.
      - `details_url` string, required: The entry’s "About this image" page.
    - `link` string, nullable, required: Where the image links on the entry page instead of opening the full-screen viewer, or null.
  - `handles` Handle[], required
    - `platform` string, required: The platform’s id (`twitter`, `instagram`, `wikidata`, …).
    - `name` string, required: The platform’s display name.
    - `category` 'social' | 'messaging' | 'website' | 'identifier', required: How the entry page groups it.
    - `value` string, nullable, required: The handle as stored (a username, an id, a URL). Null for an email address, which is never published as data.
    - `display` string, nullable, required: The label the entry page shows instead of the value, if an editor set one. Null for email.
    - `url` string, nullable, required: The profile’s address, built from the platform’s URL pattern. Null for email.
    - `verified` boolean, required: Verified Handles has checked that this account belongs to the entry.
    - `checked` object: What Verified Handles’ own handle checker found when it last looked at this account, from the platform’s official API: only on YouTube (channel and handle), Deezer and GitHub, and only for a look at most 7 days old. Absent otherwise. The entry page shows it only for `dead` (“Not found when checked …”) and `renamed`.
      - `verdict` 'live' | 'dead' | 'renamed' | 'unknown', required: `live`: the profile was there. `dead`: the platform did not find it. `renamed`: it answers under another name. `unknown`: the platform gave no answer a rule could read.
      - `at` string, required: When it looked (ISO 8601, UTC).
      - `now` string: For `renamed`, the name it answers to now, when the platform gave one. A YouTube handle’s is lowercase.

## Other responses

- `304`: Unchanged since the ETag sent in `If-None-Match`. No body.
- `404`: No public entry answers to that key.
- `429`: Too many requests from this IP address in the last minute (at a route that takes a key, an admin key’s are counted per key instead, at the limits set on Console → Rate limits). Wait the number of seconds `Retry-After` gives.
- `503`: The site is down for maintenance. The body is the maintenance page, as HTML. Try again later: `Retry-After` gives the seconds.

---

[API](https://skmtc.dev/verifiedhandles/apis/verified-handles-api.md) · [All operations](https://skmtc.dev/verifiedhandles/apis/verified-handles-api/llms.txt) · [OpenAPI document](https://skmtc.dev/verifiedhandles/apis/verified-handles-api/revisions/40720de2e0ec?raw)