Acceptable use
What you may not do with Lineage API, and what happens if you do.
Draft for review. Rex has not approved this page yet, and it may change before the API launches.
Last updated November 1, 2026
No research on living people
Do not use Lineage to research a living person. A person is treated as not living only when a death date is on record, or when a known birth was more than 110 years ago. Everyone else, including anyone with no dates at all, is treated as living. The check is required before any research, any record returned and any contact request draft. Do not try to get around it, for example by leaving out or changing dates.
No harassment or stalking
Do not use Lineage, or anything it returns, to harass, stalk, threaten, locate or expose anyone. This includes using records about the dead to find or pressure their living relatives.
No bulk scraping of archives
Do not use the API to copy an archive in bulk, to crawl it, or to rebuild its catalog. Spreading requests across several keys or accounts to get past a limit counts as bulk scraping. If you need a whole collection, use the bulk download the archive offers; some sources in the registry name one in their notes.
Respect each source's terms
Every source in the registry has its own terms. Its page links the terms we read and the date we read them. You must follow those terms for anything Lineage returns from that source.
Do not resell or republish source data where the source forbids it. Some sources also forbid caching or storing what they return; the source page says so where we found it.
Contact requests
Send only drafts you have read and would sign yourself. Do not use drafts to flood an archive with requests. Lineage never sends mail for you.
Keys
Do not share a key outside the people or program it was made for, and do not use someone else's key.
What happens
Requests about living people are refused automatically and cost 0 credits. For other breaches, we may revoke the key or close the account.
To report misuse: [placeholder: contact address not set yet].