Terms of use

What Lineage API is

Lineage API is a records API for agents. It is built and run by Rex St. John.

The research API is not live. Today the site answers sign-in, API key management, and the source catalog at /v1/sources, which needs no key. Searches, records and contact requests are not available yet.

Accounts

You sign in with GitHub or Google. The first sign-in creates your account. Email and password sign-in is not available.

You are responsible for what is done with your account and your keys.

API keys

• A key is shown once, when you create it. Lineage keeps only a SHA-256 hash of the key and its first 16 characters, so a lost key cannot be shown again. Create a new one instead.
• Production accepts live keys only. Keys made on this site start with lin_sk_live_. A test key sent to production gets a 401 invalid_api_key error.
• Each key has a rate limit per minute. The default is 60 and the most you can set is 600.
• You can revoke a key on the keys page. A revoked key stops working at once and gets an api_key_revoked error.
• Keep keys secret. Do not put them in client code, public repositories or URLs. Lineage reads keys from the Authorization header only and ignores keys in query strings.

We may revoke a key that is used against the acceptable use policy.

Credits and payment

Searches will be paid for with prepaid credits. Payments are handled by Stripe when enabled. Stripe is not live: checkout is not configured, and no payment can be taken today.

• Credits are added only after Stripe confirms a payment through a verified webhook. Returning to the credits page after checkout does not add credits by itself.
• Unused credit value from a purchase can be refunded within 24 hours of that purchase. The purchase fee is not refunded.
• A request blocked by the living-person rule costs 0 credits.
• Auto top-up is off. Lineage does not save a card for later charges.

Current pack sizes and the purchase fee are listed on the credits page.

Records and sources

Records will come from public archives that Lineage does not run. Archives can be wrong, incomplete or out of date, and Lineage can misread them. Check the cited source before you rely on a record.

Each source has its own terms. You must follow them when you use what Lineage returns. The source pages link the terms we read for each one.

Living people

Lineage refuses research on living people. 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. A blocked request returns living_person_blocked and costs 0 credits.

Contact requests

A contact request is a draft letter for an archive that only answers by mail or email. You review it and send it yourself. Lineage never sends mail and never pays archive fees for you.

No promise of availability

Lineage is offered as it is. We do not promise that it will be available at any given time, or that any record is complete or correct.

These terms will change as the API ships. The date at the top of this page changes when they do.

Contact

Questions about these terms: [placeholder: contact address not set yet].