API Anything

Turn any website into an agent-ready API harness — without taking the human out of the loop.

API Anything is a local-first runtime for wrapping websites, dashboards, docs, and browser-authenticated apps as typed capabilities that AI agents can inspect and run and humans can understand and approve.

Website / Web app  ──►  API Anything Harness  ──►  Agent / CLI / MCP / Workflow
Human UI               manifest + adapter          typed JSON capability

Why this exists

Humans use websites. Agents need APIs.

A lot of real work still happens inside messy web apps: WhatsApp Web, admin panels, CRMs, docs, inboxes, social tools, dashboards, and portals. Many of those apps either have no public API, have a slow/expensive API, or still require a browser-authenticated human session.

API Anything adds a small bridge:

🧩 describe a website as a site harness;
📜 expose actions as typed capabilities;
🤖 let agents discover capabilities through JSON/CLI/FastAPI;
👤 let humans read what will happen before it happens;
🔐 keep sessions and secrets local;
🧑‍⚖️ require human approval before writes.

No vendor lock-in. No agent-framework lock-in. No personal workspace assumptions.

Who it is for

For humans

Use API Anything when you want agents to help with websites you already use, while keeping final control over risky actions.

Examples:

read a WhatsApp Web conversation summary;
pull data from a dashboard;
search docs and return grounded answers;
prepare a social post but require approval before publishing;
send a message only after a human reviewed the exact text and destination.

For agents and harnesses

Use API Anything as an inspectable tool layer:

JSON-first CLI output;
FastAPI runtime;
manifest-based capability contracts;
read/write risk separation;
deterministic adapter entrypoint: run(capability_id, params, context);
doctor and inspect commands before execution;
write actions blocked unless human approval metadata is present.

Compatible with:

CLI agents
MCP tools/servers
browser automation workers
workflow engines
local daemons
custom AI runtimes
CI/test harnesses

Install

Option 1: install directly from GitHub

python3 -m pip install --user pipx
python3 -m pipx ensurepath
pipx install "git+https://github.com/<owner>/api-anything.git"
api-anything --help

Option 2: local development

git clone https://github.com/<owner>/api-anything.git
cd api-anything
python3 -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
pip install -e '.[dev]'
pytest -q
api-anything --help

60-second start

Create a local harness skeleton:

api-anything --root ~/.api-anything discover \
  --site-id example-com \
  --name "Example" \
  --base-url https://example.com \
  --capability read_page

Inspect it:

api-anything --root ~/.api-anything list
api-anything --root ~/.api-anything doctor
api-anything --root ~/.api-anything inspect example-com
api-anything --root ~/.api-anything caps example-com

Run a read capability:

api-anything --root ~/.api-anything run example-com read_page \
  --params '{"path":"/"}'

Wikipedia / WikiAlive example

Wikipedia is a clean read-only example: every article has the same rough shape, so the harness can turn a plain article URL into structured learning data.

api-anything --root ~/.api-anything inspect wikipedia
api-anything --root ~/.api-anything run wikipedia wikialive \
  --params '{"url":"https://he.wikipedia.org/wiki/משה_שרת"}'
api-anything --root ~/.api-anything run wikipedia wikialive \
  --params '{"url":"https://wiki-alive.vercel.app/wiki/משה_שרת"}'

Available capabilities:

Capability	Type	What it does
`extract_article`	read	fetches a Wikipedia article through the official API
`wikialive`	read	returns summary, story, timeline, quiz, cards, keywords, and a WikiAlive URL
`build_timeline`	read	extracts dated events from the article
`generate_quiz`	read	creates simple quiz questions from the article

WhatsApp Web API example

The important idea is simple: once a website has a harness, agents do not need to guess the UI every time. They inspect the available commands and run one capability.

api-anything --root ~/.api-anything inspect whatsapp-web
api-anything --root ~/.api-anything caps whatsapp-web

Available capabilities in the WhatsApp Web example:

Capability	Type	What it does
`health`	read	checks that the browser session is available
`list_chats`	read	returns recent chats
`extract_today`	read	extracts today's messages across chats
`extract_date`	read	extracts messages for a date
`extract_chat`	read	extracts one chat
`summary_today`	read	returns a structured daily summary
`send_message`	write	sends a message after human approval

Run a read command:

api-anything --root ~/.api-anything run whatsapp-web list_chats \
  --params '{"max_chats":10}'

Run a write command:

api-anything --root ~/.api-anything run whatsapp-web send_message \
  --params '{"chat":"Example Contact","text":"Final approved message"}' \
  --confirmed \
  --approved-by "human-reviewer" \
  --approval-summary "Reviewed final message text and destination"

That is the whole shape: inspect → choose capability → run → get JSON.

What a website API looks like

A site harness is just a folder:

~/.api-anything/
  sites/
    whatsapp-web/
      manifest.yaml
      adapter.py
      docs.md

The manifest tells agents and humans what is available:

site_id: whatsapp-web
name: WhatsApp Web
base_url: https://web.whatsapp.com/
auth:
  type: existing_browser_session
capabilities:
  list_chats:
    type: read
    params: {}
    returns: object
  extract_chat_by_date:
    type: read
    params:
      chat: string
      date: string
    returns: object
  send_message:
    type: write
    params:
      chat: string
      text: string
    requires_confirmation: true
    returns: object

The adapter implements the capabilities:

def run(capability_id, params, context):
    if capability_id == "list_chats":
        return {"ok": True, "chats": []}

    if capability_id == "send_message":
        # This code is reached only after API Anything verifies:
        # confirmed=true + human_approval.approved=true.
        return {"ok": True, "sent": True, "evidence": "sent item visible"}

    raise ValueError(f"unknown capability: {capability_id}")

Human-in-the-loop safety

Reads are automatic. Writes are not.

For anything that publishes, sends, deletes, updates, buys, submits, or changes external state, API Anything requires two gates:

confirmed: true / --confirmed
human approval metadata proving someone reviewed the exact action

CLI example:

api-anything --root ~/.api-anything run whatsapp-web send_message \
  --params '{"chat":"Example Contact","text":"Final approved message"}' \
  --confirmed \
  --approved-by "human-reviewer" \
  --approval-summary "Reviewed final message text and destination"

HTTP example:

{
  "params": {
    "chat": "Example Contact",
    "text": "Final approved message"
  },
  "confirmed": true,
  "human_approval": {
    "approved": true,
    "approved_by": "human-reviewer",
    "action_summary": "Reviewed final message text and destination"
  }
}

Optional integrity check:

callers may include reviewed_params_sha256;
if the final params differ, the write is rejected;
the user must review again.

FastAPI server

Local development:

uvicorn api_anything.server:app --app-dir src --reload --host 127.0.0.1 --port 8787

Network-exposed deployments should set a token and sit behind HTTPS/reverse proxy:

export API_ANYTHING_TOKEN='***'
uvicorn api_anything.server:app --app-dir src --host 127.0.0.1 --port 8787
curl -H "Authorization: Bearer $API_ANYTHING_TOKEN" http://127.0.0.1:8787/sites

/health stays public for health checks. Registry and run endpoints require the token when API_ANYTHING_TOKEN is set.

Core ideas

Concept	Meaning
Site	A website/app/docs source you want to wrap
Manifest	YAML contract: auth mode, capabilities, params, risk
Adapter	Python file that implements `run(capability_id, params, context)`
Capability	A typed action like `search_docs`, `list_items`, `post`, `send_message`
Read	Safe data retrieval; can run automatically
Write	Any side effect; requires human-in-the-loop approval

Features

🧩 File-backed harness registry
📜 YAML capability manifests
🐍 Simple Python adapter contract
⚡ FastAPI runtime
🛠️ CLI-first workflow
🧠 Agent-readable inspect output
✅ doctor validation for harnesses
🔐 Optional Bearer-token auth via API_ANYTHING_TOKEN
🧑‍⚖️ Human-in-the-loop gate for write actions
📦 Batch execution for lower overhead
🔎 Optional local cache/index patterns for docs adapters

Repository layout

src/api_anything/
  cli.py
  server.py
  registry.py
  models.py
  hitl.py
examples/sites/
  x-web/
  whatsapp-web/
  claude-code-docs/
docs/assets/
  whatsapp-web-api-commands.png
  whatsapp-web-api-commands.svg
tests/

Design rules

Keep the core generic.
Keep credentials out of manifests, docs, logs, tests, and output.
Keep browser sessions local.
Prefer read capabilities first.
Mark every side-effecting action as type: write and requires_confirmation: true.
Require human approval before publishing, sending, deleting, purchasing, or updating external state.
Do not claim success without verifying the external result.
Make harnesses inspectable, testable, and portable.

Hub vision

The next layer is a Git-backed adapter hub:

api-anything hub search whatsapp
api-anything hub info whatsapp-web
api-anything hub install whatsapp-web

The goal: adapters submitted by pull request, indexed from Git, installable by the CLI, and reusable by any agent harness.

Status

Early open-source project. Good for local agent workflows and harness experiments. Not a hosted multi-tenant SaaS.

License

MIT

Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
.github/workflows		.github/workflows
benchmarks		benchmarks
docs		docs
examples/sites		examples/sites
reports/benchmarks		reports/benchmarks
src/api_anything		src/api_anything
tests		tests
.gitignore		.gitignore
LICENSE		LICENSE
README.md		README.md
pyproject.toml		pyproject.toml

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API Anything

Why this exists

Who it is for

For humans

For agents and harnesses

Install

Option 1: install directly from GitHub

Option 2: local development

60-second start

Wikipedia / WikiAlive example

WhatsApp Web API example

What a website API looks like

Human-in-the-loop safety

FastAPI server

Core ideas

Features

Repository layout

Design rules

Hub vision

Status

License

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API Anything

Why this exists

Who it is for

For humans

For agents and harnesses

Install

Option 1: install directly from GitHub

Option 2: local development

60-second start

Wikipedia / WikiAlive example

WhatsApp Web API example

What a website API looks like

Human-in-the-loop safety

FastAPI server

Core ideas

Features

Repository layout

Design rules

Hub vision

Status

License

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