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Search the China Snapshot archive

Search source documents or ask an evidence-grounded question.

Build on the Snapshot · 开发者

Read China in signals,
programmatically.

One evidence-linked model, four programmatic surfaces. The same artifact the human reads is the document an agent can cite.

Open the OpenAPI specRead llms.txt

Four surfaces, one record

Choose the right way in.

Public feeds are free and need no key. The research API and MCP endpoint require a Professional credential with the matching entitlement. The CLI covers the free public surface out of the box.

01 / DATA

Public data feeds

Structured, CORS-open JSON at /data/*. CORS open, schema-versioned, self-describing via /data/endpoints.json. No key.

OpenAPI →
02 / REST

Research REST API

Five typed operations (get_digest, search_stories, get_entity_timeline, signal packets). Bearer-key auth, hard monthly cap, no overage.

Discovery →
03 / ENDPOINT

MCP endpoint

Streamable HTTP at /api/mcp exposes the same five operations as MCP tools. Drop the config snippet into any MCP client.

MCP →
04 / CLI

Official CLI

A dependency-free CLI ships in the repo: feeds, digest, packet, research, mcp-config. Public subcommands need no key.

Guide →

Machine-accessible files

Everything an agent needs to get oriented.

These files are free, served with CORS open, and versioned. Start with /llms.txt or /developers.md; let /data/endpoints.json and /openapi.json tell you exactly what exists. Do not probe undocumented URLs.

Quick start

From zero to a cited signal.

01

Read the current briefing

curl -H "Accept: text/markdown" \
  https://china-snapshot.com/data/digest.md
02

Ask the archive (Professional)

curl -X POST https://china-snapshot.com/api/research \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer cs_live_..." \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"operation":"search_stories",
       "arguments":{"query":"export controls"}}'
03

Connect an MCP client

{"mcpServers":{"china-snapshot":{
  "url":"https://china-snapshot.com/api/mcp",
  "headers":{"Authorization":"Bearer ${CHINA_SNAPSHOT_API_KEY}"}}}}

Authentication & limits

The contract, made explicit.

Bearer tokens only

Send Authorization: Bearer <session JWT> or Bearer cs_live_<API key>. An X-Api-Key header is never read. Research and MCP callers must hold the matching entitlement (api_access or mcp_access).

Hard monthly cap, no overage

Professional allows 5,000 combined API + MCP requests per calendar month. Over-cap calls return 429 with Retry-After and X-RateLimit-* headers, and no overage is ever charged.