EVE Stable Infrastructure: Difference between revisions

EVE Stable Infrastructure (ESI) is an API that can be used by [[Third-party tools|third party applications]] to interact with data from the EVE game servers. It replaces CREST and the XML API which were shut down on May 8th, 2018.<ref>Dev insights blog: [https://developers.eveonline.com/blog/article/important-information-on-the-future-of-the-eve-api Important Information on the Future of the EVE API] (2018-01-03)</ref> The data returned by ESI is in the JSON format.

ESI has both public-data and authenticated endpoints, the latter of which require a character to log in via [[EVE SSO]] to their character account to gain access to information specific to their character or, provided they have the appropriate [[Managing corporation members#List of roles|corporate role]], their corporation.

As a reminder to developers, it is expressly forbidden for developers of third party applications to use them for ill intent<ref>Dev insights blog: [https://developers.eveonline.com/blog/reminder-to-developers-no-scamming Reminder to Developers: No Scamming] (2016-07-04)</ref><ref>Developer documentation: [https://developers.eveonline.com/docs/resources/license License]</ref>

As of March 2025 ESI provides 195 endpoints, 76 of which related to public data and need no character or client authentication, and 119 of which are authenticated as they relate to privileged information about specific characters or corporations<ref>Yurix: [https://yurix.ch/blog/esi-endpoint-stats.html ESI endpoint counts]</ref>.

To get a list of all alliances in EVE, the  <code>alliances</code> endpoint can be used. It lists the alliance ID of all alliances. Since it is a public endpoint, it is even possible to a look at it in the browser, although the data comes is in machine-readable JSON: https://esi.evetech.net/alliances

Some endpoints also support parameter in the URL. For example the type endpoint <code>universe/types/{type_id}/</code> returns information about a type ID. The rifter has type ID 587. To look up information like its description, the <code>{type_id}</code> part in the URL is replaced with the type ID. The full URL would then be https://esi.evetech.net/latest/universe/types/587/ https://esi.evetech.net/universe/types/587

 

If possible, CCP requests that users add a descriptive user agent to any ESI request, including a contact email, so that they can be contacted instead of being banned for e.g. causing too much load on the ESI servers. <ref>Developer documentation [https://developers.eveonline.com/docs/services/esi/best-practices/#user-agents Best Practices for ESI > User Agents] (</ref>

ESI endpoints use a Token system for rate limiting [https://smudge.ai/blog/ratelimit-algorithms#sliding-windows Tokens on a Sliding Window refresh] - each hit on an endpoint uses up a token, and if attempted too often (usually at a rate faster than the cache time of the endpoint), the caller will be limited until the next window refresh passes and tokens are returned.

 

More information on the rate limiting can be found in the [https://developers.eveonline.com/docs/services/esi/rate-limiting/ documentation].

 

Eve uses a lot of 'ID's, that are unique for things. Ships, players, corporations, systems all have unique IDs.  Most IDs are arranged in 'Ranges' as well.  Comparing IDs against these ranges to find out what type of ID it is. https://developers.eveonline.com/docs/guides/id-ranges/ has these ranges listed out.  Figuring out what an ID is can answer many questions of what ESI to find out what it is.  There are two very fast ways to find Names for IDs as well.  Linking a thing in chat, then hit enter, then right click, and copy.    This will put the URL code in the clipboard.  Alternately, go to a site like https://zkillboard.com/ and the ID will be at the end.  Ex: https://zkillboard.com/ship/22460 the Eris id is 22460. See also [[How to get ID]]

| https://developers.eveonline.com/api-explorer || CCP's front-end User Interface for "playing" with ESI and discovering what the various endpoints can do.

| <s>https://github.com/devfleet/awesome-eve#developer-tools-resources-and-apis</s> || ARCHIVED (2025-06-20) Community-maintained list of resources and tools to work with ESI.

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| https://developers.eveonline.com/blog/Article/using-esi-with-google-sheets || A slightly outdated CCP Dev blog on working with GESI (see above) -->

'''2025.03.02''' - Dev insights blog: [https://developers.eveonline.com/blog/deprecation-and-impending-removal-of-esi-opportunities-and-esi-bookmarks Deprecation and impending removal of esi-opportunities and esi-bookmarks]  

* The bookmark endpoints has been removed after being disabled for more than 5 years<ref>Dev insights blog: [https://developers.eveonline.com/blog/article/temporary-blackout-of-esi-bookmarks Temporary blackout of ESI-bookmarks] (2019-11-24)</ref>.