theHarvester/docs/wiki/Rest-API.md

REST API

harvestview serves the web application at / and one versioned API for local automation.

Start the service

Set a long random API key before startup:

Network activity: local-only with the default loopback binding.

export THEHARVESTER_API_KEY='replace-with-a-long-random-value'
uv run harvestview

The service binds to 127.0.0.1:5000 by default. Use uv run harvestview -h for launcher options.

Open:

• HarvestView: http://127.0.0.1:5000/
• Swagger UI: http://127.0.0.1:5000/docs
• ReDoc: http://127.0.0.1:5000/redoc

Treat the runtime OpenAPI document as the exact request and response reference.

Routes

Route	Purpose
GET /api/v1/sources	List discovery sources, capabilities, activity classes, and credential names.
POST /api/v1/runs	Submit one finite enumeration run.
GET /api/v1/runs	List run records with limit and offset pagination.
GET /api/v1/runs/{run_id}	Retrieve lifecycle state, options, results, source outcomes, and artifacts.
POST /api/v1/runs/{run_id}/cancel	Cancel queued work or request cancellation of running work.
POST /api/v1/runs/import	Import a JSONL result file without executing discovery.
POST /api/v1/runs/import-database	Import completed runs from a theHarvester SQLite database.
GET /api/v1/runs/export-database	Export all completed run evidence as a portable SQLite database.
GET /api/v1/runs/{run_id}/export	Export normalized results as JSONL.
GET /api/v1/runs/{run_id}/screenshots/{name}	Retrieve one managed screenshot.

There are no provider-specific routes. Sources such as builtwith, haveibeenpwned, hibpverified, leaklookup, and securityscorecard use the same run request as every other source.

The versioned API is asynchronous by design. A successful submission returns a durable run record instead of waiting for every provider and action to finish.

Authentication

Every /api/v1/* route requires the configured key in X-API-Key:

curl -s http://127.0.0.1:5000/api/v1/sources \
  -H "X-API-Key: $THEHARVESTER_API_KEY" \
  | jq

HarvestView receives a derived HttpOnly browser-session cookie when loaded from localhost. The browser never stores or displays the configured API key. Cookie-authenticated mutations also require a matching same-origin request.

Provider credentials remain in theHarvester's server-side configuration. Requests cannot supply provider API keys.

Submit and inspect a run

Source names and capability selectors share the sources array. Multiple capabilities select the union of matching sources and do not filter fields returned by those sources.

Network activity: the API request is local, but the queued run contacts the selected providers and any enabled action targets.

run_id="$(curl -s http://127.0.0.1:5000/api/v1/runs \
    -X POST \
    -H "X-API-Key: $THEHARVESTER_API_KEY" \
    -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
    -d '{
      "target": "example.com",
      "sources": ["emails", "crtsh"],
      "limit": 500,
      "source_workers": 3,
      "deadline_seconds": 1800
    }' \
  | jq -r '.run_id')"

curl -s "http://127.0.0.1:5000/api/v1/runs/$run_id" \
  -H "X-API-Key: $THEHARVESTER_API_KEY" \
  | jq '{status, evidence_status, results, source_executions, action_executions, artifacts}'

Run submission is asynchronous. Read the two status fields separately:

Field	Values	Meaning
status	queued, running, cancelling, cancelled, completed, failed	Worker lifecycle state.
evidence_status	complete, partial, failed	Quality of terminal evidence when it exists.

source_workers is the same positive concurrency used by CLI -j or --source-workers and HarvestView. It defaults to three, is reduced when fewer sources are selected, and never skips sources or limits their results.

P1 DNS and P2 direct options are fields on the same run request. The OpenAPI schema shows their current defaults, limits, and descriptions. The server uses the operator-selected target and does not impose a public-only egress policy.

Query RouteViews

RouteViews is the explicit P0 routeviews action.

• A domain run enriches only harvested IPs that have sourced IP-to-ASN attribution. Harvested IPs without that attribution are not sent, and bare ASN findings are not expanded into complete prefix inventories.
• A run may target an AS-prefixed ASN or IP address. The CLI also accepts a literal CIDR. An IP pivot keeps the most-specific matching prefix and every origin for a multi-origin prefix. An explicit ASN target requests its complete prefix inventory.
• The fixed budget is 300 sequential requests and 300 seconds. limit does not change it.
• A server-side routeviews.key selects PeeringDB-verified authenticated access at the documented 10-request-per-second allowance. Without a key, the action uses guest access at one request per second. Requests cannot supply provider credentials.
• Returned prefixes remain external relationships. They are never scheduled as DNS or P2 targets.

{
  "target": "AS64500",
  "sources": [],
  "routeviews": true
}

Run an action against one result

Screenshots and DNS brute force can run directly against an authorized hostname without repeating discovery. Submit an empty sources array and select one action:

Network activity: target-facing for screenshots and resolver-facing for DNS brute force. The API request itself is local.

curl -s http://127.0.0.1:5000/api/v1/runs \
    -X POST \
    -H "X-API-Key: $THEHARVESTER_API_KEY" \
    -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
    -d '{
      "target": "replace-with-an-authorized-hostname",
      "sources": [],
      "screenshot": true
    }' \
  | jq

For DNS brute force, set dns_brute to true. You may also provide dns_resolvers as one or more distinct IPv4 or IPv6 addresses. Recursive DNS is the only action that requires exactly three resolver addresses.

The action catalog and run request use the same names. For example, set takeover to true for takeover checks. API endpoint scans can use the bundled paths or an explicit bounded list:

{
  "target": "replace-with-an-authorized-hostname",
  "sources": [],
  "api_scan": true,
  "api_scan_paths": ["/api/v2", "/health"]
}

Every custom API scan entry must be a URL path beginning with /. The API does not accept a server-side file path.

Virtual host discovery is the vhost action. An action-only run must provide both a literal-IP endpoint and at least one in-scope hostname candidate:

Network activity: target-facing literal-IP requests with the candidate in SNI and HTTP Host.

{
  "target": "authorized.example",
  "sources": [],
  "vhost_endpoint": "https://192.0.2.10:443/",
  "vhost_candidates": ["admin.authorized.example"]
}

Supplying either virtual host field enables the action, but a missing endpoint or candidate set must then come from selected-source results. Candidate names are sent as HTTP Host values and HTTPS SNI; this action never resolves them. It uses direct transport, does not follow redirects, rejects proxy settings, and applies request, runtime, timeout, and concurrency bounds. See Virtual Host Discovery for the exact scope and evidence model.

HarvestView's subdomain action buttons call this route and create a separate run without changing the completed parent run.

Import and export

These operations are local-only. Import records existing evidence without contacting providers or targets. For one run, send the same JSONL written by theHarvester -f NAME:

curl -s "http://127.0.0.1:5000/api/v1/runs/import?filename=report.jsonl" \
  -X POST \
  -H "X-API-Key: $THEHARVESTER_API_KEY" \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/x-ndjson' \
  --data-binary @report.jsonl \
  | jq

JSONL is a terminal report, so an import is recorded as completed. The summary retains evidence status, source and action outcomes, and screenshot artifact metadata. Each finding's sources and actions arrays rebuild result attribution and must name an execution in the summary. Result kinds such as hostname, ip, and url use the same names in JSONL, SQLite, and the API.

An asn result may include organization-attribution observations from URLScan, ONYPHE, or Shodan. Each observation names its producer and related hostname or IP; it is provider attribution rather than ownership or engagement-scope evidence.

To load every completed run from another theHarvester database:

curl -s "http://127.0.0.1:5000/api/v1/runs/import-database?filename=stash.sqlite" \
  -X POST \
  -H "X-API-Key: $THEHARVESTER_API_KEY" \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/vnd.sqlite3' \
  --data-binary @stash.sqlite \
  | jq

Before importing SQLite:

• Close the source process or checkpoint its WAL.
• Expect the server to check the SQLite header, integrity, schema, and each completed run before copying it.
• Original run IDs are preserved. Exact duplicates are skipped; a reused ID with different evidence is rejected.
• Screenshot metadata is imported, but screenshot files must be copied separately.
• The default upload ceiling is 1 GiB. Change it with THEHARVESTER_MAX_DATABASE_IMPORT_BYTES.

Export every completed run as a consistent database that can be imported elsewhere:

curl -s "http://127.0.0.1:5000/api/v1/runs/export-database" \
  -H "X-API-Key: $THEHARVESTER_API_KEY" \
  -o theharvester-completed-runs.sqlite

The export contains canonical completed evidence and screenshot metadata. It excludes queue state, cancellation state, worker leases, and legacy observations. Screenshot files are also excluded. The server checkpoints and closes the temporary database before download, so no manual WAL handling is required.

Export one normalized result set in the same streamable format:

curl -s "http://127.0.0.1:5000/api/v1/runs/$run_id/export" \
  -H "X-API-Key: $THEHARVESTER_API_KEY" \
  -o results.jsonl

The first line is the summary record, including evidence status, source and action outcomes, and artifacts. Each remaining line is one normalized finding with type, value, sources, and optional actions. A hostname confirmed by the vhost action adds native endpoint observations; a RouteViews prefix adds native origin, route, and RPKI observations with fixed external-relationship scope. The file can be streamed with jq -c or imported through the API without conversion. Lifecycle details and the submitted request are available from GET /api/v1/runs/{run_id}.

Security boundary

Keep the default localhost binding. If remote access is required, add TLS, network access controls, request logging, and an appropriate rate limit. The supplied Docker Compose configuration publishes only to 127.0.0.1 by default.