Open Targets Platform REST API

The Open Targets Platform REST API

The Open Targets Platform API (‘Application Programming Interface’) allows programmatic retrieval of the Open Targets Platform data via a set of REST services.

You can make calls to the latest version of our API using the base URL https://platform-api.opentargets.io/v3/platform. Please make sure you use https instead of the unencrypted http calls, which we do not accept.

We list below the methods available to query our data directly from the API, followed by an interactive interface that you can use to try out the parameters and execute the REST-API calls.

For every request you create, the interactive interface will display both a curl command and a request URL that you can use to ensure you get the expected response before using your application or workflow.

Check our documentation for some API tutorials and get in touch if you have any questions.

Available Methods

The available methods can be grouped in three types:

• public - Methods that serve the core set of our data. These are stable and we fully supported them.
• private - Methods used by the web app to serve additional data not specific to our platform. These methods may change without notice and should be used with caution.
• utils - Methods to get statistics and technical data about our API.

Supported formats

The methods above are all available via a GET request, and will serve outputs as JSON.

Alternative output formats, such xml, csv and tab, are also available for some of the methods. However alternative output formats are not supported in interactive interface below where the response will be always in `JSON.

If you have complex queries with large number of parameters, you should use a POST request instead of GET. POST methods require a body encoded as json. When querying for a specific disease using the latest version of the API, your call would look like the example below:

curl -X POST -d '{"disease":["EFO_0000253"]}' --header 'Content-Type: application/json' https://platform-api.opentargets.io/v3/platform/public/evidence/filter

How to interpret a response

Each HTTPS response will serve data in headers and body. The headers will give you details about your query, such as how long it took to run.

In the body of the response, you will find the data you have requested for in JSON format. The jq program is a useful tool to parse the json response while on the command line.

curl https://platform-api.opentargets.io/v3/platform/public/association/filter\?target\=ENSG00000157764 | jq

We do not analyse the nature of any specific API queries except for the purposes of improving the performance of our API. Read more in our privacy section.

How can we make the Open Targets Platform API more useful to you? Would you like additional methods to be implemented? Please get in touch and send your suggestions.

Use this page to mock Open Targets Platform REST API in your testing and development.

Run our mock API sample using the open source WireMock library, or in the free edition of WireMock Cloud. You'll have a working API server simulating the behavior of Open Targets Platform REST API, which will allow you to keep building and testing even if the actual API you isn't currently available.