REST API Overview

The Silent Witness REST API provides direct HTTP access to all platform capabilities. Use this API when you need fine-grained control or are working in a language without an official SDK.

Base URL

All API requests should be made to:

https://api.silentwitness.ai/api

Staging environment base URL:

https://api.staging.silentwitness.ai/api

Request Format

• All requests must use HTTPS
• Request bodies must be JSON with Content-Type: application/json
• File uploads use multipart/form-data

Response Format

All responses are JSON with this structure:

{
  "success": true,
  "data": { ... }
}

Error responses include an error message:

{
  "success": false,
  "error": "Error description"
}

HTTP Status Codes

Code	Description
200	Success
201	Created
400	Bad Request - Invalid parameters
401	Unauthorized - Invalid or missing authentication
403	Forbidden - Insufficient permissions
404	Not Found - Resource doesn't exist
429	Too Many Requests - Rate limit exceeded
500	Internal Server Error

Rate Limiting

API requests are rate-limited to ensure fair usage:

• 100 requests per minute per API key
• Rate limit headers are included in responses:
  • X-RateLimit-Limit: Maximum requests per window
  • X-RateLimit-Remaining: Requests remaining in current window
  • X-RateLimit-Reset: Unix timestamp when the window resets

Pagination

List endpoints support pagination with these query parameters:

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
page	integer	1	Page number (1-indexed)
limit	integer	20	Items per page (max 100)

Paginated responses include:

{
  "success": true,
  "data": [...],
  "pagination": {
    "page": 1,
    "limit": 20,
    "total": 150,
    "total_pages": 8
  }
}

Versioning

The API is versioned through the URL path. The current version is v1 (implicit in /api).

Next Steps

• Authentication - Learn how to authenticate requests
• Organizations - Manage organizations
• Cases - Create and manage cases
• Files - Upload and manage files
• Reports - Generate reports