getxkcd

get the latest comic

https://getxkcd.now.sh/latest
https://getxkcd.now.sh/0

example response

{
  "month": "1",
  "num": 2886,
  "link": "",
  "year": "2024",
  "news": "",
  "safe_title": "Fast Radio Bursts",
  "transcript": "",
  "alt": "Dr. Petroff has also shown that the Higgs boson signal was actually sparks from someone microwaving grapes, the EHT black hole photo was a frozen bagel someone left in too long, and the LIGO detection was just someone slamming the microwave door too hard.",
  "img": "https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/fast_radio_bursts.png",
  "title": "Fast Radio Bursts",
  "day": "26"
}

get a comic by number

https://getxkcd.now.sh/1481

example response

{
  "month": "2",
  "num": 1481,
  "link": "",
  "year": "2015",
  "news": "",
  "safe_title": "API",
  "transcript": "((This is a faux-screenshot of a technical document))\n[[A figure sits at a computer upon a desk, apparently engrossed in the document which we now see before us.]]\nTITLE: API GUIDE\nRequest URL Format: domain\nuser\nitem\nServer will return an XML document which contains the requested data and documentation describing how the data is organized spatially.\nAPI KEYS: To obtain API access, contact the x.509-authenticated server and request an ECDH-RSA TLS key...\n\nCaption: If you do things right, it can take people a while to realize that your \"API documentation\" is just instructions for how to look at your website.\n\n{{Title text: ACCESS LIMITS: Clients may maintain connections to the server for no more than 86,400 seconds per day. If you need additional time, you may contact IERS to file a request for up to one additional second.}}",
  "alt": "ACCESS LIMITS: Clients may maintain connections to the server for no more than 86,400 seconds per day. If you need additional time, you may contact IERS to file a request for up to one additional second.",
  "img": "https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/api.png",
  "title": "API",
  "day": "2"
}

notes

• you can also get the latest comic by sending a request to https://getxkcd.now.sh/, but the request header should have Accept as application/json

  curl -H "Accept: application/json" "https://getxkcd.now.sh/""

• the API is backwards compatible with the previous versions which used https://getxkcd.now.sh/api/comic?num=latest to get the latest comic and https://getxkcd.now.sh/api/comic?num=1172 to get a particular comic

• if you get an HTML response from the API, you have to set your API client to handle redirects. alternatively, replace .now.sh domains with .vercel.app to avoid this pitfall in places like curl

• vercel.json handles all the routing, so make sure you copy it verbatim if you want good things to happen

• in an effort to learn and use a new programming language, i have used go which is unnecessarily complicating things but ✨ performance ✨

closing thoughts

made by khaleel when he was feeling lonely