Lichess.org API reference

Name: Lichess.org API reference API
Brand: Lichess.org API reference
Availability: InStock

★ Only Publicly Available OpenAPI DocumentMediaContent Deliveryoauth2170 EndpointsREST

For Agents

Read player profiles, stream chess games, run puzzle workflows, and operate bots on Lichess via OAuth2-authenticated endpoints across 170 path entries.

Use for: I want to fetch a Lichess player's rating history for blitz, Stream the moves of an ongoing Lichess game in real time, Get the daily Lichess puzzle and submit a solution, Find all top 10 bullet players on Lichess right now

Not supported: Does not handle over-the-board tournament management, chess engine hosting, or paid premium-account billing - use for Lichess platform game, puzzle, and bot operations only.

Jentic publishes the only available OpenAPI specification for Lichess.org API reference, keeping it validated and agent-ready. The Lichess API exposes the free, open-source chess platform's full feature set including account management, game streaming, puzzle workflows, broadcasts, tournaments, bot play, and analysis. Agents can stream live game events, fetch player rating histories, query the opening explorer and tablebase, run puzzle dashboards, and operate Lichess bots. The API is OAuth2-protected with personal access tokens and supports newline-delimited JSON streaming for board events and TV feeds.

Install Jentic One Beta

Connect the Lichess.org API reference to your agent

Jentic One is a self-hosted execution layer for AI agents. It lets your agent call the Lichess.org API reference, or any other public or private API you need. You set the rules, the agent never sees your credentials, and every call is logged.

Two steps, two machines. Install the instance in a safe environment, then register your agent from wherever it runs.

Step 1: Jentic One Host machine

# On the machine that will host your Jentic One instance:
curl -fsSL "https://jentic.com/install.sh?src=apis&api=%2Fapis%2Flichess.org%2Flichess-org-api-reference" | sh

Step 2: Agent machine

# On the machine where your agent runs (keep this separate from the instance):
curl -fsSL "https://jentic.com/install.sh?src=apis&api=%2Fapis%2Flichess.org%2Flichess-org-api-reference" | sh
jentic register       # connects your agent to your Jentic One instance

Jentic One is in public beta. The setup above keeps your agent separate from the instance, which is what you want before using real credentials: an agent running as the same OS user as Jentic One can read its stored keys directly. Just evaluating? A single local install is fine to start. See the secure deployment guide for the tiers.

Capabilities

What an agent can do with Lichess.org API reference API.

Stream live game state and board events for ongoing Lichess games via NDJSON feeds

Fetch user profiles, rating histories, and per-perf statistics for any Lichess account

Query the opening explorer and Syzygy tablebase to evaluate chess positions

Operate a Lichess bot account with move submission, chat, and game acceptance endpoints

GET STARTED

Start building with Lichess.org API reference API

Explore with Jentic One

View OpenAPI Document

Use Cases

Patterns agents use Lichess.org API reference API for, with concrete tasks.

★ Chess Coaching Dashboard

Pull player rating history, puzzle activity, and game archives from Lichess to build a coaching dashboard that highlights weaknesses across openings and time controls. Endpoints cover rating-history, per-perf statistics, and puzzle dashboards across configurable day windows. Integration takes a few hours via OAuth2 with read-only scopes.

Fetch the rating history for username 'DrNykterstein' and the last 30 days of puzzle dashboard activity, then summarize weakest opening categories

Live Tournament Broadcast

Stream Lichess broadcasts and tournament games for live commentary or visualization. The broadcasts and tournaments tags expose round-by-round PGN streaming so agents can react to moves as they happen. Suited for chess news sites and streaming overlays needing sub-second latency.

Subscribe to the broadcast round stream for tournament ID 'broadcast-id-123' and emit each move as it arrives

Chess Bot Operation

Run a chess bot on Lichess by upgrading an account to bot status, accepting challenges, and submitting moves through the bot endpoints. The Board and Bot tags expose the full game lifecycle including chat, draw offers, and resignation. A working bot integration takes one to two days versus weeks of manual UCI plumbing.

Accept the next incoming challenge for the authenticated bot account and play a move every time it is the bot's turn

AI Agent Chess Analysis

An AI agent uses Jentic to discover Lichess endpoints by intent, then composes opening explorer queries, tablebase lookups, and game export operations to analyze a user's recent games. Agents avoid scraping the web UI by calling the structured API directly through Jentic's your Jentic One instance credential vault.

Search Jentic for 'analyze a chess game on Lichess', load the game export and opening explorer schemas, then produce a move-by-move analysis for game ID 'abc123'

Key Endpoints

170 endpoints — jentic publishes the only available openapi specification for lichess.

METHOD

PATH

DESCRIPTION

GET

/api/user/{username}

Get public profile for a Lichess user

GET

/api/user/{username}/rating-history

Get rating history across all perfs

GET

/api/users/status

Get realtime online status for users

GET

/api/puzzle/daily

Get the daily Lichess puzzle

GET

/game/export/{gameId}

Export a game as PGN or JSON

GET

/api/user/{username}

Get public profile for a Lichess user

GET

/api/user/{username}/rating-history

Get rating history across all perfs

GET

/api/users/status

Get realtime online status for users

GET

/api/puzzle/daily

Get the daily Lichess puzzle

GET

/game/export/{gameId}

Export a game as PGN or JSON

Why Jentic?

What agents get from Jentic-routed access to this vendor.

Setup

Wiring the Lichess API by hand means running its OAuth2 flow, matching the right scopes to each of the 170 operations across games, puzzles, and bots, and calling lichess.org yourself. Through Jentic you install once, import the Lichess API from the API Directory, store the token once, and your agent calls it.

Permission scoping

Lichess reads carry the username or game id in the path (/api/user/{username}, /game/export/{gameId}) while account and bot actions run against fixed endpoints, so scope the agent to the operations it needs, such as fetching a rating history or the daily puzzle. You leave out account or bot-move operations unless you add them, so it only calls the ones you allow.

Credential isolation

Your Lichess OAuth2 token is stored once, encrypted, by your own Jentic One instance and injected at execution time. It never enters the agent's prompt, logs, or context.

Intent-based discovery

Agents search Jentic by intent such as 'fetch a Lichess rating history' or 'get the daily puzzle', and Jentic returns the matching Lichess operation with its input schema and required scopes so the agent calls the right endpoint without browsing the reference docs.

FAQs

Specific to using Lichess.org API reference API through Jentic.

Why is there no official OpenAPI spec for Lichess.org API reference?

Lichess does not publish a maintained OpenAPI specification. Jentic generates and maintains this spec so that AI agents and developers can call the Lichess API via structured tooling. It is validated against the live API and kept up to date. Get started with Jentic One, the self-hosted execution layer.

What authentication does the Lichess API use?

Lichess uses OAuth2 with personal access tokens. Scopes determine which endpoints are accessible - for example, 'bot:play' is required for bot move submission and 'preference:read' for account preferences. Through Jentic, the token is stored in your Jentic One instance and never enters the agent's prompt context.

Can I run a chess bot with the Lichess API?

Yes. Upgrade an empty account to bot status via /api/bot/account/upgrade, then use /api/bot/game/stream/{gameId} and /api/bot/game/{gameId}/move/{move} to play. Bot accounts cannot have played any human games before upgrade.

What are the rate limits for the Lichess API?

Lichess applies per-endpoint rate limits - most read endpoints allow 20 requests per second per IP, and abusive clients receive HTTP 429 responses. Streaming endpoints count separately. Exceeding limits returns 429 with a Retry-After hint.

How do I stream live game events through Jentic?

Run pip install jentic, then search Jentic with 'stream a Lichess game' to retrieve the /api/board/game/stream/{gameId} operation schema. Execute it through the SDK; Jentic returns NDJSON chunks as the game progresses.

Is the Lichess API free?

Yes. Lichess is free and open-source, and the API has no paid tier. Heavy commercial use should respect the rate limits and the Lichess terms of service.

Can I limit what my agent is allowed to do with the Lichess API?

Yes. Because Jentic One is self-hosted, your own rules decide which of the 170 Lichess operations and which OAuth2 token the agent may use. You can allow only the read operations you need, such as GET /api/user/{username}/rating-history or GET /api/puzzle/daily, and leave out account or bot-move endpoints like /api/bot/game/{gameId}/move/{move} unless you explicitly add them. The agent can call only the operations you grant, and the stored token is injected at execution time rather than exposed to the model.