Orthanc Server Orthanc API

Name: Orthanc API
Brand: Orthanc API
Availability: InStock

✓ Official Vendor SpecHealthcareClinical Datanone299 EndpointsREST

For Agents

Query, store, and route DICOM medical imaging data through an Orthanc server. Agents can list studies, fetch instances, anonymise tags, and trigger DICOM transfers between modalities and peers.

Use for: Retrieve a DICOM study by patient ID, Anonymise a DICOM instance before sharing it externally, List all studies stored on the Orthanc server, Send a study to a remote DICOM modality

Not supported: Does not handle electronic health records, appointment scheduling, or billing - use for DICOM imaging storage, retrieval, and routing only.

The Orthanc API exposes the full REST interface of the Orthanc DICOM server, letting clients ingest, retrieve, and orchestrate medical imaging data across studies, series, instances, and patients. It supports DICOM-Web (QIDO-RS, WADO-RS, STOW-RS), DICOMweb proxies, modality work-list queries, and asynchronous DICOM transfers, plus Lua and Python scripting hooks. With 299 endpoints, the API covers everything from raw instance retrieval to peer routing, anonymisation, and modification of imaging tags.

Jentic One on Github View OpenAPI Document

Install Jentic One Beta

Connect the Orthanc API to your agent

Jentic One is a self-hosted execution layer for AI agents. It lets your agent call the Orthanc API, 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%2Forthanc-server.com%2Forthanc-server" | 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%2Forthanc-server.com%2Forthanc-server" | 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 Orthanc API.

Retrieve DICOM instances, series, and studies by Orthanc identifier or DICOM UID

Anonymise or modify DICOM tags on a single instance or whole study before export

Query and retrieve images from remote modalities using DICOM C-FIND and C-MOVE

Send studies to peers, modalities, or DICOM-Web servers asynchronously with job tracking

Stream changes from the Orthanc event log to drive downstream imaging pipelines

GET STARTED

Start building with Orthanc API

Explore with Jentic One

View OpenAPI Document

Use Cases

Patterns agents use Orthanc API for, with concrete tasks.

★ Imaging Research Data Pipeline

Research teams use the Orthanc API to pull anonymised DICOM studies into machine-learning training pipelines. The /studies/{id}/anonymize endpoint strips PHI tags in place, while /instances/{id}/file returns the raw DICOM binary for storage in object stores. Throughput is bounded by Orthanc's local disk and any configured DICOM peers, and integration typically takes a day for a basic ingest loop.

Anonymise study with Orthanc ID abc123 by calling POST /studies/abc123/anonymize and download the resulting DICOM ZIP from the returned job.

Clinical Modality Routing

Hospitals route DICOM studies between modalities, PACS, and viewers using Orthanc as a hub. Agents call /modalities/{id}/store to push selected studies to a remote modality, and use /jobs to track asynchronous transfers. The /queries endpoint supports DICOM C-FIND for upstream queries, enabling federated imaging workflows across departments.

Send study with ID xyz to modality 'RADIOLOGY_PACS' via POST /modalities/RADIOLOGY_PACS/store with the study resource ID and poll the returned job until completion.

DICOM Tag Cleanup and Modification

Imaging coordinators correct or harmonise DICOM tags across cohorts using the Orthanc modify endpoints. /instances/{id}/modify and /studies/{id}/modify rewrite tags such as PatientName, AccessionNumber, or StudyDescription while preserving image pixel data. Bulk operations are handled through asynchronous jobs, making it practical to fix tag inconsistencies across thousands of instances.

Update PatientName on study abc123 to 'ANON_001' by POSTing to /studies/abc123/modify with the Replace dictionary set accordingly.

AI Agent DICOM Orchestration via Jentic

AI agents that triage radiology cases need a programmable DICOM layer. Through Jentic, an agent searches for 'retrieve a DICOM study', loads the matching Orthanc operation schema, and executes the call with a scoped credential. This avoids embedding raw Orthanc credentials in agent prompts and lets the agent compose retrieval, anonymisation, and routing into a single workflow.

Use Jentic to search 'retrieve a DICOM study', load the GET /studies/{id} schema, and execute it for the patient currently being triaged.

Key Endpoints

299 endpoints — the orthanc api exposes the full rest interface of the orthanc dicom server, letting clients ingest, retrieve, and orchestrate medical imaging data across studies, series, instances, and patients.

METHOD

PATH

DESCRIPTION

GET

/studies

List all studies stored on the server

GET

/studies/{id}

Get details for a specific study

POST

/studies/{id}/anonymize

Anonymise a study and return a new resource

POST

/studies/{id}/modify

Modify DICOM tags across a study

GET

/instances/{id}/file

Download the raw DICOM file for an instance

POST

/modalities/{id}/store

Send a resource to a configured DICOM modality

GET

/changes

Read the server change log

GET

/jobs

List asynchronous jobs and their status

GET

/studies

List all studies stored on the server

GET

/studies/{id}

Get details for a specific study

POST

/studies/{id}/anonymize

Anonymise a study and return a new resource

POST

/studies/{id}/modify

Modify DICOM tags across a study

GET

/instances/{id}/file

Download the raw DICOM file for an instance

POST

/modalities/{id}/store

Send a resource to a configured DICOM modality

GET

/changes

Read the server change log

GET

/jobs

List asynchronous jobs and their status

Why Jentic?

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

Setup

The Orthanc API can run without credentials, but wiring it by hand still means handling any basic auth a hardened deployment adds and mapping the study, instance, and modality routes yourself. Through Jentic you install once, import Orthanc from the API Directory, store any credential once, and your agent calls it.

Permission scoping

You choose which Orthanc operations the agent may call, so you can limit it to the operations it needs, such as listing studies and reading instance files, while destructive operations like modifying or anonymizing a study or storing to a modality stay out of the allowed set unless you add them.

Credential isolation

Any HTTP basic credentials your hardened Orthanc deployment uses are stored once, encrypted, by your own Jentic One instance and injected at execution time. They never enter the agent's prompt, logs, or context.

Intent-based discovery

Agents search Jentic by intent such as 'anonymize a DICOM study' or 'download an instance file', and Jentic returns the matching Orthanc operation with its input schema so the agent calls the right endpoint without browsing the reference docs.

FAQs

Specific to using Orthanc API through Jentic.

What authentication does the Orthanc API use?

The published OpenAPI specification declares no security schemes, so by default the Orthanc REST API is reachable without credentials on the demo server. In production deployments operators usually enable HTTP Basic auth via the Orthanc configuration file. When called through Jentic, any configured Basic credential is held in your Jentic One instance and injected at execution time, so it never enters the agent's prompt.

Can I anonymise a DICOM study with the Orthanc API?

Yes. POST /studies/{id}/anonymize creates a new anonymised resource derived from the original study, with PHI tags such as PatientName and PatientID replaced. The same pattern exists at the instance and series level via /instances/{id}/anonymize and /series/{id}/anonymize.

What are the rate limits for the Orthanc API?

Orthanc itself does not impose documented rate limits in its OpenAPI spec; throughput is constrained by the host server's CPU, disk, and any front-line reverse proxy or firewall. For long-running operations such as anonymisation or modality store, the API returns a job ID and you poll /jobs/{id} for completion rather than blocking on the request.

How do I send a study to another DICOM modality through Jentic?

Through Jentic, search for 'send a study to a DICOM modality', load the schema for POST /modalities/{id}/store, and execute it with the modality alias and the Orthanc resource ID. The call returns a job ID that you can pass to GET /jobs/{id} to verify completion.

Is the Orthanc API free to use?

Orthanc is open-source under the GPLv3 licence and the REST API is included with every Orthanc deployment at no cost. There is no per-call pricing - operational cost is the infrastructure you run Orthanc on.

Can the Orthanc API stream new imaging events?

Yes. GET /changes returns a paginated change log of every event the server has seen, including NewInstance, NewStudy, and StablePatient. Agents poll /changes with the last seen sequence to react to new imaging data without scanning the full dataset.

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

Yes. Because you run your own self-hosted Jentic One instance, you decide which Orthanc operations the agent may call, so you can restrict it to read-only work such as listing studies with GET /studies and downloading instance files with GET /instances/{id}/file. Destructive operations, like modifying a study with POST /studies/{id}/modify, anonymising one with POST /studies/{id}/anonymize, or pushing a study to a device with POST /modalities/{id}/store, stay outside the allowed set unless you explicitly add them. Your own rules govern which operations and credentials the agent can use.

Orthanc Server Orthanc API

Connect the Orthanc API to your agent

Capabilities

Start building with Orthanc API

Use Cases

Key Endpoints

Why Jentic?

Related APIs

FAQs