For bots, and the people who run them

witness:art search

What this is

888.church has an open door for AI bots. A bot can join for free, get a token that lasts 60 minutes, and use it to read Ben Banker's Witness art feed: themed sets of public-domain museum works, each with a short factual caption. With the same token it can search open-access art from 12 museums and libraries in one request. It is read-only: nothing is posted to X or anywhere else.

Why it exists

Ben Banker is a gouache painter in Madison, Wisconsin. He made this so AI assistants can find real, reusable museum art and cite it properly (every work is credited to the institution that holds it), and so they know where Ben's own work lives.

How a bot joins

  1. Read llms.txt for the overview.
  2. Follow feed.md: get a small puzzle, solve it, and receive a token. People can also press Join on the Art feed page.
  3. Follow search.md: send the token as Authorization: Bearer <token> to search or read a Witness feed.
GET /api/search?q=dragon
GET /api/witness/feed?pack=alchemical_diagrams_historical
Authorization: Bearer <token>

What's free

  • Joining: up to 2 tokens per visitor per day (resets at midnight Chicago time).
  • Each token lasts about 60 minutes and allows 200 search or feed calls per day.
  • The source list (/api/sources) and pack list (/api/witness/packs) need no token at all.

Witness packs (9)

Japanese wood & ukiyo-e

Woodblock prints, netsuke, Noh masks, Edo and Meiji carving.

pack=japanese_wood_historical

Chinese dragons

Dragons in painting, porcelain, bronze, and temple sculpture.

pack=chinese_dragons_historical

Alchemical diagrams

Emblems, furnaces, and manuscript diagrams of the art.

pack=alchemical_diagrams_historical

Apocalyptic woodcuts

Revelation cycles, Dürer, and late-medieval last-judgment prints.

pack=apocalyptic_woodcuts_historical

Ethiopian Orthodox art

Manuscript illumination, icons, and processional crosses.

pack=ethiopian_orthodox_art_historical

Medical illustration

Anatomical plates and historical medical drawing.

pack=historical_medical_illustrations

Christian martyrs

Hagiographic painting and print — observation, not devotion.

pack=christian_martyrs_historical

Daoist inner alchemy

Neidan charts, Quanzhen portraiture, and ritual painting.

pack=daoist_neidan_historical

Martial diagrams

Historical fight books, weapon plates, and training charts.

pack=esoteric_martial_diagrams

Sources (49 listed)

Live now (12)

  • The Met Open AccessWitness
    CC0 for Open Access (public-domain) objects
  • Art Institute of ChicagoWitness
    CC0 for public-domain works
  • Cleveland Museum of Art Open AccessWitness
    CC0
  • Library of CongressWitness
    Varies per item; most items have no known restrictions
  • Wikimedia CommonsWitness
    Free licences only (PD, CC0, CC BY, CC BY-SA); attribution/share-alike may apply
  • Digital CommonwealthWitness
    'No restrictions' reuse facet only
  • Japan SearchWitness
    Per item, from jps:accessInfo schema:license
  • Bayerische Staatsbibliothek (MDZ)
    Per item from the IIIF manifest licence: Public Domain Mark 1.0 items allowed; 'No Copyright - Non-Commercial Use Only' (NoC-NC, e.g. Google scans) dropped
  • Wellcome Collection
    Per image: PDM, CC0, CC BY only
  • Minneapolis Institute of Art
    rights_type 'Public Domain' images free for any use
  • Finna
    usage_A = free use (commercial allowed); per-item licence returned
  • Rijksmuseum
    Public-domain works: Public Domain Mark / CC0

Needs an API key (4)

  • Smithsonian Open Access
    Turns on when SI_API_KEY is set on the server.
  • Digital Public Library of America
    Turns on when DPLA_API_KEY is set on the server.
  • NYPL Digital Collections
    Turns on when NYPL_API_TOKEN is set on the server.
  • Europeana
    Turns on when EUROPEANA_API_KEY is set on the server.

Disabled: terms don't allow commercial use (11)

  • Internet Archive
    IA terms of use: access for scholarship and research purposes only; item licences vary and are usually missing
  • Gallica
    BnF: non-commercial reuse free; commercial reuse needs a paid licence
  • Harvard Art Museums
    API terms: non-commercial use only
  • Public Domain Image Archive
    Site terms: metadata CC BY-NC; services may not be used for commercial endeavours; systematic retrieval prohibited; no API
  • Victoria and Albert Museum
    V&A images: non-commercial use only
  • Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
    Mostly CC BY-NC-SA
  • Vatican Museums
    rights-blocked in Art-bot registry
  • DigiVatLib
    rights-blocked in Art-bot registry
  • ICCD (Italy)
    rights-blocked in Art-bot registry
  • Lombardia Beni Culturali
    rights-blocked in Art-bot registry
  • Fondazione Zeri
    rights-blocked in Art-bot registry

Planned (22)

Nga Washington · Colbase · Ndl · Npm Taipei · Tokyo Library · Fuji Art · Museo Egizio · Nli · Ri Unam · Brasiliana Bbm · Chicago Public Library · Uw Alchemy · Google Books · Commons Collections (via wikimedia_commons) · Commons Brazil (via wikimedia_commons) · Commons Mexico (via wikimedia_commons) · Commons Russia (via wikimedia_commons) · China Commons (via wikimedia_commons) · Israel Commons (via wikimedia_commons) · Vatican Commons (via wikimedia_commons) · Europeana Italy (via europeana) · Europeana Open (via europeana)

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