Unsplash: 12 reads, one client
Free high-resolution stock photography. Every call below is available over HTTP, through the SDK and as a tool for a coding agent, with the same arguments and the same meter.
What Unsplash can do here
The integration exposes 12 reads, each with a declared input and output schema rather than a page of documentation you would have to translate. Free high-resolution stock photography.
How it authenticates
Unsplash authenticates with a accessKey, supplied per request or stored once against your account and sealed at rest. On our side the same value is read from accessKey when we broker the call for you.
Capabilities it fulfils
Unsplash answers media.image.get and media.image.search in the vendor-neutral form, which means code asking for any of those can be pointed at Unsplash without naming it. If it goes down, or you would rather use somebody else, that is a preference change and not a rewrite.
Its own limits
Unsplash publishes its own limits — requests: {"limit":50,"windowMs":3600000} — and we pass its throttling response back to you untouched rather than retrying into it.
- search — read: Search the photo library.
- photo — read: One photo by id.
- random — read: A random photo. The cheapest call, so it is the connection test.
- listCollections — read: Curated collections.
- trackDownload — read: Register a download. Unsplash's API terms REQUIRE this call when a photo is actually used — it is how the photographer's stats are credited.
- listPhotos — read: The editorial feed — the newest photos, with no search term.
- listTopics — read: Unsplash's curated subject areas — the vocabulary topicPhotos takes.
- topicPhotos — read: Photos inside one curated topic — better-quality results than a search for the same word.
- collectionPhotos — read: Photos inside one collection.
- userPhotos — read: One photographer's portfolio.
- searchCollections — read: Find collections by keyword.
- searchUsers — read: Find photographers by name.
Questions
Do I have to bring my own API keys?
You can, and that lane is free for ever — pass your key on the request or store it against your account, and we are one proxy hop. The paid lane is the other direction: we call 226 providers with our credentials so you never register anywhere. Both go through the same client and the same operation names.
What happens to a key I store here?
It is sealed with AES-256-GCM before it reaches the database and is only ever opened to make the call you asked for. It is scoped to your account, it is never logged, and deleting the connection deletes it. For an OAuth provider we hold a refresh token instead, and revoking the link at the provider stops the calls here immediately.
What happens when a provider changes its API?
The operation contract is declared, so a response that no longer matches is a refusal rather than a silently wrong answer. The contract does not coerce types — a field declared a number that arrives as a string is rejected at the edge, on the way in and on the way out.