API versioning
By Starcovery. Updated .
How Starcovery versions REST and MCP with the API-Version header, how it handles deprecation, and the rate limits and headers each response carries.
Starcovery REST and MCP are version 1. Send the optional API-Version header with value 1. Every response carries API-Version: 1, the version served, whatever version the request sent; the server does not refuse another value, because no other version exists.
Paths stay under /api without a /v1 prefix. A breaking change increments API-Version. Starcovery does not keep a parallel old path after a break.
Deprecation
Responses send no Deprecation (RFC 9745) or Sunset (RFC 8594) header. The OpenAPI description at /openapi.json is the live contract, and a removed operation is deleted from it.
Rate limits
Unsigned callers get 100 uses per rolling 24 hours per client IP. Identified callers get 200 per user, and the members of one organization share at most 200 between them, then prepaid credits. A GET /api/search request is one use, and a thread turn is one use plus one for each search and each exclusion it runs. Brief parse allows 50 requests per 60 seconds per client IP.
The search quota name is search. The brief parse quota name is parse. A pre-claim agent token spends prepaid credits only, so its search responses send no search quota headers.
Every response sends API-Version. Search and brief parse responses send RateLimit-Limit and RateLimit-Policy, a 400 included, except a search 401 for a credential that does not verify. An operation whose security in /openapi.json lists the apiKey scheme sends both under the quota name api-key once the key verifies, and on a search response that quota replaces search. Brief parse, GET /api/health, and every other operation whose security does not list the scheme do not read the key and send no api-key quota. The MCP endpoint sends the api-key quota the same way once a key verifies. When the limiter reports remaining, responses also send RateLimit, RateLimit-Remaining, and RateLimit-Reset.
Every 429 sends Retry-After and the body {"error": "rate_limited"}, on REST and MCP alike. A 429 from the api-key, parse, or site (website read) quota also sends that quota's RateLimit headers with no uses remaining, in place of the api-key quota. Enrichment and thread turns count against the brief parse quota, so their 429 sends it too. A search 402 sends Retry-After when the daily grant is used, and a search 503 search_unavailable always sends it. Success responses do not send Retry-After.
Test call
Unsigned search is the live test call, on the same host as production calls:
curl "https://www.starcovery.com/api/search?q=slow+morning+coffee"CLI
Use the Starcovery CLI to log in, check the active identity, search creators, run thread turns, and manage campaigns, credits, API keys, and contact reveal.
Add creator search to an AI agent
From one brief, find, hire, cross-post, measure, and pay out Instagram and TikTok creators from the web, MCP, REST, or CLI.