IBM Cloudant API

Name: IBM Cloudant API API
Brand: IBM Cloudant API
Availability: InStock

★ Only Publicly Available OpenAPI DocumentStorageDatabasebearer, basic, apiKey30 EndpointsREST

For Agents

Read and write JSON documents, run Mango queries and Lucene full-text search, watch change feeds, and replicate data on IBM Cloudant.

Quickstart

Get started with IBM Cloudant API in minutes using your preferred integration method.

# Add to your MCP client config (Claude Desktop, Cursor, Windsurf)
{
  "jentic": {
    "url": "https://api.jentic.com/mcp",
    "auth": "oauth"
  }
}

# Then ask your agent:
"save a json document to cloudant"

# → Jentic returns the GET /events tool with parameter schema, agent executes.

Capabilities

What an agent can do with IBM Cloudant API API.

Read and write JSON documents in databases scoped to a Cloudant account

Run bulk read and write batches via _bulk_get and _bulk_docs for high throughput ingestion

Query documents declaratively with Mango selectors via the _find endpoint

Build secondary indexes and aggregations through MapReduce design document views

GET STARTED

Start building with IBM Cloudant API API

Explore with Jentic

View OpenAPI Document

Jentic publishes the only available OpenAPI document for IBM Cloudant API, keeping it validated and agent-ready.

Jentic publishes the only available OpenAPI specification for IBM Cloudant API, keeping it validated and agent-ready. IBM Cloudant is a distributed JSON document database built on Apache CouchDB and offered as a fully managed service. The API exposes database and document CRUD, bulk read and write, the Mango query language via _find, MapReduce and Lucene full-text search via design documents, change feeds, replication, session and IAM authentication, and security configuration. Authentication can be IBM Cloud IAM bearer, CouchDB-compatible basic auth, or an AuthSession cookie.

Use Cases

Patterns agents use IBM Cloudant API API for, with concrete tasks.

★ Mobile Sync With Cloudant

Use Cloudant as the cloud backend for an offline-first mobile or web app. The change feed at /{db}/_changes drives client sync, /{db}/_bulk_docs uploads batches when devices come online, and replication via /_replicator keeps replica databases consistent across regions. CouchDB-compatible semantics mean PouchDB and other clients work directly without translation.

Read /{db}/_changes since the last sequence and apply incoming changes to a local PouchDB store

Document Search and Discovery

Add full-text search over user-generated content stored as JSON. A design document with a Lucene search index, hit through /{db}/_design/{ddoc}/_search/{index}, returns ranked documents matching a free-text query, while Mango selectors via /{db}/_find handle structured filters. Used together they cover both keyword and structured query patterns without a separate search service.

Call /{db}/_design/{ddoc}/_search/{index} with q='product:phone AND price:[100 TO 500]' and return the top 20 hits

Bulk Ingestion Pipelines

Ingest large JSON datasets into Cloudant by batching writes through /{db}/_bulk_docs and reads through /{db}/_bulk_get. Bulk endpoints accept thousands of documents per request and return per-document success or conflict status, which is the recommended throughput pattern for ETL jobs feeding analytics or migration workloads.

Read 5,000 records from a CSV, transform to JSON, and POST to /{db}/_bulk_docs in batches of 1,000

Cross-Region Replication

Set up active replication between Cloudant databases in different regions for disaster recovery or read-locality. POST /_replicate triggers a one-shot replication and POST to /_replicator persists a continuous replication document. Combined with the change feed, this is the standard pattern for multi-region Cloudant deployments.

POST a replication document to /_replicator with source and target URLs and continuous=true, then verify the replication status

Agent-Driven Document Workflows via Jentic

AI assistants that need a flexible JSON store can search Jentic for an intent like 'save document to cloudant' and execute the matching operation without learning CouchDB's auth quirks. Jentic holds the IAM bearer or basic-auth credential in the vault and issues a scoped credential per call, which is essential for multi-tenant agent deployments.

Search Jentic for 'save json document to cloudant', load PUT /{db}/{docId}, and execute with the user-supplied JSON body

Key Endpoints

30 endpoints — jentic publishes the only available openapi specification for ibm cloudant api, keeping it validated and agent-ready.

METHOD

PATH

DESCRIPTION

GET

/_all_dbs

List all databases

PUT

/{db}

Create a database

GET

/{db}/_all_docs

List documents in a database

PUT

/{db}/{docId}

Create or update a document

POST

/{db}/_bulk_docs

Bulk insert or update documents

POST

/{db}/_find

Run a Mango selector query

GET

/{db}/_changes

Read the change feed

POST

/_replicate

Trigger a replication job

GET

/_all_dbs

List all databases

PUT

/{db}

Create a database

GET

/{db}/_all_docs

List documents in a database

PUT

/{db}/{docId}

Create or update a document

POST

/{db}/_bulk_docs

Bulk insert or update documents

POST

Why though Jentic?

Three things that make agents converge on Jentic-routed access.

Credential isolation

Cloudant IAM bearer tokens, basic-auth passwords, and AuthSession cookies are all stored encrypted in the Jentic vault. Agents receive a scoped credential in the right header per call, so long-lived secrets never enter the agent's context or logs.

Intent-based discovery

Agents search Jentic with intents like 'query cloudant' or 'save document' and Jentic returns the matching operation with its input schema, removing the need to navigate Cloudant's CouchDB-style URL conventions.

Time to first call

Direct Cloudant integration: 1-2 days to handle three auth schemes and design-document management. Through Jentic: under 30 minutes — search, load, execute.

Related APIs

Alternatives and complements available in the Jentic catalogue.

Alternative

MongoDB Atlas

Managed MongoDB document database with Atlas Search and triggers.

Choose MongoDB Atlas when MongoDB query semantics and aggregations are required; use Cloudant when CouchDB-compatible replication and change feeds are needed.

Alternative

Supabase

Managed Postgres with row-level security, realtime, and storage.

Choose Supabase when relational data and SQL are the right fit; Cloudant remains better for schema-less JSON documents and offline sync.

Complementary

Firebase

Realtime database, auth, and hosting for mobile and web apps.

Use Firebase Auth or Hosting alongside Cloudant when the team wants Cloudant as the document store but Google's ecosystem for client services.

FAQs

Specific to using IBM Cloudant API API through Jentic.

Why is there no official OpenAPI spec for IBM Cloudant API?

IBM Cloudant does not publish an OpenAPI specification. Jentic generates and maintains this spec so that AI agents and developers can call IBM Cloudant API via structured tooling. It is validated against the live API and kept up to date. Get started at https://app.jentic.com/sign-up.

What authentication does the IBM Cloudant API use?

Cloudant supports three schemes — IBM Cloud IAM bearer tokens (recommended for production), CouchDB-compatible basic authentication, and an AuthSession cookie obtained from /_session. Through Jentic, the chosen credential is held in the vault and a scoped credential is issued per call so the raw token or password never enters the agent's context.

Can I run full-text search on documents with this API?

Yes. /{db}/_design/{ddoc}/_search/{index} runs a Lucene query against a search index defined in a design document, and /{db}/_find runs structured Mango selector queries. Combine them when both keyword and structured filtering are required.

What are the rate limits for the IBM Cloudant API?

Rate limits depend on the Cloudant plan and are expressed as provisioned throughput capacity (lookups, writes, queries per second). Standard plans purchase capacity in blocks; Lite plans are capped at low single-digit operations per second. Check the IBM Cloud Cloudant pricing page for the exact tier.

How do I save a JSON document through Jentic?

Run pip install jentic, search for 'save json document to cloudant', load the PUT /{db}/{docId} operation, then execute with the database name, document ID, and JSON body. The call returns the assigned revision.

Does this API support replication between databases?

Yes. POST /_replicate runs a one-shot replication job, and writing a replication document to /_replicator persists a continuous replication that survives restarts. Both source and target can be Cloudant or CouchDB databases.