Etherpad API

Name: Etherpad API API
Brand: Etherpad API
Availability: InStock

★ Only Publicly Available OpenAPI DocumentProductivityCollaborationapiKey96 EndpointsREST

For Agents

Create and manage Etherpad pads, groups, sessions, and authors, and read or write their text, HTML, and chat content from a self-hosted collaborative editor.

Quickstart

Get started with Etherpad 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:
"create an Etherpad pad and set its content"

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

Capabilities

What an agent can do with Etherpad API API.

Create and delete pads, including pads scoped to a group with custom expiry

Read and write pad text, HTML, and Etherpad-specific attributes

Append text or chat messages to a live pad without overwriting existing content

Manage authors and map external user IDs to Etherpad author IDs

GET STARTED

Start building with Etherpad API API

Explore with Jentic

View OpenAPI Document

Use for: I need to create a new pad for a meeting and prefill it with an agenda, Append a chat message to a live pad as a notification, Get the current text of a pad to feed it to a summariser, List all pads in a group so I can archive stale ones

Not supported: Does not handle email delivery, video conferencing, or user identity beyond Etherpad authors — use for pad, group, author, session, content, and chat operations only.

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

Jentic publishes the only available OpenAPI specification for Etherpad API, keeping it validated and agent-ready. Etherpad is an open-source real-time collaborative editor that scales to thousands of simultaneous users and runs on the customer's own server. The HTTP API exposes everything the editor exposes in the UI: pads, groups, authors, sessions, chat, content (HTML, text, attributes), and revision history. Most operations are mirrored on both GET and POST verbs, and authentication is a single apikey query parameter scoped to the Etherpad instance.

Use Cases

Patterns agents use Etherpad API API for, with concrete tasks.

★ Meeting note prefill from a calendar event

When a meeting is scheduled, a calendar integration calls /createPad with a deterministic pad name, then /setText (or /setHTML) to push a templated agenda into the new pad. The meeting URL points participants directly at the Etherpad instance, so they collaboratively edit the same document during the call. After the meeting, /getText returns the final notes for archiving.

POST /createPad with padID 'team-standup-2026-06-10', then POST /setHTML with the rendered agenda template, and finally POST /appendChatMessage to ping participants when the call starts.

Group-scoped pads for a customer-facing workspace

A SaaS product gives each customer a private workspace by calling /createGroupIfNotExistsFor with the customer's external ID, /createAuthorIfNotExistsFor for each user, and /createSession to grant access to the group's pads. New documents are created with /createGroupPad. The session model means individual pads do not need their own ACLs — group membership controls access.

POST /createGroupIfNotExistsFor with the customer's external ID, then for each user POST /createAuthorIfNotExistsFor and /createSession, then POST /createGroupPad for each new document.

Cleanup and archival of stale pads

Administrators reduce server load by listing each group's pads via /listPads, fetching last-edit metadata via /getLastEdited, and deleting any pad that hasn't been touched in 90 days with /deletePad. The same flow can archive content first by calling /getHTML and writing the result to object storage before deleting.

GET /listPads for each group, then for each padID GET /getLastEdited, archive /getHTML if older than 90 days, and POST /deletePad.

AI agent summarising a live pad on demand

An AI agent in a meeting tool fetches the current pad text via /getText through Jentic, summarises it with an LLM, and writes the summary back as a chat message via /appendChatMessage so participants see it inline. The Etherpad apikey stays in the Jentic vault, so the agent never sees it directly even when running across multiple Etherpad instances.

Search Jentic for 'get Etherpad pad text', execute GET /getText with the padID, summarise the result, then execute POST /appendChatMessage to post the summary into the same pad.

Key Endpoints

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

METHOD

PATH

DESCRIPTION

POST

/createPad

Create a new pad

POST

/setText

Set the text content of a pad

POST

/setHTML

Set the HTML content of a pad

GET

/getText

Get the text content of a pad

GET

/getHTML

Get the HTML content of a pad

POST

/appendChatMessage

Append a chat message to a pad

POST

/createGroupPad

Create a pad inside a group

POST

/createSession

Open a session granting an author access to a group

POST

/createPad

Create a new pad

POST

/setText

Set the text content of a pad

POST

/setHTML

Set the HTML content of a pad

GET

/getText

Get the text content of a pad

GET

/getHTML

Get the HTML content of a pad

POST

Why though Jentic?

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

Credential isolation

The Etherpad apikey (from APIKEY.txt) is stored encrypted in the Jentic vault. Agents call operations with a scoped execution token, so the raw apikey never enters the prompt or logs.

Intent-based discovery

Agents search Jentic with intents such as 'create a pad' or 'append a chat message to a pad' and Jentic returns the matching Etherpad operation along with its parameter schema, so the agent does not need to read the Etherpad API reference.

Time to first call

Direct integration: 1-2 days to handle the apikey, the GET/POST symmetry, and the group/session model. Through Jentic: under an hour for the first /createPad and /setHTML call.

Related APIs

Alternatives and complements available in the Jentic catalogue.

Complementary

EspoCRM REST API

EspoCRM holds the customer record that an Etherpad workspace is created for.

Use EspoCRM as the source of customer identity when scoping Etherpad groups to a customer.

Complementary

Freshdesk API

Freshdesk tickets can link to a dedicated Etherpad pad for collaborative resolution notes.

Use Freshdesk when each ticket needs an attached collaborative scratchpad for the support team.

Complementary

Estimate Rocket API

Estimate Rocket projects can pair with an Etherpad pad for shared site notes.

Use Estimate Rocket when the project record is the anchor and Etherpad supplies the collaborative notes surface.

FAQs

Specific to using Etherpad API API through Jentic.

Why is there no official OpenAPI spec for Etherpad API?

The Etherpad project documents its HTTP API in markdown reference pages but does not publish an OpenAPI specification. Jentic generates and maintains this spec so that AI agents and developers can call Etherpad 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 Etherpad API use?

Etherpad uses a single apikey passed as a query parameter named 'apikey'. The key is stored in APIKEY.txt on the Etherpad server. Through Jentic, the apikey is held encrypted in the vault and the agent only ever holds a scoped execution token.

Can I append text to a live pad without overwriting it?

Yes — POST /appendText adds content to the end of an existing pad without disturbing the current text. There is also POST /appendChatMessage for adding a chat message into the pad's chat panel rather than the document body.

What are the rate limits for the Etherpad API?

Because Etherpad is self-hosted, there is no vendor-imposed rate limit; capacity is bounded by the server you run it on and any reverse-proxy limits you put in front of it. For bulk imports use the dedicated content-setting endpoints (/setText, /setHTML) once per pad rather than appending repeatedly.

How do I create a new pad through Jentic?

Search Jentic for 'create an Etherpad pad'. Jentic returns POST /createPad with the padID and optional initial-text schema. Execute it; if you want pretty content rather than plain text, follow up with POST /setHTML using the same padID.

Why are most operations available on both GET and POST?

Etherpad's HTTP API was designed for embedding in environments where some clients can only issue GET requests. Both verbs accept the same query parameters and produce the same response, so for write operations you should still prefer POST in any new integration.