Install Jentic One Beta

Connect the Foursquare Places API to your agent

Jentic One is a self-hosted execution layer for AI agents. It lets your agent call the Foursquare Places API, or any other public or private API you need. You set the rules, the agent never sees your credentials, and every call is logged.

Two steps, two machines. Install the instance in a safe environment, then register your agent from wherever it runs.

Step 1: Jentic One Host machine

# On the machine that will host your Jentic One instance:
curl -fsSL "https://jentic.com/install.sh?src=apis&api=%2Fapis%2Ffoursquare.com%2Ffoursquare" | sh

Step 2: Agent machine

# On the machine where your agent runs (keep this separate from the instance):
curl -fsSL "https://jentic.com/install.sh?src=apis&api=%2Fapis%2Ffoursquare.com%2Ffoursquare" | sh
jentic register       # connects your agent to your Jentic One instance

Jentic One is in public beta. The setup above keeps your agent separate from the instance, which is what you want before using real credentials: an agent running as the same OS user as Jentic One can read its stored keys directly. Just evaluating? A single local install is fine to start. See the secure deployment guide for the tiers.

Capabilities

What an agent can do with Foursquare Places API.

Search for businesses and points of interest by name, category, or location

Find places near a given set of coordinates

Retrieve full details for a place by its Foursquare id

Fetch user-contributed photos for a place

Read visitor tips left for a place

GET STARTED

Start building with Foursquare Places API

Explore with Jentic One

View OpenAPI Document

Use Cases

Patterns agents use Foursquare Places API for, with concrete tasks.

★ AI Agent for Local Discovery

A travel or concierge agent helps a user find places to eat, visit, or shop nearby. Through Jentic it searches the Foursquare Places API by category and location, then pulls details, photos, and tips for the best matches to summarize for the user. The agent discovers the search and details operations by intent, so it returns grounded venue information without a developer wiring HTTP calls.

Search for highly rated dinner spots near a set of coordinates, fetch details and tips for the top three, and recommend one with its address and hours

Location Autocomplete in a Form

An app wants type-ahead place suggestions in a search box. As the user types, the autocomplete endpoint returns matching places and addresses, and selecting one resolves to a Foursquare place id that the app uses to fetch full details. This gives users fast, accurate location entry without a custom index.

Send the partial query to autocomplete, present the suggestions, and on selection call the place details endpoint with the returned id

Enriching Records with Venue Data

A pipeline has business names and rough locations and needs canonical venue data. It searches the Places API for each record, matches the best result, and stores the Foursquare place id, category, and coordinates. Later runs use the id to refresh photos and tips, keeping a clean, deduplicated place dataset.

For each business name and city, search places, pick the closest category and name match, and save its Foursquare id and coordinates

Key Endpoints

7 endpoints — the foursquare places api gives you access to foursquare's global places database.

METHOD

PATH

DESCRIPTION

GET

/places/search

Search places by name, category, or location

GET

/places/nearby

Find places near a set of coordinates

GET

/places/{fsq_id}

Get full details for a place

GET

/places/{fsq_id}/photos

Fetch user photos for a place

GET

/places/{fsq_id}/tips

Read visitor tips for a place

GET

/autocomplete

Return place and address suggestions for a query

GET

/places/categories

List the Foursquare place category taxonomy

GET

/places/search

Search places by name, category, or location

GET

/places/nearby

Find places near a set of coordinates

GET

/places/{fsq_id}

Get full details for a place

GET

/places/{fsq_id}/photos

Fetch user photos for a place

GET

/places/{fsq_id}/tips

Read visitor tips for a place

GET

/autocomplete

Return place and address suggestions for a query

GET

/places/categories

List the Foursquare place category taxonomy

Why Jentic?

What agents get from Jentic-routed access to this vendor.

Setup

Using the Foursquare Places API by hand means managing the Authorization header key, joining place ids across search, details, photos, and tips calls, and reading the category taxonomy yourself. Through Jentic you install once, import the API from the Directory, and your agent calls the right operation.

Permission scoping

The Foursquare Places API is read-only, so you allow only the operations a task needs, such as search and details, and leave photos, tips, or autocomplete out of the allowed set. Rules run on your own instance and every call the agent makes is logged.

Credential isolation

Your Foursquare API key is stored once, encrypted, by your own Jentic One instance and injected into the Authorization header at execution time, so it never enters the agent's prompt, logs, or context.

Intent-based discovery

Agents search Jentic by intent such as 'find nearby restaurants' or 'get place details', and Jentic returns the matching Foursquare operation with its input schema so the agent calls the right endpoint without reading reference docs.

FAQs

Specific to using Foursquare Places API through Jentic.

What authentication does the Foursquare Places API use?

Per its OpenAPI spec it uses an API key passed as the Authorization header (keys start with fsq3). Through Jentic that key is stored encrypted on your own instance and injected into the Authorization header at call time, so it never appears in the agent's prompt or logs.

How do I search for nearby places with the Foursquare Places API?

Call GET /places/nearby with coordinates, or GET /places/search with a query and location. Each result carries a Foursquare place id you can pass to GET /places/{fsq_id} for full details. Through Jentic you search for the intent 'find nearby places' and the agent gets the operation and its input schema.

Can I get photos and tips for a place from the Foursquare Places API?

Yes. Once you have a place id, GET /places/{fsq_id}/photos returns user-contributed photos and GET /places/{fsq_id}/tips returns visitor tips. These let an agent present a richer summary of a venue than the base details alone.

What are the rate limits for the Foursquare Places API?

The OpenAPI spec does not state numeric rate limits; they depend on your Foursquare plan. Cache place details and category data, which change rarely, and check https://foursquare.com for current plan limits.

How do I add place autocomplete with the Foursquare Places API?

Send the user's partial input to GET /autocomplete and it returns place, address, and search suggestions as they type. When the user picks a result you receive a Foursquare place id, which you pass to the details endpoint to load the full record.

Can I limit what my agent is allowed to do with the Foursquare Places API through Jentic?

Yes. The API is read-only, so you allow only the operations a task needs, such as GET /places/search and GET /places/{fsq_id}, and leave the rest out of the allowed set. Every call runs through your own instance and is logged, so the agent's access stays under your control.

Is there a Foursquare MCP server?

You don't need a separate MCP server to give your agent the Foursquare Places API. Jentic connects it directly from the API Directory: import the API and your agent searches places and reads details on demand without loading another server's tool definitions into its context.

Foursquare Places API

Name: Foursquare Places API
Brand: Foursquare Places API
Availability: InStock

Official vendor OpenAPI document · agent-readyMaps GeolocationPlaces SearchapiKey7 EndpointsREST

For Agents

Search Foursquare's global places database by name, category, or location; get place details, photos, and tips; and use autocomplete and the category taxonomy.

Use for: Find coffee shops near these coordinates, Search for a restaurant by name in this city, Get the full details for this Foursquare place, Show me photos for this venue

Not supported: Covers place search, details, photos, tips, autocomplete, and categories. Check-ins, user accounts, and venue management from the legacy Foursquare product are not part of this Places API.

The Foursquare Places API gives you access to Foursquare's global places database. Search for businesses and points of interest by name, category, or location, or find places near a set of coordinates. For any place you can pull rich details, user photos, and tips left by visitors. An autocomplete endpoint returns place, address, and search suggestions as a user types, and a categories endpoint lists Foursquare's place taxonomy so you can filter searches. Every response is keyed by a stable Foursquare place id, so you can look up the same venue across calls.

Jentic One on Github View OpenAPI Document