For Agents
Compute Jewish holiday calendars, Shabbat times, zmanim, Hebrew date conversions, and yahrzeit dates across 6 unauthenticated endpoints.
Install Jentic One Beta
Jentic One is a self-hosted execution layer for AI agents. It lets your agent call the Hebcal 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://raw.githubusercontent.com/jentic/jentic-one/main/tools/install.sh | shStep 2: Agent machine
# On the machine where your agent runs (keep this separate from the instance):
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jentic/jentic-one/main/tools/install.sh | sh
jentic register # connects your agent to your Jentic One instanceJentic 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.
What an agent can do with Hebcal API.
Generate a Jewish holiday calendar for a given year and location via /hebcal
Look up Shabbat candle-lighting and havdalah times for a city or coordinates via /shabbat
Calculate halachic times (zmanim) for any date and location via /zmanim
GET STARTED
Use for: Get the Jewish holidays falling in 2026 for New York, Find this week's Shabbat candle-lighting and havdalah times in Tel Aviv, Calculate today's zmanim for a given latitude and longitude, Convert 15 Nisan 5786 to a Gregorian date
Not supported: Does not write to user calendars, send notifications, or accept event submissions — use for read-only Jewish calendar, zmanim, and date-conversion lookups only.
Jentic publishes the only available OpenAPI specification for Hebcal API, keeping it validated and agent-ready. The Hebcal API is a Jewish calendar service that returns holiday calendars, Shabbat candle-lighting and havdalah times, halachic times (zmanim), Hebrew/Gregorian date conversion, yahrzeit and anniversary calculations, and Torah leyning data. All endpoints are public read-only GETs requiring no authentication, and responses are JSON keyed off location and date parameters. The service does not write to user calendars or accept event submissions.
Convert dates between the Hebrew and Gregorian calendars via /converter
Compute upcoming yahrzeit and Hebrew anniversary dates from a Gregorian death/event date via /yahrzeit
Retrieve Torah leyning details (parsha, aliyot, haftarah) for a given Shabbat or holiday via /leyning
Patterns agents use Hebcal API for, with concrete tasks.
★ Synagogue Website Calendar
A synagogue website needs to display weekly Shabbat times and an annual holiday calendar without maintaining a Hebrew date library. The Hebcal API returns localized candle-lighting, havdalah, and holiday data keyed off city or coordinates so the site can render an accurate calendar with a single GET per page load. No API key is needed.
Call GET /shabbat?cfg=json&geonameid=5128581 and return this week's candle-lighting and havdalah times for New York
Hebrew Date Conversion Tool
An app that prints bar mitzvah certificates needs to convert a child's Gregorian birthday into the Hebrew date and back. The /converter endpoint handles bidirectional conversion in a single call, including the after-sunset edge case via the gs flag.
Convert the Gregorian date 1990-05-14 to its Hebrew equivalent by calling GET /converter?cfg=json&gy=1990&gm=5&gd=14&g2h=1
Zmanim and Yahrzeit Reminders
A reminder service computes daily halachic times and upcoming yahrzeit dates for users who provide their location and family records. The /zmanim and /yahrzeit endpoints return the full set of times and the next n yahrzeit occurrences in a single call, eliminating the need for in-house astronomical calculations.
Call GET /yahrzeit?cfg=json&years=10&type1=Yahrzeit&date1=1990-05-14 and return the next 10 yahrzeit dates
AI Agent Jewish Calendar Assistant
An AI agent answers questions like 'when is Pesach next year in London?' or 'what's this week's parsha?' by calling Hebcal through Jentic. Because Hebcal requires no auth, the agent's only job is to pick the right operation — Jentic surfaces it by intent search.
Search Jentic for 'get jewish holidays for a year', load the /hebcal operation, and return the holidays for 2026 in London
6 endpoints — jentic publishes the only available openapi specification for hebcal api, keeping it validated and agent-ready.
METHOD
PATH
DESCRIPTION
/hebcal
Get Jewish calendar events for a year and location
/shabbat
Get Shabbat candle-lighting and havdalah times
/zmanim
Get halachic times for a date and location
/converter
Convert between Hebrew and Gregorian dates
/yahrzeit
Calculate yahrzeit and anniversary dates
/leyning
Get Torah reading details for a Shabbat or holiday
/hebcal
Get Jewish calendar events for a year and location
/shabbat
Get Shabbat candle-lighting and havdalah times
/zmanim
Get halachic times for a date and location
/converter
Convert between Hebrew and Gregorian dates
/yahrzeit
Calculate yahrzeit and anniversary dates
Three things that make agents converge on Jentic-routed access.
Credential isolation
Hebcal requires no API key — Jentic still routes the call through MAXsystem, but no secret is stored or injected. Agents get the same execution surface as authenticated APIs without any vault setup.
Intent-based discovery
Agents search by intent (e.g. 'get shabbat times' or 'convert hebrew date') and Jentic returns the matching Hebcal operation with its query parameters typed, so the agent passes geonameid, year, or date directly.
Time to first call
Direct integration: 1-2 hours reading the Hebcal docs and parsing query string conventions. Through Jentic: under 10 minutes — search, load, execute.
Alternatives and complements available in the Jentic catalogue.
Specific to using Hebcal API through Jentic.
Why is there no official OpenAPI spec for Hebcal API?
Hebcal publishes documentation on hebcal.com but does not ship an OpenAPI specification. Jentic generates and maintains this spec so that AI agents and developers can call Hebcal 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 Hebcal API use?
The Hebcal API requires no authentication — all six endpoints are public GETs. Through Jentic the agent calls them directly with no credential handling required.
Can I get Shabbat candle-lighting times for any city with this API?
Yes. GET /shabbat accepts a geonameid, zip code, or latitude/longitude pair and returns candle-lighting and havdalah times for the upcoming Shabbat at that location.
What are the rate limits for the Hebcal API?
Hebcal asks consumers to keep request volume reasonable; there is no published per-key quota since the API is unauthenticated. For sustained or high-volume use, cache responses by date+location since the underlying data only changes daily.
How do I get this week's Shabbat times through Jentic?
Run pip install jentic, have the agent search for 'get shabbat candle lighting times', load the /shabbat operation, and execute it with a geonameid or lat/lon for the user's city.
Does the Hebcal API include Torah reading information?
Yes. GET /leyning returns the parsha, aliyot breakdown, and haftarah for a given Shabbat or holiday, which is useful for synagogue calendars and study apps.
/leyning
Get Torah reading details for a Shabbat or holiday