Agent-ready OpenAPI document · curated by JenticData EnrichmentCompany DataapiKey10 EndpointsREST
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For Agents
Look up books, authors, publishers, and subjects in the ISBNdb commercial bibliographic database - fetch by ISBN, search by name, or run a global keyword query.
Use for: Search for books matching the query 'machine learning', Get the book record for ISBN 9780201896831, Find all books written by 'Donald Knuth', Retrieve publisher metadata for O'Reilly Media
Not supported: Does not handle full-text content, e-book downloads, or library borrowing - use for bibliographic metadata lookup only.
Jentic publishes the only available OpenAPI specification for ISBNdb API, keeping it validated and agent-ready. ISBNdb provides programmatic access to a commercial bibliographic database of over 30 million books, authors, publishers, and subjects. Lookup by ISBN, name, or full-text query returns structured records with metadata such as title, author list, publication year, binding, dimensions, and dewey classification. The same API surface is mirrored under the vendor's `main` slug - the `isbndb-api` slug carries the YAML-source variant of the spec.
Install Jentic One Beta
Connect the ISBNdb API to your agent
Jentic One is a self-hosted execution layer for AI agents. It lets your agent call the ISBNdb 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.
1
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%2Fisbndb.com%2Fisbndb-isbndb-api" | sh2
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%2Fisbndb.com%2Fisbndb-isbndb-api" | 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.
Capabilities
What an agent can do with ISBNdb API.
Resolve a 10 or 13-digit ISBN to a full book record with title, authors, publisher, and year
Search the catalogue by free-text query and paginate through matching books
Fetch the bibliography of a specific author including all books attributed to them
Retrieve the full title list and metadata for a given publisher
Look up a Library of Congress subject heading and return the books filed under it
Run a federated search across books, authors, publishers, and subjects in a single call
Use Cases
Patterns agents use ISBNdb API for, with concrete tasks.
★ Library catalogue enrichment
Enrich an internal book catalogue with authoritative bibliographic metadata so search, filtering, and recommendations work against a consistent schema. The agent calls GET /book/{isbn} for each row and merges the response - title, author list, binding, publication year - back into the local record. ISBNdb covers over 30 million titles, which is enough to resolve most consumer and academic catalogues without falling back to manual cleanup.
For each ISBN in the supplied list, call GET /book/{isbn} and write the returned title and authors back to the local record
Author bibliography page generation
Render an author landing page with their full back catalogue without scraping retail sites. The agent calls GET /author/{name} to retrieve the bibliography, then GET /book/{isbn} on each result for cover and binding details. The pipeline finishes in one or two API rounds per author and avoids the legal grey zone of scraping Amazon or Goodreads.
Fetch the bibliography for 'Ursula K Le Guin' and return the 10 most recent titles with publication years
Subject-driven reading list generation
Produce themed reading lists by querying ISBNdb's subject index. The agent retrieves a subject record via GET /subject/{name}, then expands each title with GET /book/{isbn} for full metadata. Useful for educational platforms generating curriculum-aligned reading lists or for retail sites building topical landing pages.
Look up the subject 'climate change' and return the first page of books with their titles, authors, and ISBNs
AI agent answering book metadata questions
An AI agent fielding consumer questions about books needs a structured fact source. Through Jentic the agent searches for 'lookup ISBN' or 'search books by author', loads the matching ISBNdb operation, and returns a verified record instead of a hallucinated one. Pairs naturally with retrieval-augmented generation pipelines that need ground truth for bibliographic citations.
Given the user question 'Who wrote The Dispossessed?', call GET /books/{query} with query='The Dispossessed' and return the top author
Key Endpoints
10 endpoints — jentic publishes the only available openapi specification for isbndb api, keeping it validated and agent-ready.
METHOD
PATH
DESCRIPTION
GET
/book/{isbn}
Retrieve a book record by ISBN
GET
/books/{query}
Search books by query
GET
/author/{name}
Retrieve an author and their bibliography
GET
/authors/{query}
Search authors
GET
/publisher/{name}
Retrieve publisher metadata
GET
/subject/{name}
Retrieve a subject heading
GET
/search
Federated search across all ISBNdb resources
GET
/book/{isbn}
Retrieve a book record by ISBN
GET
/books/{query}
Search books by query
GET
/author/{name}
Retrieve an author and their bibliography
GET
/authors/{query}
Search authors
GET
/publisher/{name}
Retrieve publisher metadata
GET
/subject/{name}
Retrieve a subject heading
GET
/search
Federated search across all ISBNdb resources
Jentic AI Readiness Score
This API is usable in Jentic One now. Its AI-readiness score against Jentic's framework shows where it stands today and where improvements would make it even easier for agents to use.
I
ISBNdb API
- AI-Aware (B)67/100
100
Foundational Compliance62
Developer Experience & Jentic Compatibility48
AI-Readiness & Agent Experience94
Agent Usability50
Security100
AI DiscoverabilityPowered by JenticScoring Framework 1.0.0 | Scoring Engine 0.4.0
Show dimension breakdown
100
Foundational Compliance
Base layer of spec validity and structural soundness.
Grade: A+Signals: 4
98%
Lint Results
Aggregated quality score from linter diagnostics, weighted by severity.
100%
Resolution Completeness
Percentage of `$ref` references that resolve successfully.
100%
Specification Validity
Checks whether the API description parses successfully and conforms to its declared specification (e.g., OpenAPI).
100%
Structural Integrity
Structural correctness score based on schema issues using logarithmic dampening.
62
Developer Experience & Jentic Compatibility
Clarity, completeness, and ingestion readiness for developers and tooling.
Grade: B-Signals: 4
0%
Example Density
How richly the API is illustrated with examples.
100%
Example Validity
Percentage of examples that conform to their schemas.
47%
Response Coverage
Percentage of operations with complete response definitions (success, client error, server error).
100%
Tooling Readiness
Health of API ingestion, bundling, and resolution within Jentic pipelines.
48
AI-Readiness & Agent Experience
Semantic breadth, depth, and agent comprehension for AI systems.
Grade: D+Signals: 4
44%
Description Coverage
Coverage of descriptions across API elements.
0%
Error Standardization
Coverage of RFC 9457 Problem Details for error responses.
100%
OperationId Quality
Coverage, uniqueness, and casing consistency of operationIds for AI inference.
50%
Summary Coverage
Coverage of summaries across operations/tags/info.
94
Agent Usability
Functional utility, complexity comfort, and AI orchestration readiness.
Grade: A+Signals: 1
94%
Complexity Comfort
Agent comfort level based on API operational and structural complexity.
50
Security
Trust, risk posture, and security compliance.
Grade: C-Signals: 1
50%
Authentication Strength
Average quality of security schemes based on authentication method strength (weakest link for OAuth2).
100
AI Discoverability
Findability, semantic richness, and reasoning readiness.
Grade: A+Signals: 1
100%
Descriptive Richness
Clarity and depth of descriptions across API elements.
Score it yourself
Every API in the directory is allowlisted, so you can re-score it with no key required.
npx @jentic/api-scorecard-cli score <openapi-url>Why Jentic?
What agents get from Jentic-routed access to this vendor.
Setup
Wiring the ISBNdb API by hand means registering for a key, sending it in the x-api-key header to api.isbndb.com, and choosing among the book, author, publisher, subject, and search paths for each lookup. Through Jentic you install once, import ISBNdb from the API Directory, store the key once, and your agent calls it.
Permission scoping
ISBNdb puts the ISBN and other identifiers in the URL path (/book/{isbn}), so a rule can pin your agent to a specific book or author: it reads that bibliographic record and nothing else. You choose the operations it may call, so it stays a read-only lookup client unless you add more.
Credential isolation
Your ISBNdb x-api-key is stored once, encrypted, by your own Jentic One instance and injected into the request header at execution time. It never enters the agent's prompt, logs, or context.
Intent-based discovery
Agents search Jentic by intent such as 'look up an ISBN' or 'search books by author', and Jentic returns the matching ISBNdb operation with its input schema, so the agent calls the right endpoint without reading the ISBNdb docs.
Related APIs
Alternatives and complements available in the Jentic catalogue.
FAQs
Specific to using ISBNdb API through Jentic.
Why is there no official OpenAPI spec for ISBNdb API?
ISBNdb does not publish an OpenAPI specification on its developer site. Jentic generates and maintains this spec from the live YAML reference so that AI agents and developers can call ISBNdb via structured tooling. It is validated against the live API and kept up to date. Get started with Jentic One, the self-hosted execution layer.
What authentication does the ISBNdb API use?
ISBNdb uses an API key passed in the x-api-key request header. Keys are issued from the ISBNdb dashboard after subscribing to a plan. Through Jentic the key sits encrypted in the vault and is injected at request time - agents never see the raw value.
Can I look up a book by its 13-digit ISBN?
Yes. Call GET /book/{isbn} with either the 10 or 13-digit ISBN as the path parameter. The response is a single JSON record with title, authors, publisher, and pricing if available.
What are the rate limits for the ISBNdb API?
Rate limits are not declared in the spec. ISBNdb tiers them per subscription plan - Basic, Premium, and Pro - with the higher tiers raising both per-second and daily ceilings. Confirm the plan-specific number before driving large bulk lookups.
How do I search books by query through Jentic?
Search Jentic with the query 'search books in ISBNdb', load the GET /books/{query} operation, and execute it with the search term in the path parameter. The response includes total match count and a paginated list of book records.
Is ISBNdb the same as Open Library or Google Books?
ISBNdb is a separate commercial database. Coverage of recent commercial titles is generally stronger than Open Library, while Google Books offers full-text search that ISBNdb does not. The right choice depends on whether commercial completeness or full-text snippets matters more.
Can I limit what my agent is allowed to do with the ISBNdb API?
Yes. Because you run Jentic One yourself, your own rules decide which ISBNdb operations and credentials the agent may use, so you can allow only reads like GET /book/{isbn} or GET /author/{name} and keep it a read-only lookup client. Since ISBNdb puts the ISBN, author, or subject in the URL path, a rule can pin the agent to a specific book or author record and nothing else. The x-api-key is held by your own instance and injected at request time, so the agent never sees the raw key or calls an endpoint you did not permit.
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