canonical: https://jentic.com/apis/nextcloud.com/nextcloud

# Nextcloud core

The Nextcloud Core API provides programmatic access to Nextcloud's self-hosted collaboration platform. Manage user profiles, app passwords, search providers, task processing, translation services, and navigation menus across your Nextcloud instance. Supports both basic and bearer authentication for flexible integration with self-hosted deployments.

## For AI agents

Manage Nextcloud self-hosted collaboration features including user profiles, app passwords, search operations, and task processing across your instance.

## Scope

Does not handle WebDAV file operations, CalDAV calendar sync, or CardDAV contact sync - use for OCS API operations on user profiles, search, authentication, and task processing only.

## Capabilities

- Generate and rotate application-specific passwords for secure third-party access
- Search across files, contacts, and other Nextcloud resources using unified search providers
- Process AI tasks including text generation, image creation, and translation
- Retrieve user profiles with customizable visibility fields and action menus
- Manage navigation menus for apps and settings panels
- Access avatar images for users and guests with light and dark theme variants
- Extract and resolve rich link references from shared content

## Use cases

### Secure Third-Party App Integration

Connect external applications to Nextcloud without exposing your main password by generating app-specific passwords. Each app password can be rotated or revoked independently, maintaining security boundaries between integrations. The API handles password creation, rotation, and deletion with built-in confirmation flows for sensitive operations. Perfect for integrating mobile apps, desktop sync clients, or automation tools with your self-hosted Nextcloud.

Example prompt: Create a new app password for a mobile sync client and store the generated token securely

### Unified Search Integration

Build search experiences across files, contacts, calendar events, and custom data sources using Nextcloud's provider-based search system. Query multiple search providers in parallel, retrieve ranked results with rich metadata, and access search capabilities for specific content types. The API returns structured results including resource IDs, thumbnails, and action links. Supports both authenticated user search and public share search for guest access scenarios.

Example prompt: Search for documents containing 'Q4 budget' across all available Nextcloud search providers and return the top 10 results with file paths

### AI Task Processing Workflows

Leverage Nextcloud's built-in AI capabilities for text processing, image generation, and translation tasks. Submit tasks to the task processing API, poll for completion status, and retrieve results with rich metadata including processing duration and model information. Supports scheduling tasks with specific input parameters, accessing file-based results, and filtering tasks by application context. Integrates with Nextcloud's text-to-image, text processing, and translation services for multi-modal automation.

Example prompt: Submit a text summarization task for a 10-page document, monitor its status, and retrieve the summarized output when complete

### User Profile and Directory Access

Retrieve detailed user profiles including display names, email addresses, social media links, and custom profile fields with granular visibility controls. Access user avatars in multiple sizes with automatic theme-aware variants for light and dark modes. The API respects Nextcloud's privacy settings and returns only fields the requesting user has permission to view. Includes autocomplete functionality for user lookups and hover card data for rich user previews in collaborative interfaces.

Example prompt: Retrieve the full profile for user 'alice' including avatar, email, and visible social links, then format for display in a team directory

### AI Agent Integration via Jentic

Enable AI agents to interact with self-hosted Nextcloud instances through Jentic's unified API layer. Agents can search files, manage user credentials, process AI tasks, and retrieve profile information without hardcoding Nextcloud server URLs or handling authentication flows directly. Jentic handles credential isolation for app passwords and provides intent-based discovery so agents select the right Nextcloud operation based on natural language goals. Integration takes minutes instead of days of self-hosted API documentation study.

Example prompt: Search for shared documents related to 'project roadmap', retrieve the top match, and summarize the document content using Nextcloud's text processing API

## Key endpoints

| Method | Path | Description |
| --- | --- | --- |
| GET | `/ocs/v2.php/core/getapppassword` | Create a new app password |
| POST | `/ocs/v2.php/core/apppassword/rotate` | Rotate an existing app password |
| GET | `/ocs/v2.php/search/providers` | List all available search providers |
| POST | `/ocs/v2.php/search/providers/{providerId}/search` | Execute a search query |
| GET | `/ocs/v2.php/profile/{targetUserId}` | Retrieve a user profile |
| GET | `/ocs/v2.php/cloud/capabilities` | Get server capabilities and configuration |
| POST | `/ocs/v2.php/taskprocessing/schedule` | Schedule an AI task |
| GET | `/ocs/v2.php/taskprocessing/task/{id}` | Get task status and results |

## Key resources

- **App Passwords** — Create, rotate, confirm, and delete application-specific passwords for secure third-party access
- **Search Providers** — List available search providers and execute searches across files, contacts, and custom data sources
- **User Profiles** — Retrieve user profiles with visibility-controlled fields including display name, email, phone, and social links
- **Task Processing** — Schedule and manage AI tasks for text processing, image generation, and translation
- **Navigation** — Access navigation menu structures for apps and settings panels
- **Avatars** — Retrieve user and guest avatar images in multiple sizes with theme variants
- **Capabilities** — Query server capabilities and configuration settings

## Why Jentic

- **Setup:** Wiring the Nextcloud OCS API by hand means picking your own server hostname, choosing between basic and bearer auth, and building requests against the `/ocs/v2.php` base with the required OCS request header. Through Jentic you install once, import the core OCS API from the API Directory, store the credential once, and your agent calls it.
- **Permission scoping:** The OCS API puts targets like the user id and search provider id in the URL path (`/profile/{targetUserId}`, `/search/providers/{providerId}/search`), so scope your agent to the operations it needs, such as running searches and reading profiles, while leaving app-password rotation out of the allowed set unless you add it.
- **Credential handling:** Your Nextcloud app password is stored once, encrypted, by your own self-hosted Jentic One instance and injected at execution time. It never enters the agent's prompt, logs, or context.
- **Discovery method:** Agents search Jentic by intent such as 'search Nextcloud content' or 'generate an app password' and Jentic returns the matching OCS operation with its input schema so the agent calls the right endpoint without hardcoding server-specific paths or browsing the reference docs.

## Related APIs

- **Dropbox API v2** — Cloud-hosted file storage and collaboration platform with automatic sync
- **Box** — Enterprise content management platform with advanced security and compliance features
- **Google Drive API** — Google's cloud storage and productivity suite with real-time document collaboration
- **Slack** — Team communication platform that integrates with Nextcloud for file sharing in conversations

## FAQ

### What authentication does the Nextcloud Core API use?

The Nextcloud Core API supports both HTTP Basic authentication and Bearer token authentication. For secure third-party integrations, use the app password endpoints to generate application-specific credentials that can be independently rotated or revoked. Jentic stores Nextcloud app passwords encrypted in your Jentic One instance and provides scoped access tokens to agents, so raw credentials never appear in agent context.

### Can I search across files and contacts with the Nextcloud Core API?

Yes. The API provides unified search through the `/ocs/v2.php/search/providers` endpoint, which lists all available search providers including files, contacts, calendar events, and custom sources. Execute searches via POST `/ocs/v2.php/search/providers/{providerId}/search` to get ranked results with thumbnails and resource links. Through Jentic, agents can search by intent like 'find shared documents about Q4 planning' without hardcoding provider IDs.

### What are the rate limits for the Nextcloud Core API?

Rate limits for the Nextcloud Core API depend on your self-hosted instance configuration. Nextcloud does not enforce global rate limits in the core software, but administrators can configure rate limiting at the web server level using nginx or Apache modules. Check with your Nextcloud server administrator for deployment-specific limits.

### How do I process AI tasks with the Nextcloud Core API through Jentic?

Use Jentic to search for 'process text with nextcloud' or 'generate image in nextcloud', then load the schema for POST `/ocs/v2.php/taskprocessing/schedule.` Submit your task with the required input parameters, then poll GET `/ocs/v2.php/taskprocessing/task/{id}` for completion status. Jentic handles authentication and returns structured task results including processing duration and file IDs for generated outputs. Install via pip install jentic and run it through Jentic One, the self-hosted execution layer.

### Can I retrieve user profile information from Nextcloud?

Yes. The GET `/ocs/v2.php/profile/{targetUserId}` endpoint returns detailed user profiles including display name, email, phone, address, website, and social media links. Profile fields respect Nextcloud's granular visibility settings, returning only information the requesting user has permission to view. Avatar images are available separately via `/index.php/avatar/{userId}/{size}` with automatic light and dark theme variants.

### What AI capabilities are available through the Nextcloud Core API?

The API exposes three AI systems: text processing for summarization and generation via `/ocs/v2.php/textprocessing` endpoints, text-to-image generation via `/ocs/v2.php/text2image` endpoints, and translation services via `/ocs/v2.php/translation` endpoints. Each system supports task scheduling, status polling, and result retrieval. Available task types can be queried via `/ocs/v2.php/taskprocessing/tasktypes` to discover capabilities like summarization, headline generation, and language translation.

### How do I manage app passwords for third-party integrations?

Create app passwords via GET `/ocs/v2.php/core/getapppassword` which generates a new credential scoped to the requesting application. Rotate existing passwords with POST `/ocs/v2.php/core/apppassword/rotate`, confirm password changes with PUT `/ocs/v2.php/core/apppassword/confirm`, and revoke access with DELETE `/ocs/v2.php/core/apppassword.` Each operation requires the OCS-APIRequest: true header. For one-time access, use GET `/ocs/v2.php/core/getapppassword-onetime.`

### Can I limit what my agent is allowed to do with the Nextcloud Core API?

Yes. Jentic One runs self-hosted, so your own rules decide which OCS operations and credentials the agent may use. You can allow only the operations it needs, such as running searches through `/search/providers/{providerId}/search` and reading profiles through `/profile/{targetUserId}`, while leaving app-password rotation out of the allowed set unless you explicitly add it. The stored Nextcloud app password is injected at execution time and never enters the agent's prompt or context.