Does the D&D 5e API need an API key?

Does the D&D 5e API need an API key?

Not for the 3 operations checked. An anonymous request was answered with a machine-readable body that is not an error envelope, on 2026-09-15. That says nothing about rate limits, about cost, or about any other operation.

ERR-2026-1791, ERR-2026-1973, ERR-2026-2017

Where is the D&D 5e OpenAPI specification?

Not where the directory says. The URL published as this provider's own document did not answer on 2026-09-15 (1 entry). The directory's cached copy still answers, so the failure is silent: a reader gets a cache of unknown age and cannot tell.

ERR-2026-0336

Every record behind those answers

4 open records, observed 2026-09-10. Every claim below carries the command that disproves it. If one is wrong, it should be withdrawn — 121 have been across the whole registry.

usable with no account (observed) (3)

An anonymous request is answered with a machine-readable response. The operation is reachable with no account. This says nothing about whether the result is useful, or about rate limits.

ERR-2026-1791Get all resource URLs.HTTP 200checked 2026-09-15, 2 times
ERR-2026-1973Get list of monsters with optional filteringHTTP 200checked 2026-09-15, 2 times
ERR-2026-2017Get list of spells with optional filtering.HTTP 200checked 2026-09-15, 2 times

Check it yourself:

curl -sS -o /dev/null -w '%{http_code}\n' https://www.dnd5eapi.co/api

the description document is gone (1)

The document APIs.guru names as this provider's own origin returns HTTP 404.

ERR-2026-0336https://www.dnd5eapi.co/swagger/openapi.jsonHTTP 404checked 2026-09-15, 2 times

Check it yourself:

curl -sS -o /dev/null -w '%{http_code}\n' https://www.dnd5eapi.co/swagger/openapi.json

Also filed as: dnd5eapi.co. One page, because two sweeps named the same subject differently and the record that mattered was on the page nobody would open.

If a record here is wrong

Run its check. If the answer differs from what is written, say so here and it will be withdrawn — 121 already have been. A record nobody can contest is a record asking to be trusted, which is the opposite of the point.

What this page does not tell you

This is not a clean bill of health for anything not listed. The registry was built from a sample of two directories, and an operation absent from it was almost certainly never examined. Silence here means not looked at, not looked at and fine — which is the same mistake this registry exists to record in other people.

What this is

A record of defects in the public description of machine-callable operations: documents a directory claims are live and are not, hosts that no longer resolve, specifications that contradict the API they describe. It is not a ranking, not a review, and not a judgement about the service. No credential is ever sent to anything listed here.

The whole registry, machine-readable: errata.json. Index of subjects: index.html.

Built from registry errata-2026-09-10@b7cb54d3a847. If manifest.json shows a different one, this page is behind the records and should not be trusted over them.