API Documentation

The Update Brief API is a RESTful API that allows you to access the brief update summaries of both WordPress Core updates and WordPress plugin updates, generated by Update Brief.

The API is designed to be easy to use with predictable, simple URLs. It uses standard HTTP response codes and requires an API Token for authentication. All responses are returned as JSON with a Content-Type: application/json header.

To get started, make an authenticated GET request to one of the API endpoints. Here is a complete example using curl to retrieve the update summary for the Akismet plugin, upgrading from version 5.4 to 5.5:

curl -H "Authorization: Bearer YourApiToken" \
     https://updatebrief.com/api/v1/plugins/akismet/5.4/5.5

A successful request returns a JSON response like this:

{
    "status": "200",
    "plugin_slug": "akismet",
    "start_version": "5.4",
    "end_version": "5.5",
    "summary": "This update enables webhooks for improved spam detection by Akismet through asynchronous comment processing. It also optimizes performance by loading Akismet widget CSS only when needed and enhances user interface readability with improved contrast.\n"
}

Your API Token can be found in the Update Brief Dashboard. Read on for full details on authentication, endpoints, and response formats.

The Update Brief API uses API key authentication. To make an API request, include your API Token in the Authorization header as a Bearer token:

Authorization: Bearer YourApiToken

For example, using curl:

curl -H "Authorization: Bearer YourApiToken" https://updatebrief.com/api/v1/plugins/akismet/5.4/5.5

Or, using PHP with WordPress:

$response = wp_remote_get(
    'https://updatebrief.com/api/v1/plugins/akismet/5.4/5.5',
    array(
        'headers' => array(
            'Authorization' => 'Bearer YourApiToken',
        ),
    )
);

$body = json_decode( wp_remote_retrieve_body( $response ), true );

Your API Token can be found in the Update Brief Dashboard.

The Update Brief API only accepts GET requests. Any other HTTP method (POST, PUT, DELETE, etc.) will return a 405 error.

The base URL for all requests is:

https://updatebrief.com/api/v1/

Note: Update Brief and the API currently support WordPress Core and plugin updates. Theme updates are not supported at this time.

Plugins

To request a brief update summary for a WordPress or Premium plugin update, use:

https://updatebrief.com/api/v1/plugins/{slug}/{startVersion}/{endVersion}

Examples:

# Akismet Anti Spam, from version 5.4 to 5.5
https://updatebrief.com/api/v1/plugins/akismet/5.4/5.5

# Yoast SEO, from version 25.8 to 26.1.1
https://updatebrief.com/api/v1/plugins/wordpress-seo/25.8/26.1.1

WordPress Core

To request a brief update summary for a WordPress Core update, use:

https://updatebrief.com/api/v1/core/{startVersion}/{endVersion}

Examples:

# WordPress Core, from version 6.7 to 6.8
https://updatebrief.com/api/v1/core/6.7/6.8

# WordPress Core, from version 6.8.1 to 6.8.2
https://updatebrief.com/api/v1/core/6.8.1/6.8.2

All responses from the Update Brief API are returned as JSON. The API uses standard HTTP response codes to indicate success or failure.

Plugins

A successful plugin request returns a 200 status code with the plugin slug, version range, and summary:

{
    "status": "200",
    "plugin_slug": "seo-by-rank-math",
    "start_version": "1.0.253",
    "end_version": "1.0.255",
    "summary": "This update improves search engine optimization by allowing users to view and edit SEO titles and descriptions for taxonomy terms. It also fixes several bugs, including a broken keyboard shortcut for Content AI, issues with removing Open Graph thumbnails, a PHP warning, and a missing preview in the Content AI Prompts library.\n"
}

If no summary is available for the requested version range, the API will return a 200 status code, but with a summary value of null:

{
    "status": "200",
    "plugin_slug": "seo-by-rank-math",
    "start_version": "1.0.253",
    "end_version": "99.9.99",
    "summary": null
}

WordPress Core

A successful WordPress Core request returns a 200 status code with the update type, version range, and summary:

{
    "status": "200",
    "update": "WP Core",
    "start_version": "6.8",
    "end_version": "6.8.3",
    "summary": "This update addresses multiple bugs in WordPress Core and the Block Editor, focusing on issues in the block editor, multisite functionality, and REST API. It includes fixes for automatic updater failures, bulk edit problems, and REST API errors related to sticky posts. Security enhancements include fixes for a data exposure issue allowing access to restricted content and a cross-site scripting vulnerability affecting nav menus. The update also incorporates various enhancements and bug fixes for themes, media handling, and accessibility.\n"
}

As with plugins, if no summary is available the response will contain "summary": null:

{
    "status": "200",
    "update": "WP Core",
    "start_version": "6.8",
    "end_version": "99.9",
    "summary": null
}

Response Field Reference

Error responses are returned as JSON with a status code and a message describing the problem:

{
    "status": "401",
    "message": "Unauthorized - Please check your API authorization credentials"
}

The table below lists all error codes returned by the API, along with troubleshooting guidance.

To ensure fair and efficient use of the API, rate limits are applied based on your subscription plan. The per-minute limits are as follows:

Rate Limit Headers

Every API response includes headers so you can monitor your usage programmatically: