API from hosted instances?

[shub39]

Hello 👋
I've been scraping Genius to get lyrics for my project Rush. Recently I stumbled upon this project and I was wondering if it is possible to get an API from the hosted instances to use in other apps? Thanks for this project 🙏

[fdezwonders]

Hello back! So, i wanna help you buuuuuut I'm a total beginner at coding, so i asked Claude to help 😅
AI response ⬇️

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While dumb doesn't have an official API endpoint, I can suggest a couple of approaches based on the existing codebase:

1. The project already has endpoints that fetch and parse Genius data, specifically:

   • /search - Search functionality (handlers/search.go)
   • /albums/{artist}/{albumName} - Album info
   • /artists/{artist} - Artist info
   • /{annotation-id}/{artist-song}/lyrics - Lyrics

2. Looking at the code in handlers/lyrics.go and handlers/search.go, the service already parses and structures the data from Genius. You could make HTTP requests to any of the public instances listed in instances.json using these endpoints and parse the HTML response.

For example, you could use:

https://dm.vern.cc/search?q=your_search_term
[https://dm.vern.cc/{annotation-id}/{artist-song}-lyrics](https://dm.vern.cc/%7Bannotation-id%7D/%7Bartist-song%7D-lyrics)

However, please note that:

1. Since this is primarily a web frontend, you'll need to parse the HTML responses
2. Make sure to respect rate limits and add proper delays between requests
3. Consider reaching out to instance operators if you plan heavy usage

For your Rush project, I'd recommend starting with a small proof of concept using one of the more stable instances from instances.json to see if this approach meets your needs.

[shub39]

i wanted to avoid parsing html but seems like there's no choice 😃

[fdezwonders]

ai response ⬇️

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Hey @shub39! Yeah, I get that parsing HTML isn’t ideal 😅, but unfortunately, since this project primarily serves as a frontend for Genius, there’s no direct API for structured data.

That said, the endpoints (/search, /lyrics, etc.) do return data you can work with, so you might be able to wrap it in your own lightweight API for easier integration into Rush. Just make sure to handle rate limits and check instance stability (maybe start with https://dm.vern.cc or others listed in instances.json). If you’re planning heavy usage, it’s a good idea to reach out to the instance operators for a heads-up. Hope this helps! 🙌

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so yeah 😬