Paste API

Send text as the request body, or as JSON, and get back an encrypted link to a highlighted paste. Made for piping logs and command output straight out of a terminal.

Quick start

Grab your key

The same key the upload API uses, from your dashboard.

POST the text

As the body of /api/v1/paste, nothing else needed.

Share the link

It opens in the viewer, highlighted and decrypted in the browser.

Endpoint

POST https://imageserver.pw/api/v1/paste

Body as raw text with any content type, or application/json

Auth header X-IMAGESERVER-AUTH-KEY

Shares the upload limit of 30 per minute

Up to 1.00 MB of UTF-8 text

A paste is an upload like any other. It counts towards your storage, shows up in the dashboard, and /api/v1/upload takes the same text as a .txt file if your client can only send files.

Request fields

With a raw body the options go into the query string. With JSON they are fields next to content.

Field	Required	Description
`content`	JSON only	The text. With a raw body the whole body is the text and this field does not exist.
`language`	no	How the viewer highlights it: `bash`, `c`, `cpp`, `csharp`, `css`, `diff`, `dockerfile`, `dos`, `go`, `gradle`, `ini`, `java`, `javascript`, `json`, `kotlin`, `lua`, `markdown`, `php`, `plaintext`, `powershell`, `properties`, `python`, `ruby`, `rust`, `scss`, `sql`, `swift`, `typescript`, `xml`, `yaml`. Leave it out and the extension of `name` decides, or plain text when there is none.
`name`	no	A file name such as `build.log` or `main.py`. Its extension suggests the language, and a downloaded copy is called after it, always ending in `.txt`.
`expires`	no	`never`, `1h`, `6h`, `12h`, `24h`, `7d` or `30d`. Leave it out for your dashboard setting.
`maxDownloads`	no	`1` deletes the paste after it is read once. Also `5`, `10`, `25`, `100` or `unlimited`.
`folder`, `tags`	no	Filed into your dashboard the same way as uploads, see the Upload API.
`urlStyle`	no	`private` keeps the key after the `#`, `raw` links the plain text itself. Leave it out for your dashboard setting.
`format`	no	`url` answers with the link as plain text and a newline, instead of JSON.

Examples

Linux, macOS, WSL

# Pipe anything in, get the link back
tail -n 200 server.log | curl -s --data-binary @- \
  -H "X-IMAGESERVER-AUTH-KEY: your-user-key" \
  "https://imageserver.pw/api/v1/paste?name=server.log&expires=7d&format=url"

Use --data-binary, not -d: -d @- strips the newlines out of what it reads.

Windows PowerShell

$headers = @{ "X-IMAGESERVER-AUTH-KEY" = "your-user-key" }
$text = Get-Content .\latest.log -Raw

$result = Invoke-RestMethod -Uri "https://imageserver.pw/api/v1/paste?name=latest.log" `
    -Method Post -Headers $headers `
    -ContentType "text/plain; charset=utf-8" `
    -Body ([System.Text.Encoding]::UTF8.GetBytes($text))

$result.url

Node.js 18+ and browsers

const res = await fetch('https://imageserver.pw/api/v1/paste', {
  method: 'POST',
  headers: {
    'X-IMAGESERVER-AUTH-KEY': 'your-user-key',
    'Content-Type': 'application/json'
  },
  body: JSON.stringify({
    content: 'console.log("hello");\n',
    language: 'javascript',
    maxDownloads: '1'
  })
});

const data = await res.json();
if (!res.ok) throw new Error(data.error);
console.log(data.url, data.deletionUrl);

Python 3 with requests

import requests

with open("traceback.txt", encoding="utf-8") as f:
    text = f.read()

response = requests.post(
    "https://imageserver.pw/api/v1/paste",
    headers={"X-IMAGESERVER-AUTH-KEY": "your-user-key"},
    json={"content": text, "language": "python", "expires": "24h"},
    timeout=30,
)

response.raise_for_status()
print(response.json()["url"])

Response

200 OK

{
  "url": "https://imageserver.pw/p/aB3dK9.txt#key=…",
  "deletionUrl": "https://imageserver.pw/delete/aB3dK9?key=…"
}

With format=url the body is only the link, followed by a newline.
The key is in the link and nowhere else, so a lost link is a lost paste. Keep the deletionUrl if you may want to take it down.

Errors

Status	Message	What to do
`400`	Send the text as the request body.	The body was empty. With JSON, the text belongs in `content`.
`400`	This file is not plain UTF-8 text.	Binary data and other encodings are refused. Convert to UTF-8, or upload the file through the Upload API.
`400`	Missing auth key or file.	The `X-IMAGESERVER-AUTH-KEY` header is missing.
`401`	Invalid user key.	Copy the key again from the dashboard. Too many wrong keys from one address are refused for a few minutes.
`413`	Text uploads can be up to 1.00 MB.	Trim it, for example to the last few hundred lines of a log.
`413`	Storage quota exceeded.	Pastes count towards your storage. Delete old uploads in the dashboard.
`429`	Too many uploads, or the daily limit for new accounts.	30 per minute. Accounts in their first week without a confirmed email address are also limited per day, and the message says how to lift it.

All of these are JSON in the shape { "error": "..." }, also with format=url.

Rather paste by hand?

The paste page does the same in the browser, with a language picker, expiry and delete after the first read.

Open the paste page