API access - FS' Developers site both says that individuals are permitted, and not permitted.
I am an AI professional in the enterprise space, and a longtime FS contributor with well over half a million contribs, all done by hand. I'm very, VERY familiar with the platform.
I want to craft some agentic AI workflows to assist with my research. These are human-in-the-loop kind of things, meaning that they will not take any actions without human review and explicit approval action. As an example, I've created a browser extension which allows me to select an article in a historical, digitized newspaper, supply a FamilySearch profile ID, and have it create a properly-cited source. It will also read the article itself, and look in the "orbit" of the given profile for any other profiles to which it would make sense to attach the source. For instance, an old wedding notice might include the names of parents, siblings who were ushers/bridesmaids, etc. (especially valuable in cases where the relationships have been hard to document). It would then offer up these suggestions for my review.
The problem is that FamilySearch's cyber security apparatus is detecting this activity and blocking it, even when trying to "drive" the regular web GUI. This is the kind of thing that APIs were meant for, so off I go to the developers.familysearch.org site, where I'm overjoyed to see "Access to the FamilySearch REST API and the various endpoints is free for both individuals and organizations."
However, clicking the link to get started takes me to an application form which right at the top says "Apply to Become a Qualified FamilySearch Third-party Solution Provider
API access is ONLY available for organizations with software development experience and application marketing history. All personal and academic requests will be denied."
I refuse to lie, and I don't really want to start a business which I otherwise don't want just to be able to proceed.
May I please be referred to someone with whom I can work toward a solution?
Answers
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If it makes a difference, I'm in SLC for the next two weeks.
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@Brad Felmey I should fill in the form anyway, explaining your position and in particular how your proposed solution extends what is currently available to FS users (direct, or via the existing approved solutions in the Solutions Gallery), and see what happens, although the rules do seem to be a lot tighter than they appear to have been in the past.
I would encourage you, if not already done, to study the material here: https://developers.familysearch.org/main/docs/getting-started, in particular (since you are proposing to write to the Tree) the published standard https://developers.familysearch.org/main/docs/contributing-to-the-familysearch-family-tree
I would also suggest (though I have no idea how worthwhile this would be) getting in touch with any existing Solutions Gallery provider whose solution might be enhanced by your proposed innovative mechanism.
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