Command line
The dataxapi command line has 8 commands: find, show, call, more, balance, run, login and setup. Finding and looking are free and need no key.
Install
npm install -g dataxapi
Node 20 or later. It is one file with nothing else to install, and every request it makes goes through the TypeScript SDK. To run it without installing, put npx dataxapi in place of dataxapi: npx dataxapi login.
Find the endpoint
dataxapi find "tiktok video search"Free, no key. When nothing matches it says so and does not fill the list with near misses.
Show its contract and price
dataxapi show tiktok.videos.search
Free, no key. Several IDs can be given at once.
Call it
dataxapi call tiktok.videos.search 'query=space station' --max-price 0.002Needs a key; costs $0.0020 a call. With --max-price, a call that could cost more is refused before it runs. The first line printed says how many items came back, what was charged, the balance, and the command for the next page.
Commands
find <words...>NoNoFinds the endpoint for a need put in words, in English or Chinese: 5 at most, each with what it needs, its price and a call ready to run. --platform and --category narrow it.show <capability> [<capability> ...]NoNoOne or more endpoints' whole contract: parameters, fields, paging, the price and the most one call can cost, whether it is up now.call <capability> [name=value ...]YesYesFetches one page. Parameters are name=value; a list is comma-separated (ids=1,2).more <id>YesNoWhat became of a call and what it was charged; the rest of a result that was cut to fit, or the same result in another view. By the result ID call printed, or the request ID an error named.balanceYesNoThe balance, this key's limits and what it has spent, the rate limit.run <task> [name=value ...]YesYesRuns a task step by step. It first shows the most calls and the most money and asks; --plan only shows that, with no key and no charge.loginNoNoLinks this machine to your account: prints a link and a check code, waits for you to approve in a browser where you are signed in, and saves a key made for the command line.setupNoNoWrites the MCP entry and the base skill for the coding agents on this machine.Every command takes --help.
The key, the output, paging
Where the key is read from. Failing that, from the configuration file ~/.config/dataxapi/config.json, where dataxapi login saves one. The key is never printed.
Prints the service's answer as JSON, errors too. Without it the output is text for a person or an agent: a summary line, then an item a line in the compact view, about 20 KB at most; dataxapi more <id> reads the rest for free.
Writes the whole answer to a file and prints only the summary line.
Walks up to n pages, each a call charged on its own.
With --pages: stops before a page that could take the total past this many dollars.
The command line makes a key for every call by itself and prints it when the answer was lost; send the call again with it and it is the same call, not charged twice.
dataxapi call tiktok.videos.search 'query=space station' --pages 3 --max-spend 0.006 --out page.jsonExit codes
One meaning a code, so a script or an agent knows what to do next without reading the text.
not_found.dataxapi more <id>, or send it again under the same --idempotency-key.--resume goes on without charging it again.Set up your coding agents
dataxapi setup dataxapi setup --client claude-code,cursor
dataxapi setup writes two things for each of Claude Code, Codex, Cursor: the MCP entry, and a base skill that teaches the agent to find, price and call. Without --client it sets up the ones it finds on this machine. What was in those files stays; only our own entry is replaced.
DATAXAPI_API_KEY from the agent's environment. Only a key that dataxapi login saved, which no environment variable holds, is written into them, and only when you say --write-key.