API

Beacon exposes an HTTP API for:

• Discovering datasets and tables (collections)
• Inspecting available columns (Arrow schemas)
• Running queries (JSON DSL or SQL)
• Downloading results in formats like Arrow IPC, CSV, Parquet, NetCDF, GeoParquet, ODV

TIP

The API is fully documented via OpenAPI. When Beacon is running, open:

• Swagger UI: /swagger
• Scalar UI: /scalar/
• OpenAPI JSON: /openapi.json

Base URL

Examples in these docs are shown as raw HTTP request templates (e.g. GET /api/health).

Send them to your Beacon base URL (by default http://localhost:5001).

If you run behind a reverse proxy, use that URL instead.

Quick health check

GET /api/health

Next

• Explore datasets/tables: exploring-data-lake.md
• Query with JSON: querying/json.md
• Query with SQL: querying/sql.md
• Query examples: querying/examples.md