GEOCACHING HQ PRESENTS
WHO'S ON FIRST · HTTP API
© 2026 GROUNDSPEAK, INC. · VERSION 1
▸ PRESS [ ANY KEY ] TO BEGIN ◂
Who's On First (WOF) is a gazetteer of places — a comprehensive geographic database covering countries, regions, cities, neighbourhoods, and the small named bits in between. It is an open-data project providing consistent, accurate place records with rich metadata and hierarchical relationships.
This service exposes a fast, production-ready HTTP API for resolving geographic coordinates to their administrative hierarchies using Who's On First data.
All /api/v1/* endpoints require a Bearer token. Include your token in the Authorization header on every request:
Authorization: Bearer wof_<your-token>
Tokens are issued through the admin page (password-protected). Each token's usage is tracked, and any token may be revoked at any time.
The /health endpoint and this landing page remain public. Requests without a valid token return 401 Unauthorized.
1. Resolve hierarchy from coordinates
GET/api/v1/hierarchy?lat={latitude}&lon={longitude}
Returns the continent, country, region, county, locality, and neighbourhood enclosing the point.
curl -H "Authorization: Bearer wof_..." \ "/api/v1/hierarchy?lat=37.7749&lon=-122.4194"
continent · country · region · county · locality · neighbourhood
2. Fetch a place record by id
GET/api/v1/place/{wof_id}
Returns the complete place record with properties and full hierarchy.
curl -H "Authorization: Bearer wof_..." /api/v1/place/85922583
complete place details with properties and hierarchy
3. Health check[ no auth ]
GET/health
Liveness probe. No authentication required.
Press a key to resolve coordinates