API access for issue-level cover identification

[Rich Watkin]

Hi all,

Thank you for approving my membership.

I’m building Simplist, a comic identification and collection application. We are looking to use GCD as an attributed source for issue and variant metadata, particularly for distinguishing cover variants.

Our intended workflow is deliberately issue-by-issue:

- Search for the likely title and issue.
- Retrieve that issue family and its variants.
- Use a cover hash first where available.
- Retrieve an identification thumbnail only when required.
- Cache results and images locally so they are not repeatedly requested.
- Never enumerate or download the cover collection in bulk.

I’ve read the recent “Covers?” and “API Retrieve comic cover” discussions and would appreciate clarification on the current position:

1. What is the production API v2 base URL?
2. How should an application request authentication or an API key?
3. Is a cover hash currently included in issue responses? If so, what field, hash algorithm and image preprocessing should clients use?
4. Is the issue-scoped cover endpoint available yet, or still planned?
5. Are there documented rate limits, caching requirements, user-agent wording or attribution requirements we should follow?

We are happy to identify GCD prominently as a data source and comply with the identification-only cover policy. Our objective is to reduce unnecessary requests while improving variant-cover identification.

Many thanks,

Rich
Simplist / Bear Maximum