explaingit

ambrosex/bilibili-api-collect

Analysis updated 2026-08-04 · repo last pushed 2026-01-28

Audience · developerComplexity · 1/5QuietSetup · easy

TLDR

A community-maintained catalog of Bilibili's behind-the-scenes APIs, documenting how the video platform's website and apps communicate with servers. It serves as a reference for building unofficial clients, extensions, and data tools.

Mindmap

mindmap
  root((repo))
  What it does
    Catalogs Bilibili APIs
    Documents endpoints
    Reverse-engineered specs
  Use cases
    Custom video players
    Data analysis tools
    Browser extensions
    Chatbot integration
  Features covered
    Login and search
    Video stream URLs
    Danmaku comments
    Live-stream data
  Audience
    Unofficial client devs
    Data analysts
    Learners
  Caveats
    Learning only
    No commercial use
    May be incomplete

Code map

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What do people build with it?

USE CASE 1

Build a custom video player that pulls Bilibili stream URLs.

USE CASE 2

Create a tool that tracks live-stream statistics on Bilibili.

USE CASE 3

Develop a browser extension that interacts with Bilibili features.

USE CASE 4

Build a chatbot that searches and retrieves Bilibili video data.

What is it built with?

MarkdownREST API

How does it compare?

ambrosex/bilibili-api-collect00kaku/gallery-slider-block04amanrajj/netwatch
Stars0
LanguageJavaScriptRust
Last pushed2026-01-282021-05-19
MaintenanceQuietDormant
Setup difficultyeasyeasymoderate
Complexity1/52/53/5
Audiencedevelopergeneralops devops

Figures from each repo's GitHub metadata at analysis time.

How do you get it running?

Difficulty · easy Time to first run · 5min

No setup needed, it's a Markdown documentation archive you read as a reference.

No license is specified, the project is explicitly for learning and testing only, not commercial use.

In plain English

This project is an archived copy of a community-maintained document that catalogs the behind-the-scenes APIs (the communication channels software uses to talk to servers) of Bilibili, one of China's largest video and entertainment platforms. Think of it as a detailed map of how Bilibili's website, mobile app, and TV app actually work under the hood. The original repository was archived by its creator, and this fork preserves that work so it stays accessible. The documentation covers an enormous range of features: logging in, searching for videos, fetching video stream URLs, reading and posting comments, retrieving live-stream data, pulling danmaku (the scrolling bullet comments Bilibili is famous for), browsing user profiles, interacting with the manga platform, and many more. Researchers figured out how these endpoints work through methods like monitoring network traffic, reverse-engineering the apps, and controlled experimentation, then wrote up their findings in plain Markdown documents organized by feature area. Someone building an unofficial Bilibili client, a browser extension, a data analysis tool, or a chatbot that interacts with the platform would use this as their reference guide. For example, if you wanted to build a custom video player that pulls Bilibili streams, or a tool that tracks live-stream statistics, this documentation tells you which endpoints to call and what the responses look like. A few important caveats: the project is explicitly for learning and testing only, not commercial use. The maintainers repeatedly warn against abuse and remind contributors to strip out sensitive data like session cookies before sharing anything. The documentation is also a work in progress, with many sections still incomplete or outdated, and the project could be taken down at any time given its unofficial nature. The master branch contains the unmodified sync of the original archive, while the main branch adds some preserved image resources.

Copy-paste prompts

Prompt 1
Help me build a custom Bilibili video player using the bilibili-api-collect docs. I want to fetch video stream URLs and play them, what endpoints do I call and what does the response look like?
Prompt 2
I want to build a tool that tracks Bilibili live-stream viewer statistics over time. Using bilibili-api-collect as a reference, write a script that fetches live-stream data and logs viewer counts.
Prompt 3
Create a Bilibili browser extension that searches for videos and shows results in a popup. Use the bilibili-api-collect documentation to find the right search endpoints and parse the JSON responses.
Prompt 4
Build a Bilibili danmaku analyzer that fetches scrolling bullet comments for a given video and counts the most common words. Reference bilibili-api-collect for the danmaku endpoint format.

Frequently asked questions

What is bilibili-api-collect?

A community-maintained catalog of Bilibili's behind-the-scenes APIs, documenting how the video platform's website and apps communicate with servers. It serves as a reference for building unofficial clients, extensions, and data tools.

Is bilibili-api-collect actively maintained?

Quiet — no commits in 6-12 months (last push 2026-01-28).

What license does bilibili-api-collect use?

No license is specified, the project is explicitly for learning and testing only, not commercial use.

How hard is bilibili-api-collect to set up?

Setup difficulty is rated easy, with roughly 5min to a first successful run.

Who is bilibili-api-collect for?

Mainly developer.

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