Skip to content

Action Codes API

Action Codes are sent to users who submit observations with email addresses on file. Understandably, these are occasionally lost. The Action Codes API allows users to resend their action codes to the original email address the submission was made with. The codes can then be used at the MPC action codes submission page.

What Are Action Codes?

Action Codes are sent to users who submit observations with email addresses on file. They allow you to:

  • Retract (delete) submitted observations
  • Label objects as artificial or comets.

Endpoint

https://data.minorplanetcenter.net/api/action-codes/retrieve

Method: POST

Parameters

Parameter Type Required Description
label String Yes Identifier for the submission

Label Formats

The following identifier formats are accepted:

Format Example Regex Description
trksub A10cnQO ^[-A-Za-z0-9_]{1,8}$ Tracklet submission ID
trkid 00000DwbEz ^[-A-Za-z0-9_]{8,12}$ Tracklet ID
submission block id 2024-05-02T21:03:35.001_0000FzZw_01 ^\d{4}-[01]\d-[0-3]\dT[0-2]\d:[0-5]\d:[0-6]\d\.\d{3}_\w{8}_\d{2}$ Submission block identifier
submission id 2024-05-02T21:03:35.001_0000FzZw ^\d{4}-[01]\d-[0-3]\dT[0-2]\d:[0-5]\d:[0-6]\d\.\d{3}_\w{8}$ Submission identifier

Response

The response will be intentionally vacuous, but you should expect that an email was sent to the original submitter's address.

Note

Action codes are sent via email to the original submitter's email address. They are NOT returned in the API response to preserve privacy.

Examples

Python

import requests
import json
import sys

terms = {'label': '[your-label]'}
response = requests.post(
    "https://data.minorplanetcenter.net/api/action-codes/retrieve",
    json=terms
)
response.raise_for_status()
json.dump(response.json(), sys.stdout, indent=4)  # Response is minimal

cURL

curl -X POST -H "Accept: application/json" \
  https://data.minorplanetcenter.net/api/action-codes/retrieve \
  -H "Content-type: application/json" \
  -d '{"label": "[your-label]"}'