bobapi.com

What It Is

BobAPI is a project in which Bob has organized his own quantified-self data into a personal data warehouse and exposed it via an API. It is not a general-purpose health data platform; instead, it provides read access to real health, biometric, activity, location, sleep, and related data for a single user, “bob.” Its positioning is closer to personal open data and a citizen-science experiment.

Core Capabilities

The API follows a REST-style design. It uses OAuth to obtain an access token and refresh token, and endpoints are then called with a Bearer Token. The dataset is fairly broad, covering blood oxygen, blood pressure, electrodermal activity, blood glucose, heart rate and HRV, ketones, pH, body temperature, weight, activity, location, sleep, steps, and more. Most measurement endpoints support parameters such as limit, offset, start_date, end_date, start_time, end_time, and source, and provide list queries, lookup by ID, and latest queries. The documentation uses curl and JSON examples to show field structures, so the learning curve for developers is relatively low.

Pricing and Access

The main documentation does not disclose a pricing model, free quota, or payment methods. To obtain access, users need to apply by email, after which the site owner provides OAuth client credentials. This means it is not suitable for scenarios that require self-service signup, automated provisioning, or enterprise-grade permission management.

Pros and Cons

Its strengths are the wide range of data types, relatively realistic fields, and an authentication and calling model that follows common API conventions. It is suitable for health data analysis, visualization prototypes, or teaching examples. The drawbacks are also clear: the project explicitly states that it is still in progress, so interfaces may change; there is no SDK, OpenAPI spec, error-code documentation, rate-limit information, SLA, or self-hosting guide; the documentation also shows inconsistencies such as v0/v1 usage and singular/plural path naming, making it risky to depend on in production.

Who It’s For and Access from China

It is suitable for quantified-self researchers, data analysts, health-data product prototypers, and anyone interested in studying personal open-data API design. It is not suitable as the core data source for a commercial health application. The documentation does not mention access conditions from mainland China, so network connectivity, email communication, and any potential payment process are uncertain. If you need a stable alternative, consider Google Fit API, Fitbit Web API, Apple HealthKit, Withings API, or building your own health data warehouse.