About
What is this?
SWAPI (Star Wars API) is a free, open-source REST API and MCP server that serves all the Star Wars data you could ever want: People, Films, Planets, Species, Starships, and Vehicles. All available in JSON format, ready to be consumed by your applications and your AI agents.
Why build another one?
If you've ever relied on a third-party API to power your conference demos, you know the pain: the API goes down, the service shuts off, and suddenly your carefully crafted live demo is broken minutes before you go on stage.
That happened more than once to Elder Moraes, a Java Champion who's also a lifelong Star Wars fan. After years of rewriting demos every time yet another Star Wars API disappeared, he decided to build one that stays up for live demos, with a public uptime monitor.
And since he was building it from scratch, why not use the technologies he loves and admires? The result is a blazing-fast API built with Quarkus and GraalVM, serving as both a reliable data source for demos and a living showcase of what modern Java can do.
What makes it different?
Quarkus Performance
Out-of-the-box performance that speaks for itself. Supersonic, subatomic Java with no tuning required.
Native Compilation
Compiled ahead-of-time with GraalVM native image for instant startup and minimal memory footprint.
Virtual Threads
Powered by Java 21+ Virtual Threads for lightweight, high-throughput concurrency without the complexity.
Want to contribute?
This project is fully open source and lives on GitHub. Pull requests are always welcome, whether it's fixing a bug, improving the docs, or adding new features. Jump in and help make the best Star Wars API in the galaxy even better.
Credits & Acknowledgements
This project was inspired by the original SWAPI, created by Paul Hallett and currently maintained by Juriy Bura. The Star Wars data comes from open, community-driven sources such as Wookieepedia. For how it compares with SWAPI and other Star Wars APIs today, see the dated comparison in the FAQ.
All Star Wars content and imagery are the property of Lucasfilm Ltd. and Disney. This project is not affiliated with or endorsed by Lucasfilm or Disney.