Taxonomy API

The Taxonomy API grants Scholarship, Growth, and Enterprise clients the ability to programmatically plan their event schema in the Taxonomy tab.

The Taxonomy API lets you create, get, update, and delete categories, event types, event properties, and user properties. You can edit planned events and properties, and not events and properties that already have data in the project.

Get more examples for this API

The Amplitude Developers Postman profile has a full library of example requests and responses for this API.

Check out the Amplitude Developers Profile to view the collection. You don't need a Postman account to browse.

If you already use Postman, you can fork and run this collection in Postman.

Authorization¶

This API uses basic authentication, using the API key and secret key for your project. Pass base64-encoded credentials in the request header like {{api-key}}:{{secret-key}}. api-key replaces username, and secret-key replaces the password.

Your authorization header should look something like this:

--header 'Authorization: Basic YWhhbWwsdG9uQGFwaWdlZS5jb206bClwYXNzdzByZAo'

See Find your Amplitude Project API Credentials for help locating your credentials.

Endpoints¶

Region	Endpoint
Standard Server	https://amplitude.com/api/2/
EU Residency Server	https://analytics.eu.amplitude.com/api/2/

Considerations¶

You may have to URL encode special characters in the names of event types, event properties, and user properties. For example, encode Play Song as Play%20Song. Use the W3Schools encoding reference.
In responses, custom user properties have a gp: prefix. For example, gp:my_custom_property.
You must plan events or properties in the schema before you can delete them via this API.

Limits¶

For each endpoint, there is a concurrent and a rate limit. The concurrent limit restricts the amount of requests you can run at the same time, while the rate limit restricts the total number of queries you can run per hour. The limits are per project, and exceeding any of these limits returns a 429 error.

The endpoints use a cost per query model. Here are the max costs per API Key:

Concurrent Cost Limit: You can run queries that collectively add up to 4 cost at the same time.
Period Cost Limit: You can run up to 7200 cost per hour.

Cost structure of each endpoint:

GET: 1 cost
PUT: 2 cost
POST: 2 cost
DELETE: 2 cost

Event category¶

Event categories are a way to organize your event types into broad groups.

Example

You want to track how users register for your app, checkout, and how they interact with the onboarding experience. You can bucket your events using these event categories:

Registration
Checkout
Onboarding

Create event category¶

Create an event category in your project.

POST /api/2/taxonomy/category

Example request¶

POST /api/2/taxonomy/category HTTP/1.1
Host: amplitude.com
Authorization: Basic {{api-key}:{{secret-key}}}
Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded
category_name=Marketing

Body parameters¶

Name	Description
`category_name`	Required. Name of the category.

Response¶

A successful request returns a 200 OK response with a JSON body:

{
    "success" : true 
}

A failed request sends an error message with more information:

{
   "success" : false,
   "errors" : [
      {
         "message" : "error info"
      }
   ]
}

Get all event categories¶

Get all event categories in your project.

GET https://amplitude.com/api/2/taxonomy/category

Example request¶

GET /api/2/taxonomy/category HTTP/1.1
Host: amplitude.com
Authorization: Basic {{api-key}:{{secret-key}}}

Response¶

A successful request returns a 200 OK status with a JSON body:

{
    "success": true,
    "data": [
        {
            "id": 412931,
            "name": "Attribution"
        },
        {
            "id": 412941,
            "name": "Conversion"
        }
    ]
}

A failed request returns a 400 Bad Request response with more information.

{
    "success": false,
    "errors": [
        {
            "message": "Not found"
        }
    ]
}

Get an event category¶

Get the ID of an event category in your project.

GET https://amplitude.com/api/2/taxonomy/category/:category_name

Example request¶

GET /api/2/taxonomy/category/:category_name HTTP/1.1
Host: amplitude.com
Authorization: Basic {{api-key}}:{{secret-key}}

Path variables¶

Name	Description
`category_name`	Required. The name of the category

Response¶

A successful request returns a 200 OK status and a JSON body with the category's data:

{
    "success": true,
    "data": {
        "id": 412941,
        "name": "Conversion"
    }
}

A failed request returns a 400 Bad Request status with more information about the error.

{
    "success": false,
    "errors": [
        {
            "message": "Not found"
        }
    ]
}

Update event category¶

Update the name of an event category.

PUT https://amplitude.com/api/2/taxonomy/category/:category_id

Example request¶

PUT /api/2/taxonomy/category/412941 HTTP/1.1
Host: amplitude.com
Authorization: Basic {{api-key}}:{{secret-key}}
Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded
Content-Length: 23

category_name=Converted

Path variables¶

Name	Description
`category_id`	Required. The ID of the category

Body parameters¶

Name	Description
`category_name`	Required. The new name of the category

Response¶

200 OK¶

A successful request returns a 200 OK status and a JSON body.

{
    "success": true
}

409 Conflict¶

If there is a problem with your request, the request returns a 409 Conflict status, and a JSON body with more information.

{
    "success": false,
    "errors": [
        {
            "message": "Attempted to operate on entity event_category, id \"4129\", that does not exist."
        }
    ]
}

Delete an event category¶

Delete an event category.

DELETE https://amplitude.com/api/2/taxonomy/category/:category_id

Example request¶

DELETE /api/2/taxonomy/category/12345 HTTP/1.1
Host: amplitude.com
Authorization: Basic {{api-key}}:{{secret-key}}

Path variables¶

Name	Description
`category_id`	Required. The ID of the category

Response¶

200 OK¶

A successful request returns a 200 OK status and a JSON body.

{
    "success": true
}

409 Conflict¶

If there is a problem with your request, the request returns a 409 Conflict status, and a JSON body with more information.

{
    "success": false,
    "errors": [
        {
            "message": "Attempted to operate on entity event_category, id \"4129\", that does not exist."
        }
    ]
}

Event type¶

An event is any action a user can take, like start game or add to cart, or any activity associated with a user, like in-app notifications or push notifications.

You can use the API to manipulate event types.

Create event type¶

Creates an event type.

Note

You must initialize the schema before you can add event types via the API.

Example request¶

POST /api/2/taxonomy/event?=null HTTP/1.1
Host: amplitude.com
Authorization: Basic {{api-key}}:{{secret-key}}
Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded
Content-Length: 80

event_type=My%20event&category=Conversion&description=Event%20type%20description

Body parameters¶

Name	Description
`event_type`	Required. String. The event type name.
`category`	Optional. String. The event type's category.
`description`	Optional. String. Details about the event type.

Response¶

200 OK¶

A successful request returns a 200 OK response with a JSON body:

{
    "success" : true 
}

409 Conflict¶

A failed request returns a 409 Conflict status with an error message.

{
   "success" : false,
   "errors" : [
      {
         "message" : "error info"
      }
   ]
}

Get all event types¶

Retrieves all event types in a project. This request has no required parameters.

GET https://amplitude.com/api/2/taxonomy/event

Example request¶

GET /api/2/taxonomy/event HTTP/1.1
Host: amplitude.com
Authorization: Basic {{api-key}:{{secret-key}}}

Response¶

200 OK¶

A successful request returns a 200 OK status with a JSON body:

{
    "success": true,
    "data": [
        {
            "event_type": "Attribution",
            "category": {
                "name": "Attribution Events"
            },
            "description": null
        },
        {
            "event_type": "Converstion",
            "category": {
                "name": "Conversion Events"
            },
            "description": "This event is fired when a user converts."
        }
    ]
}

Get an event type¶

Get a single event type, by name.

GET https://amplitude.com/api/2/taxonomy/event/:event_type

Example request¶

GET /api/2/taxonomy/event/:event_type HTTP/1.1
Host: amplitude.com
Authorization: Basic {{api-key}}:{{secret-key}}

Path variables¶

Name	Description
`event_type`	Required. String. The event type name.

Response¶

200 OK¶

A successful request returns a 200 OK status and a JSON body with the event type's data:

{
    "success": true,
    "data": {
        "event_type": "ce:Event 2",
        "category": {
            "name": "Conversion Events"
        },
        "description": null
    }
}

400 Bad Request¶

A failed request returns a 400 Bad Request status with more information about the error.

{
    "success": false,
    "errors": [
        {
            "message": "Not found"
        }
    ]
}

Update event type¶

Update an event type.

PUT https://amplitude.com/api/2/taxonomy/event/:event_type

Example request¶

PUT /api/2/taxonomy/event/ce:Event1 HTTP/1.1
Host: amplitude.com
Authorization: Basic {{api-key}}:{{secret-key}}
Content-Length: 41

category=&display_name=Event%20Number%203

Path variables¶

Name	Description
`event_type`	Required. String. The event name.

Body parameters¶

Name	Description
`new_event_type`	Optional. String. The event type's new name.
`category`	Optional. Current category name of the event type.
`description`	Optional. String. Details to add to the event type.
`display_name`	Optional. String. Display name of an event type. You can update the display name for an event type after it's ingested into Amplitude.

Response¶

200 OK¶

A successful request returns a 200 OK status and a JSON body.

{
    "success": true
}

409 Conflict¶

If there is a problem with your request, the request returns a 409 Conflict status, and a JSON body with more information.

{
    "success": false,
    "errors": [
        {
            "message": "Attempted to change the event display name for event \"ce:Event\", but the event is not in schema."
        }
    ]
}

Delete an event type¶

Delete an event type.

DELETE https://amplitude.com/api/2/taxonomy/event/:event_type

Example request¶

DELETE /api/2/taxonomy/event/ce:Event1 HTTP/1.1
Host: amplitude.com
Authorization: Basic {{api-key}}:{{secret-key}}

Path variables¶

Name	Description
`event_type`	Required. The name of the event type

Response¶

200 OK¶

A successful request returns a 200 OK status and a JSON body.

{
    "success": true
}

409 Conflict¶

If there is a problem with your request, the request returns a 409 Conflict status, and a JSON body with more information.

{
    "success": false,
    "errors": [
        {
            "message": "Attempted to remove an event, \"ce:Event1\", that is not a planned event."
        }
    ]
}

Event property¶

Event properties describe the attributes of an event. For example, if 'Swipe' is an event that you are tracking, then the event property ‘Direction’ could have the values ‘Left’ or ‘Right’.

Create event property¶

Create an event property.

POST https://amplitude.com/api/2/taxonomy/event-property

Example request¶

POST /api/2/taxonomy/event-property HTTP/1.1
Host: amplitude.com
Authorization: Basic {{api-key}}:{{secret:key}}
event_type=Onboard%20Start&event_property=Completed%20Task&type=boolean&is_array_type=false&is_required=false

Body parameter¶

Name	Description
`event_type`	Required. String. Name of the event type to which the event properties belong to.
`event_property`	Required. String. Name of the event property.
`description`	Optional. String. The event property's description.
`type`	Optional. String. Available with Govern Add-on. The event property's data type. Acceptable values are `string`, `number`, `boolean`, `enum`, and `any`
`regex`	Optional. String. Available with Govern Add-on. Regular expression, custom regex used for pattern matching or more complex values. For example, property zip code must have pattern `[0-9]{5}`
`enum_values`	Optional. String. Available with Govern Add-on. List of allowed values.
`is_array_type`	Optional. Boolean. Available with Govern Add-on.
`is_required`	Optional. Boolean. Available with Govern Add-on. Marks the property as required. When `true`, events that are missing this property are flagged on the Taxonomy page in the web app.

Response¶

200 OK¶

A successful request returns a 200 OK status and a JSON body.

{
    "success": true
}

409 Conflict¶

If there is a problem with your request, the request returns a 409 Conflict status, and a JSON body with more information.

{
    "success": false,
    "errors": [
        {
            "message": "Attempted to add an event property, \"Completed Task\" for event \"Onboard Start\", that already exists."
        }
    ]
}

Get event properties¶

Get all an event's properties.

GET https://amplitude.com/api/2/taxonomy/event-property

Example request¶

GET /api/2/taxonomy/event-property HTTP/1.1
Host: amplitude.com
Authorization: Basic {{api-key}}:{{secret:key}}

event_type=Onboard%20Start

Body parameter¶

Name	Description
`event_type`	Required. Name of the event type to which the event properties belong to.

Response¶

200 OK¶

A successful request returns a 200 OK status and a JSON body with a list of event properties and their data.

{
    "success": true,
    "data": [
        {
            "event_property": "Completed Task",
            "event_type": "Onboard Start",
            "description": "User completed a task during onboarding.",
            "type": "boolean",
            "regex": null,
            "enum_values": null,
            "is_array_type": false,
            "is_required": false
        },
        {
            "event_property": "Completed Tutorial",
            "event_type": "Onboard Start",
            "description": "",
            "type": "any",
            "regex": null,
            "enum_values": null,
            "is_array_type": false,
            "is_required": false
        }
    ]
}

Get event property¶

Get a single event property.

GET https://amplitude.com/api/2/taxonomy/event-property

Example request¶

GET /api/2/taxonomy/event-property/Shared HTTP/1.1
Host: amplitude.com
Authorization: Basic {{api-key}}:{{secret:key}}

event_type=Onboard%20Finish

Path parameters¶

Name	Description
`event_property`	Required. The event property name.

Body parameter¶

Name	Description
`event_type`	Required. Name of the event type to which the event properties belong to.

Response¶

200 OK¶

A successful request returns a 200 OK status and a JSON body containing information about the event property.

{
    "success": true,
    "data": {
        "event_property": "Shared",
        "event_type": "Onboard Finish",
        "description": "Whether user shared content.",
        "type": "boolean",
        "regex": null,
        "enum_values": null,
        "is_array_type": false,
        "is_required": false
    }
}

400 Bad Request¶

If Amplitude can't find the event property, or the request is configured incorrectly, it returns a 400 Bad Request response and an error message.

{
    "success": false,
    "errors": [
        {
            "message": "Not found"
        }
    ]
}

Update event property¶

Update an event property.

https://amplitude.com/api/2/taxonomy/event-property/:event-property

Example request¶

PUT /api/2/taxonomy/event-property/Completed Task HTTP/1.1
Host: amplitude.com
Authorization: Basic {{api-key}}:{{secret:key}}

event_type=Onboard%20Start&description=User%20completed%20a%20task%20during%20onboarding.%20

Path variables¶

Name	Description
`event-property`	Required. Name of the event property.

Body parameter¶

Name	Description
`event_type`	Required. Name of the event type to which the event properties belong to.
`description`	Optional. String. The event property's description.
`new_event_property_value`	Optional. String. Available with Govern Add-on. The new name of the event property.
`type`	Optional. String. Available with Govern Add-on. The event property's data type. Acceptable values are `string`, `number`, `boolean`, `enum`, and `any`
`regex`	Optional. String. Available with Govern Add-on. Regular expression, custom regex used for pattern matching or more complex values. For example, property zip code must have pattern `[0-9]{5}`
`enum_values`	Optional. String. Available with Govern Add-on. List of allowed values.
`is_array_type`	Optional. Boolean. Available with Govern Add-on.
`is_required`	Optional. Boolean. Available with Govern Add-on. Marks the property as required.

Response¶

200 OK¶

A successful request returns a 200 OK status and a JSON body.

{
    "success": true
}

409 Conflict¶

Some failed requests return a 409 Conflict and an error message with more details.

{
    "success": false,
    "errors": [
        {
            "message": "Attempted to change the event property description for property \"Completed Task\" for event \"\", but the property is not in schema."
        }
    ]
}

Delete event property¶

Delete an event property.

DELETE https://amplitude.com/api/2/taxonomy/event-property/:event-property

Example request¶

DELETE /api/2/taxonomy/event-property/Shared HTTP/1.1
Host: amplitude.com
Authorization: Basic {{api-key}}:{{secret:key}}

event_type=Onboard%20Finish

Path variables¶

Name	Description
`event_property`	Required. The event property name.

Body parameter¶

Name	Description
`event_type`	Required. Name of the event type to which the event properties belong to.

Response¶

200 OK¶

A successful request returns a 200 OK status and a JSON body.

{
    "success": true
}

User property¶

User properties reflect traits about the individuals using your product.

Create user property¶

Create a user property.

POST https://amplitude.com/api/2/taxonomy/user-property/

Example request¶

POST /api/2/taxonomy/user-property HTTP/1.1
Host: amplitude.com
Authorization: Basic {{api-key}}:{{secret:key}}

user_property=User%20Type&description=Describes%20whether%20the%20user%20is%20a%20Free%2C%20Standard%2C%20or%20Premium%20user.%20&enum_values=Free%2C%20Standard%2C%20Premium

Body parameter¶

Name	Description
`user_property`	Required. String. Name of the user property type.
`description`	Optional. String. Details to add to the user property type.
`type`	Optional. String. The user property's data type. Acceptable values are `string`, `number`, `boolean`, `enum`, and `any`.
`regex`	Optional. String. Regular expression or custom regex used for pattern matching and more complex values. For example, 'zip code' property must have pattern `[0-9]{5}`.
`enum_values`	Optional. String. List of allowed values, separated by comma. For example: `red, yellow, blue`.
`is_array_type`	Optional. Boolean. Specifies whether the property value is an array.

Response¶

This request returns either a true or false response.

{
    "success" : true 
}

{
    "success" : false 
}

Get all user properties¶

Retrieves all user properties in your account. This call doesn't have any required parameters.

https://amplitude.com/api/2/taxonomy/user-property

Example request¶

GET /api/2/taxonomy/user-property HTTP/1.1
Host: amplitude.com
Authorization: Basic {{api-key}}:{{secret:key}}

Response¶

A successful request returns a 200 OK response and a JSON body with user property details.

{
    "success": true,
    "data": [
        {
            "user_property": "device_id",
            "description": null,
            "type": null,
            "enum_values": null,
            "regex": null,
            "is_array_type": false
        },
        {
            "user_property": "event_id",
            "description": null,
            "type": null,
            "enum_values": null,
            "regex": null,
            "is_array_type": false
        },
        {
            "user_property": "amplitude_id",
            "description": null,
            "type": null,
            "enum_values": null,
            "regex": null,
            "is_array_type": false
        },
        {
            "user_property": "location_lat",
            "description": null,
            "type": null,
            "enum_values": null,
            "regex": null,
            "is_array_type": false
        },
        {
            "user_property": "location_lng",
            "description": null,
            "type": null,
            "enum_values": null,
            "regex": null,
            "is_array_type": false
        },
        {
            "user_property": "server_upload_time",
            "description": null,
            "type": null,
            "enum_values": null,
            "regex": null,
            "is_array_type": false
        },
        {
            "user_property": "session_id",
            "description": null,
            "type": null,
            "enum_values": null,
            "regex": null,
            "is_array_type": false
        },
        {
            "user_property": "user_id",
            "description": null,
            "type": null,
            "enum_values": null,
            "regex": null,
            "is_array_type": false
        }
    ]
}

Get user property¶

Retrieves a single user property, by name.

GET https://amplitude.com/api/2/taxonomy/user-property/:user_property

Example request¶

GET /api/2/taxonomy/user-property/device_id HTTP/1.1
Host: amplitude.com
Authorization: Basic {{api-key}}:{{secret:key}}

Path variables¶

Name	Description
`user_property`	Required. The user property name.

Response¶

200 OK¶

A successful request returns a 200 OK response and a JSON body with user property details.

{
    "success": true,
    "data": {
        "user_property": "device_id",
        "description": null,
        "type": null,
        "enum_values": null,
        "regex": null,
        "is_array_type": false
    }
}

404 Bad Request¶

A failed request returns a 404 Bad Request status and an error message.

{
    "success": false,
    "errors": [
        {
            "message": "Not found"
        }
    ]
}

Update user property¶

Update a user property.

https://amplitude.com/api/2/taxonomy/user-property/:user_property

Example request¶

PUT /api/2/taxonomy/user-property/user_id HTTP/1.1
Host: amplitude.com
Authorization: Basic {{api-key}}:{{secret:key}}

description=The%20user%20id&type=string

Path variables¶

Name	Description
`user_property`	Required. The user property name.

Body parameter¶

Name	Description
`new_user_property_value`	Optional. String. New name of the user property type.
`description`	Optional. String. Details to add to the user property type.
`type`	Optional. String. The user property's data type. Acceptable values are `string`, `number`, `boolean`, `enum`, and `any`.
`regex`	Optional. String. Regular expression or custom regex used for pattern matching and more complex values. For example, 'zip code' property must have pattern `[0-9]{5}`.
`enum_values`	Optional. String. List of allowed values, separated by comma. For example: `red, yellow, blue`.
`is_array_type`	Optional. Boolean. Specifies whether the property value is an array.

Response¶

This request returns either a true or false response.

{
    "success" : true 
}

{
    "success" : false 
}

Delete user property¶

Deletes a single user property, by name.

https://amplitude.com/api/2/taxonomy/user-property/:user_property

Example request¶

DELETE /api/2/taxonomy/user-property/gp:user_id HTTP/1.1
Host: amplitude.com
Authorization: Basic {{api-key}}:{{secret:key}}

Path variables¶

Name	Description
`user_property`	Required. The user property name.

Response¶

200 OK¶

A successful request returns a 200 OK response and a JSON message.

{
    "success": true
}

409 Conflict¶

A failed request returns a 409 Bad Request status and an error message.

{
    "success": false,
    "errors": [
        {
            "message": "Attempted to remove a user property, \"sdf\", that is not a planned user property."
        }
    ]
}

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