catalogue / tools / Feeds & site structure / Sitemap Parse API

Sitemap Parse API

Parses a sitemap, a sitemap index or a bare origin into a flat, bounded list of URLs with lastmod, changefreq and priority.

Endpoint
POST /v1/sitemap-parse
Price
$0.002 per call
Family
Feeds & site structure

01When to use it

  • Needs the network, follows a sitemap index across many documents and normalises four different legal sitemap formats. An agent that does it itself either writes an XML parser with the XXE and fan-out defences, or fetches an unbounded tree of documents a stranger chose.

When not to use it

  • The input is over 10 MB (10,485,760 bytes): sitemap-parse answers too_large (413).
  • The destination needs more than 14 s to answer: the call ends with upstream_timeout (424).
  • The destination is on a private or local network: the network guard refuses it with blocked_target (403).

02Parameters

FieldTypeRequiredDescription
urlstringyesAbsolute http(s) URL, up to 2048 characters, of a sitemap, a sitemap index or a bare origin (path / and no query); a bare origin is resolved through robots.txt Sitemap: lines or /sitemap.xml.
limitintegernoMaximum number of URLs returned across every document read, 1 to 50000 (default 5000); past it the list is cut and reported as truncated. Default: 5000.
include_metadatabooleannoWhen true each URL carries its lastmod, changefreq and priority; when false (default) those three fields are null. Default: false.
max_sitemapsintegernoMaximum number of sitemap documents fetched, entry document included, 1 to 50 (default 10); children past it are reported as skipped with reason sitemap_limit. Default: 10.
discover_from_robotsbooleannoOnly for a bare origin: when true (default) the Sitemap: lines of /robots.txt are read first with /sitemap.xml as the fallback, when false /sitemap.xml is used directly. Default: true.

03Limits

LimitValue
Size cap10 MB (10,485,760 bytes)
Timeout14 s

04Example

The published example of sitemap-parse, verbatim: the request body and the response it returns.

Request
POST /v1/sitemap-parse
content-type: application/json
payment-signature: <base64 x402 payload>

{
  "url": "https://grist.tools/samples/web/fieldnotes/sitemap-index.xml",
  "limit": 100,
  "include_metadata": true
}
Response
200 OK
payment-response: <base64 settlement receipt>

{
  "requested_url": "https://grist.tools/samples/web/fieldnotes/sitemap-index.xml",
  "entry_url": "https://grist.tools/samples/web/fieldnotes/sitemap-index.xml",
  "source_url": "https://grist.tools/samples/web/fieldnotes/sitemap-index.xml",
  "discovery": "direct",
  "kind": "mixed",
  "format": "xml",
  "urls": [
    {
      "loc": "https://grist.tools/samples/web/fieldnotes/index.html",
      "lastmod": "2026-08-25T00:00:00Z",
      "changefreq": "daily",
      "priority": 1
    },
    {
      "loc": "https://grist.tools/samples/web/fieldnotes/about.html",
      "lastmod": "2026-08-20T00:00:00Z",
      "changefreq": "yearly",
      "priority": 0.3
    },
    {
      "loc": "https://grist.tools/samples/web/fieldnotes/notes/first-frost.html",
      "lastmod": "2026-08-24T06:30:00Z",
      "changefreq": "monthly",
      "priority": 0.6
    },
    {
      "loc": "https://grist.tools/samples/web/fieldnotes/notes/rain-gauge.html",
      "lastmod": "2026-08-25T06:15:00Z",
      "changefreq": null,
      "priority": 0.6
    }
  ],
  "count": 4,
  "total_seen": 4,
  "truncated": false,
  "stopped_reason": null,
  "sitemap_count": 3,
  "sitemaps_visited": [
    {
      "url": "https://grist.tools/samples/web/fieldnotes/sitemap-index.xml",
      "kind": "sitemapindex",
      "url_count": 0,
      "http_status": 200,
      "bytes": 407,
      "gzip": false,
      "depth": 0
    },
    {
      "url": "https://grist.tools/samples/web/fieldnotes/sitemap-pages.xml",
      "kind": "urlset",
      "url_count": 2,
      "http_status": 200,
      "bytes": 479,
      "gzip": false,
      "depth": 1
    },
    {
      "url": "https://grist.tools/samples/web/fieldnotes/sitemap-notes.xml",
      "kind": "urlset",
      "url_count": 2,
      "http_status": 200,
      "bytes": 493,
      "gzip": false,
      "depth": 1
    }
  ],
  "sitemaps_skipped": [],
  "sitemaps_skipped_total": 0,
  "sitemaps_skipped_by_reason": {
    "depth_limit": 0,
    "sitemap_limit": 0,
    "cross_host": 0,
    "too_large": 0,
    "malformed": 0,
    "duplicate": 0,
    "time_budget": 0,
    "not_fetchable": 0
  },
  "invalid_loc_count": 0,
  "invalid_lastmod_count": 0,
  "robots_sitemaps": null,
  "fetched_at": "2026-09-01T12:00:00.000Z"
}

Sample file: web/fieldnotes/sitemap-index.xml. Sitemap index of the Field Notes sample site pointing at its two urlset sitemaps. Sample file: web/fieldnotes/sitemap-pages.xml. Urlset sitemap listing the home and about pages of the Field Notes sample site, with lastmod, changefreq and priority. Sample file: web/fieldnotes/sitemap-notes.xml. Urlset sitemap listing the two Field Notes article pages, with lastmod in two time zones and priority. Sample file: web/fieldnotes/index.html. Sample file: web/fieldnotes/about.html. About page of the Field Notes sample site, a short plain HTML page. Sample file: web/fieldnotes/notes/first-frost.html. Sample file: web/fieldnotes/notes/rain-gauge.html. Plain Field Notes article page with only a title, a description meta tag and an icon link.

Response fieldTypeIn the example
requested_urlstring"https://grist.tools/samples/web/fieldnotes/sitemap-index.xml"
entry_urlstring"https://grist.tools/samples/web/fieldnotes/sitemap-index.xml"
source_urlstring"https://grist.tools/samples/web/fieldnotes/sitemap-index.xml"
discoverystring"direct"
kindstring"mixed"
formatstring"xml"
urlsarray4 items, each with loc, lastmod, changefreq and priority
countnumber4
total_seennumber4
truncatedbooleanfalse
stopped_reasonnullnull
sitemap_countnumber3
sitemaps_visitedarray3 items, each with url, kind, url_count, http_status, bytes, gzip and depth
sitemaps_skippedarray0 items
sitemaps_skipped_totalnumber0
sitemaps_skipped_by_reasonobjectan object with depth_limit, sitemap_limit, cross_host, too_large, malformed, duplicate, time_budget and not_fetchable
invalid_loc_countnumber0
invalid_lastmod_countnumber0
robots_sitemapsnullnull
fetched_atstring"2026-09-01T12:00:00.000Z"

05Call it from code

JavaScript
// sitemap-parse: $0.002 per call, paid in USD Coin on eip155:8453 via x402
// Install: npm install @x402/fetch@2 @x402/evm@2 viem@2
// Save as client.mjs (ES module, Node 18+), export EVM_PRIVATE_KEY with the paying wallet's key in your shell, then run: node client.mjs
// The wrapper reads the 402 (payment-required), signs and retries with payment-signature.
import { wrapFetchWithPayment, x402Client, decodePaymentResponseHeader } from '@x402/fetch'
import { ExactEvmScheme } from '@x402/evm/exact/client'
import { privateKeyToAccount } from 'viem/accounts'

const account = privateKeyToAccount(process.env.EVM_PRIVATE_KEY)
const client = new x402Client().register('eip155:8453', new ExactEvmScheme(account))
const fetchWithPayment = wrapFetchWithPayment(fetch, client)

const body = {
  "url": "https://grist.tools/samples/web/fieldnotes/sitemap-index.xml",
  "limit": 100,
  "include_metadata": true
}

const res = await fetchWithPayment('https://grist.tools/v1/sitemap-parse', {
  method: 'POST',
  headers: { 'content-type': 'application/json' },
  body: JSON.stringify(body),
})
console.log(res.status, await res.json())
const settle = res.headers.get('payment-response')
if (settle) console.log(decodePaymentResponseHeader(settle).transaction)
Python
# sitemap-parse: $0.002 per call, paid in USD Coin on eip155:8453 via x402
# Install: pip install "x402[requests,evm]>=2.24,<3"
# The session reads the 402 (payment-required), signs and retries with payment-signature.
import os
from eth_account import Account
from x402 import x402ClientSync
from x402.http import decode_payment_response_header
from x402.http.clients.requests import x402_requests
from x402.mechanisms.evm.exact import register_exact_evm_client
from x402.mechanisms.evm.signers import EthAccountSigner

account = Account.from_key(os.environ["EVM_PRIVATE_KEY"])
client = x402ClientSync()
register_exact_evm_client(client, EthAccountSigner(account), networks="eip155:8453")
session = x402_requests(client)

payload = {
    "url": "https://grist.tools/samples/web/fieldnotes/sitemap-index.xml",
    "limit": 100,
    "include_metadata": True
}

res = session.post("https://grist.tools/v1/sitemap-parse", json=payload)
print(res.status_code, res.json())
settle = res.headers.get("payment-response")
if settle:
    print(decode_payment_response_header(settle).transaction)
curl
# sitemap-parse: $0.002 per call, paid in USD Coin on eip155:8453 via x402
# 1. Unpaid call: HTTP 402, the requirements in the payment-required header (base64 JSON) and in the body.
curl -i -X POST 'https://grist.tools/v1/sitemap-parse' -H 'content-type: application/json' -d '{"url":"https://grist.tools/samples/web/fieldnotes/sitemap-index.xml","limit":100,"include_metadata":true}'

# 2. Same call with the signed payment (an EIP-3009 authorization, EIP-712 signed: it cannot be
#    typed by hand). x-payment is accepted as the v1 alternative. HTTP 200 carries payment-response.
curl -i -X POST 'https://grist.tools/v1/sitemap-parse' -H 'content-type: application/json' -H 'payment-signature: <base64 x402 payload>' -d '{"url":"https://grist.tools/samples/web/fieldnotes/sitemap-index.xml","limit":100,"include_metadata":true}'

06Errors

CodeHTTPFor this service
invalid_input400The body does not match the schema; its fields are url, limit, include_metadata, max_sitemaps and discover_from_robots.
blocked_target403
unreachable_target424
upstream_status424
upstream_timeout424
unsupported_content_type415
too_large413
unprocessable422
internal500

Input that is rejected before the tool runs (malformed JSON, schema mismatch, body over the size limit) is never charged.

When each code is raised, and what it means for payment: /docs/sitemap-parse.

07Questions

How much does a sitemap-parse call cost?
$0.002 per call, paid in USDC on Base via x402, with no account and no API key.
What does sitemap-parse return?
A JSON object with 20 top-level fields: requested_url, entry_url, source_url, discovery, kind, format, urls, count, total_seen, truncated, stopped_reason, sitemap_count, sitemaps_visited, sitemaps_skipped, sitemaps_skipped_total, sitemaps_skipped_by_reason, invalid_loc_count, invalid_lastmod_count, robots_sitemaps and fetched_at. The example on this page is a real call over web/fieldnotes/sitemap-index.xml, web/fieldnotes/sitemap-pages.xml, web/fieldnotes/sitemap-notes.xml, web/fieldnotes/index.html, web/fieldnotes/about.html, web/fieldnotes/notes/first-frost.html and web/fieldnotes/notes/rain-gauge.html.
What happens when a sitemap-parse call fails?
The tool answers with a typed JSON error from the errors table. Payment is settled only after the tool has produced its result; a call that fails inside the tool is never settled. A 503 upstream_unavailable can follow a settled call; the x402 payments guide covers it, 429, 402 and an uncertain 500.