fatcat-cli: api.fatcat.wiki command-line utility

This tool should not be confused with the fatcat utility packaged for Debian/Ubuntu, which is used to debug FAT filesystem images. If you aren't using that tool, and do use this tool a bunch, you might consider adding an alias or symlink so the "fatcat" command runs "fatcat-cli".

DISCLAIMER: this tool is still under development. The interface (arguments, flags) and default behaviors are not yet stable.

Install

Debian/Ubuntu Linux users can install bare .deb packages. Download the most recent from http://archive.org/download/ia-fatcat-cli-bin, then install with:

sudo apt install ./fatcat-cli-*.deb

Quickstart

Query the catalog:

fatcat search releases "metadata author:phillips"

Fetch metadata for a specific work:

fatcat get doi:10.1002/spe.659

Download 100 papers from a specific journal, as PDF:

fatcat search releases journal:"first monday" --entity-json --expand files | fatcat batch download --limit 100

Authentication

To propose changes to the catalog, you need a https://fatcat.wiki account. You can create one quickly by logging in with an existing Internet Archive, ORCiD, Wikipedia, or Gitlab account. Create a new API token from the account page, and set this token (a long sequence of characters) as an environment variable in your shell:

export FATCAT_API_AUTH_TOKEN=...

You could put this in a secrets/password manager so you don't lose it. Or, depending on your setup, in a~/.profile. The tool does not (yet) automatically load "dotenv" (./.env) files, but you might be using a project-management tool which does so already.

You can check the status of your authentication and connection to the server with:

fatcat status

Editing

Every change to the catalog (an "edit") is made as part of an "editgroup". In some cases the CLI tool with create or guess what the current editgroup you are working on is, but you can also create them explicitly and pass the editgroup identifier on every subsequent edit. It is best to combine small groups of related changes into the same editgroup (so they can be reviewed together), but to split up larger batches into editgroups of 50-100 changes at a time.

Individual entities can be edited from the convenience of your text editor, in either JSON or TOML format:

fatcat get release_hsmo6p4smrganpb3fndaj2lon4 --json > release_hsmo6p4smrganpb3fndaj2lon4.json

# whatever editor you prefer
emacs release_hsmo6p4smrganpb3fndaj2lon4

fatcat update release_hsmo6p4smrganpb3fndaj2lon4 < release_hsmo6p4smrganpb3fndaj2lon4.

json

Or, with a single command:

fatcat edit release_hsmo6p4smrganpb3fndaj2lon4 --toml

To check in on the status of recent editgroups, or to "submit" them for review:

fatcat editgroups list
fatcat editgroups submit editgroup_...

Thanks!

The "keyboard cat" photo at the top of this README is by Cassandra Leigh Gotto (threecheersformcr_xo) and shared under the CC-BY-NC license.