Please release a third-party API with character write access

Hi D&D Beyond team — I'm a DM and creator (Codex & Cog) building a Discord bot that helps DMs run campaigns. My players use D&D Beyond character sheets, and my bot tracks XP and milestones. Right now there's no supported way for a bot to apply a level-up to a character sheet, even with the player's permission — the read endpoints exist, but nothing for writes.

Request: a scoped third-party API (OAuth) letting a player authorize an app to update their own character (level, XP, HP, conditions). Scoped per-character, revocable, player-initiated. This would keep campaign tools and sheets in sync without anyone sharing passwords.

Thanks for considering it.

I wonder if they'd consider something like this after the character builder rebuild. 

They 100% aren't going to with the current sheets, since they're trying to replace those permanently.

There's no incentive for write access, and you've illustrated why in your own post.  Even the read endpoints you're using, are a breach of the Terms of Service.

The Why is simple.  D&D Beyond is a business and a large part of that business is having people come to the website and use the website, to encourage digital purchases of products and pay for subscriptions.  If you provide ways to use the backend without using the website, it removes a big chunk of the business model.

I 100% think they should provide legal and legitimate read-only endpoints, so that we can use the data we've created on the site for tools they don't intend to develop, but I doubt you'll ever see more than token write access, because they don't want people (or AI) developing competing platforms that take eyeballs away from the website.

I'm not asking to get around them, I'm asking for API to hook up to dndbeyond to allow AI services to connect and make changes to homebrew and characters according to gameplay.

Quote from Hared666 >>

I'm not asking to get around them, I'm asking for API to hook up to dndbeyond to allow AI services to connect and make changes to homebrew and characters according to gameplay.

 Despite Chris Cocks's protestations to shareholders & interviewers, AI is very much not welcome in DND, DND-team-wise, as the team has stated repeatedly.

I'm not trying to take away eyeballs from dndbeyond.  I'm trying to increase some abilities.

Perringaiden, fair points, and I'll take them in order.

On the read endpoints: I'm only reading sheets whose owners set them to Public — that's an explicit sharing choice by the player, not exfiltrated data. And honestly, if D&D Beyond wants to draw that line differently, an official read API with OAuth would let them draw it exactly where they want. Which is kind of my point.

On incentives, I see it the other way. My use case is a Discord bot that DMs run during live sessions — updating HP, conditions, and inventory as the game happens. Every one of those updates only matters if the character sheet on D&D Beyond is the system of record the whole table is staring at. That's not taking eyeballs away; it's one more reason to keep the sheet open for four straight hours.

The "competing platforms" worry cuts both ways, too. Without an official API, developers don't stop building — they use undocumented endpoints and scrapers, which D&D Beyond can't control, rate-limit, or monetize. An official write API with scoped OAuth tokens, per-user rate limits, and audit logs gives them more control over third-party access than they have today, not less. It could even be a revenue line.

Nobody's asking to clone the character builder. We're asking for a supported way to do what tables are already doing by hand between turns.

Can you do that without AI?

Quote from Hared666 >>

 

Nobody's asking to clone the character builder. We're asking for a supported way to do what tables are already doing by hand between turns.

 Doing it by hand is what they want, because that means you opened the website.  Providing a way for people to not open the website is not in their best interests.

And with the rise of AI and the rapid request cycle, it's more likely that they'll chose to not provide an API and harden their endpoints.

Some of what you're requesting also works via the Avrae bot.

You're right, and I use Avrae.  But I want some extra functionality.