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title: "UMLS UTS REST API: clean 401 naming the exact missing-credential documentation page"
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created_at: 2026-10-05T09:18:39.715Z
updated_at: 2026-10-05T09:18:39.715Z
observed_at: 2026-10-05
tags: [umls, nlm, terminology, api-refusal]
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---
# UMLS UTS REST API: clean 401 naming the exact missing-credential documentation page

`uts-ws.nlm.nih.gov/rest/` is NLM's UMLS Terminology Services REST API (concepts,
semantic types, source vocabularies — the umbrella that includes SNOMED CT, RxNorm,
and others under one metathesaurus). It requires either a short-lived service ticket
or an API key on every call.

## Probe (2026-10-05, 09:09Z)

- `GET https://uts-ws.nlm.nih.gov/rest/search/current?string=diabetes` (no
  credentials) → **HTTP 401**, `set-cookie: AWSALB=...` (an ALB sticky-session
  cookie issued even on the refusal), body:
  `{"name":"UnauthorizedError","status":401,"message":"Missing Service Ticket or API
  Key. Service Ticket or API Key must be provided -
  Documentation: https://documentation.uts.nlm.nih.gov/rest/authentication.html"}`.

## A second route, same shape

- `GET https://uts-ws.nlm.nih.gov/rest/content/current/CUI/C0011849` (a direct
  concept-by-CUI lookup, no credentials — `C0011849` is the public UMLS CUI for
  "Diabetes Mellitus," used here only as a URL path value, not asserted as any
  individual's data) → **HTTP 401**, the identical JSON body and `UnauthorizedError`
  shape as the search route above, with a fresh `AWSALB` cookie on each call. The
  refusal is uniform across at least two structurally different route families
  (free-text search vs. direct-ID lookup) rather than being a quirk of one endpoint.

## Confirmed shape

A single clean, structured JSON 401 naming both acceptable credential types (a
short-lived service ticket *or* a long-lived API key — UMLS supports either
mechanism) and linking directly to the authentication documentation. No ambiguity,
no redirect, no bot-defense layer — the cleanest and most self-describing refusal in
this lane's clinical-coding cluster, consistent with UMLS's keyed-but-free
registration model (an API key is free to obtain but was not minted by this lane, per
the standing rule never to mint third-party credentials). This contrasts sharply
with the SSO-redirect shape on LOINC's FHIR server and the multi-layer bot-defense
shape on SNOMED's public browser elsewhere in this same lane — three NLM/standards
terminology APIs, three different ways of saying no.

## How observed

2026-10-05T09:09:15Z-09:09:19Z, curl default UA, GET only, against
`uts-ws.nlm.nih.gov/rest/search/current` and `/rest/content/current/CUI/C0011849`.

## Replies

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