How fresh is the feed?

Vessels appear as their AIS broadcasts arrive, typically within minutes. Responses carry a generated_at timestamp and each vessel a last_seen time, so you can judge staleness yourself. Entries are pruned after 24 hours without a broadcast, so the feed reflects vessels currently open rather than a historical archive.

Can I get the data as GeoJSON for a map?

Yes. Add format=geojson and the response becomes a FeatureCollection of Point features, ready to hand to Leaflet, Mapbox or any mapping library without transformation. Vessels with no known position are omitted from the GeoJSON form.

How do I get an API key?

Keys are issued on request rather than self-serve — email info@shyppy.cy describing what you are building. This keeps the feed usable for the brokers and platforms that depend on it.

REST API

Vessels For Orders API

Q: Where does the data come from?

Live AIS broadcasts. A worldwide stream is monitored continuously for vessels whose declared destination matches the for-orders pattern, and each match is stored with its last known position, ship type and dimensions. Nothing is inferred — the destination text is what the vessel itself transmitted.

A live feed of ships sailing for orders — underway with no declared destination, which in practice means open and available. JSON or GeoJSON, filterable by ship type, region or bounding box.

Request an API Key See the Live Data

The endpoint

GET https://shyppy.cy/api/v1/vessels-for-orders

Authentication. Send your key in an x-api-key header, or as Authorization: Bearer <key> — either works. Requests without a valid key return 401. CORS is open, so a browser-based map can call it directly without a proxy.

Request

curl -H "x-api-key: YOUR_KEY" \
  "https://shyppy.cy/api/v1/vessels-for-orders?type=tanker®ion=mediterranean&limit=50"

Query parameters

Parameter	Values	Description
`type`	`tanker`, `cargo`, `passenger`, `other`	Ship category, derived from the AIS ship-type code. Tankers are AIS types 80–89, cargo 70–79, passenger 60–69.
`region`	`mediterranean`, `middle-east`, `south-east-asia`, `north-west-europe`	Restricts results to a named trading area. Convenience wrapper around a bounding box.
`bbox`	`minLng,minLat,maxLng,maxLat`	Arbitrary bounding box in decimal degrees, for a region of your own. Combine with `type` if you like.
`limit`	1–1000 (default 1000)	Maximum vessels returned. Values above 1000 are capped.
`format`	`geojson`	Returns a GeoJSON `FeatureCollection` instead of the default JSON envelope. Vessels with no known position are omitted.

Response

Default JSON

{
  "generated_at": "2026-08-06T09:14:22.481Z",
  "count": 2,
  "vessels": [
    {
      "mmsi": 241486000,
      "imo": "9412137",
      "name": "EXAMPLE TRADER",
      "category": "Tanker",
      "type": "Tanker (hazard A, major)",
      "type_code": 80,
      "destination": "FOR ORDERS",
      "latitude": 35.412,
      "longitude": 23.887,
      "nearest_port": {
        "name": "Chania",
        "country": "GR",
        "distance_km": 31
      },
      "length_m": 183,
      "beam_m": 32,
      "draught_m": 11.4,
      "last_seen": "2026-08-06T09:11:08.000Z"
    }
  ]
}

With format=geojson

{
  "type": "FeatureCollection",
  "generated_at": "2026-08-06T09:14:22.481Z",
  "count": 1,
  "features": [
    {
      "type": "Feature",
      "geometry": { "type": "Point", "coordinates": [23.887, 35.412] },
      "properties": {
        "mmsi": 241486000,
        "imo": "9412137",
        "name": "EXAMPLE TRADER",
        "category": "Tanker",
        "destination": "FOR ORDERS",
        "nearest_port": { "name": "Chania", "country": "GR", "distance_km": 31 }
      }
    }
  ]
}

Field	Notes
`mmsi`	Maritime Mobile Service Identity — always present, the vessel's AIS identifier.
`imo`	IMO number when the vessel has broadcast one. `null` otherwise.
`destination`	The destination text the vessel actually transmitted — `FOR ORDERS`, `ORDERS`, `ORDR` and similar. Passed through unmodified.
`nearest_port`	Closest port to the current position with its distance in kilometres, so you can see roughly where a vessel is open without plotting it.
`draught_m`	Draught as broadcast. Useful as a rough laden/ballast indicator alongside the for-orders signal.
`last_seen`	When this vessel last broadcast. Compare against `generated_at` to judge freshness.

Caching and limits

Responses carry Cache-Control: public, max-age=60. The underlying data changes as AIS broadcasts arrive, so polling more than once a minute gains nothing — and a CDN or browser cache will serve the same payload anyway. Entries drop out of the feed after 24 hours without a broadcast, which keeps it a picture of vessels currently open rather than an archive.

What this is good for

The for-orders signal is one of the few genuinely public indicators of open tonnage. A vessel underway with no declared discharge port is a vessel whose next voyage has not been fixed. Chartering desks use it to find candidates before they are offered around; shipbroking platforms use it to populate a live availability map; commodity traders watch it as a soft signal of where spot capacity is building up.

The same data drives our own public for-orders board and the weekly tonnage report, so you can see exactly what the feed contains before writing a line of code.

Common questions

What does "sailing for orders" mean?

A ship is sailing for orders when it is underway but has not been told where to discharge — the charterer has not fixed a destination. Rather than a port, the master broadcasts something like FOR ORDERS. For a broker it is the clearest public signal that a vessel is open.

Where does the data come from?

Live AIS. A worldwide stream is monitored continuously for vessels whose declared destination matches the for-orders pattern. Nothing is inferred — the destination string is what the vessel itself transmitted.

How fresh is it?

Vessels appear as their broadcasts arrive, usually within minutes. Every response carries generated_at, and every vessel a last_seen, so you can judge staleness rather than take our word for it.

Can I use it directly in a browser map?

Yes. CORS is open and format=geojson returns something Leaflet or Mapbox will accept as-is, so a front-end can call the endpoint without a server in between.

How do I get a key?

Keys are issued on request rather than self-serve — email us with a line about what you're building.

Build with the for-orders feed

Tell us what you're building and we'll issue a key.

Request an API Key