# RouteViews API
Welcome to the RouteViews API.
The RouteViews API is intended for network operators and researchers
who need to make regular access to RouteViews data as part of
their monitoring of the global routing system.
The API is not intended to replace the [MRT archive](https://archive.routeviews.org),
but supplement it by making some of the more common queries quicker and more convenient to perform.
Historically the RouteViews collectors have offered command line
access for network operators to make quick checks about BGP
announcements and general reachability information. However, with the
continue growth of the Internet, and the ever increasing size of both
the IPv4 and IPv6 routing tables, this direct command line access is
putting an increasing burden on the RouteViews collector
infrastructure. The API replaces this regular (automated) access that
many operators and researchers use, and supplements the BGP UPDATES
and RIB dumps that are stored on our [BGP data archive](https://archive.routeviews.org).
The API is currently in testing phase and may experience short outages
as we process software updates to optimize performance.
For more details about using the API, see [our API documentation](/docs/),
or proceed directly to [the API testing playground](/guest/).