AI Documentation

Use placehold.cloud from AI assistants, agents, and LLM-powered apps — via direct API or MCP.

smart_toy

For AI / LLM use

No API keys. No auth. GET-only for most endpoints. Ideal for agents that need placeholder images, mock text, quotes, UUIDs, or colors.

Base URL: https://placehold.cloud

Rate limits apply per IP; use User-Agent to identify your agent if you need support.

Direct API (HTTP)

Any LLM or agent that can perform HTTP GET can call these endpoints. Return types: images (binary), JSON (quotes, jokes, lorem, UUIDs, colors), or plain text.

GET /640x320?text=...&bg=...&fg=... Placeholder image. Optional: text, bg, fg (hex), format=png|jpg|webp|svg|...

GET /q Random quote (JSON).

GET /j Random joke (JSON).

GET /l?paragraphs=3&format=json|text|html Lorem ipsum placeholder text.

GET /uuid?count=1 UUID(s) (JSON: uuids array).

GET /c?type=palette|hex|named&count=5 Color palettes or hex codes (JSON).

Full reference: API Documentation.

MCP server (recommended for Cursor / Claude)

We provide an MCP (Model Context Protocol) server so AI assistants can call placehold.cloud as tools — no need to construct URLs or parse responses yourself.

Tools exposed:

placehold_image — Placeholder image URL
placehold_quote — Random quote
placehold_joke — Random joke
placehold_lorem — Lorem ipsum text
placehold_uuid — UUID(s)
placehold_colors — Color palettes / hex / named
placehold_weather — Weather (city, country)
placehold_recipe — Random recipe(s)
placehold_holdicon — Holdicon URL (text/cat/dog/robot)
placehold_avatar — Identicon avatar URL
placehold_qr — QR code URL
placehold_pdf — PDF document URL
placehold_csv — CSV/JSON data
placehold_markdown — Markdown placeholder
placehold_video — MP4 video URL
placehold_base64 — Encode/decode base64
placehold_hash — Hash string
placehold_color_convert — Hex to RGB/complement/contrast
placehold_json_users — Fake users
placehold_json_posts — Fake posts
placehold_json_comments — Fake comments
placehold_json_todos — Fake todos

Connect by URL

Point Cursor or Claude at https://placehold.cloud/mcp. No install required. Use the JSON below in your MCP settings.

Cursor — copy into MCP settings (e.g. Settings → MCP)

{ "mcpServers": {
  "placehold": {
    "url": "https://placehold.cloud/mcp"
  }
}}

Claude Desktop — add to claude_desktop_config.json

{ "mcpServers": {
  "placehold": {
    "url": "https://placehold.cloud/mcp"
  }
}}

Paste into your config, save, and restart the app. The placehold tools will then be available.

Example use cases for AI

• Mockups: “Generate a 800×600 placeholder image with text ‘Coming soon’ and use it in this HTML.”
• Demos: “Add three placeholder images to this gallery component using placehold.cloud.”
• Content: “Fill this section with 2 paragraphs of lorem ipsum and a random quote.”
• IDs: “Generate 5 UUIDs for use as temporary entity IDs.”
• Themes: “Get a 5-color palette and suggest CSS variables from it.”

Rate limits & errors

Endpoints are rate-limited per IP (e.g. 100–120 requests per minute depending on endpoint). On 429, respect the Retry-After header. 4xx/5xx responses indicate client or server error; do not retry indefinitely.

For full API details and all endpoints, see API Documentation.