---
title: "Active spare-space snapshot name and candidate count"
description: "Reads the single `status = 'active'` row of `spare_space_snapshots`, so snapshot-aware tile clients can key their caches. Answers `{\"snapshot\": null, \"candidate_count\": 0}` (still 200) when no snapshot is active. **No authentication**."
---

> Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.aireon.ch/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

Path: RES API (public) › Parcel

`GET /res_api/spare_space_meta`

Reads the single `status = 'active'` row of `spare_space_snapshots`, so snapshot-aware tile clients can key their caches. Answers `{"snapshot": null, "candidate_count": 0}` (still 200) when no snapshot is active. **No authentication**.

## Code samples

### cURL

```bash
curl --request GET \
  --url https://res.aireon.ch/res_api/spare_space_meta
```

### TypeScript

```typescript
const url = 'https://res.aireon.ch/res_api/spare_space_meta';
const options = {method: 'GET'};

fetch(url, options)
  .then(res => res.json())
  .then(json => console.log(json))
  .catch(err => console.error(err));
```

### Python

```python
import requests

url = "https://res.aireon.ch/res_api/spare_space_meta"

response = requests.get(url)

print(response.text)
```

## Responses

### 200

Active snapshot.

#### Example

```json
{
  "snapshot": "spare_space_2026_08",
  "candidate_count": 0
}
```

- `snapshot` (`getSpareSpaceMeta.response.200.snapshot`; string | null, required): Name of the active `spare_space_snapshots` row, or null when none is active.
  - example `"spare_space_2026_08"`
- `candidate_count` (`getSpareSpaceMeta.response.200.candidate_count`; integer, required): 0 when no snapshot is active.

### 500

Query failed - `{"error":"meta failed"}`.

#### Example

```json
{
  "error": "string",
  "message": "string"
}
```

- `error` (`getSpareSpaceMeta.response.500.error`; string, required): Human-readable error description.
- `message` (`getSpareSpaceMeta.response.500.message`; string, optional): Optional underlying error message.


Source: https://docs.aireon.ch/res/get-spare-space-meta/index.md