# ISO 639 Language Lookup

> ISO 639 Language Lookup is a paid API for AI agents from iso.openverbs.com, paid per call via x402, $0.002/call, status unknown (last checked 2026-09-14).

Look up a language's full metadata by its ISO 639-1 alpha-2 code, ISO 639-2 alpha-3 code, or exact English name

## Facts

- Endpoint: POST https://iso.openverbs.com/v1/language
- Price: $0.002/call
- Payment: x402
- Status: unknown
- Last checked: 2026-09-14
- Activations on Zero: 0
- Tags: x402
- Canonical page: https://www.zero.xyz/c/iso-639-language-lookup-5471efed
- Structured record (JSON): https://api.zero.xyz/v1/capabilities/cap_DEBoeZTN2oR4-acu5UEon

Status and success rate cover calls made through Zero and Zero's own probes. Third-party monitors may report differently.

## How to call it through Zero

Zero handles the 402 payment challenge and records the run. With the Zero CLI installed (`npm i -g @zeroxyz/cli`):

```sh
zero fetch --capability iso-639-language-lookup-5471efed -d '<json body>'
```

Example prompt: What language does the ISO 639-1 code 'de' refer to, and what are its alpha-3 codes?

## When to prefer this

Use this endpoint when you have an exact ISO 639-1 alpha-2 code, ISO 639-2 alpha-3 code, or exact English language name and need to resolve it to full ISO 639 metadata. Prefer this over the search endpoint when you want strict, authoritative lookup without fuzzy matching ambiguity. Ideal for validation pipelines, localization systems, and data enrichment workflows where correctness matters more than tolerating typos.

## Known failure modes

- Unknown code or name returns a not-found error
- Providing more than one field at a time returns a validation error
- Fuzzy or partial names fail — exact match required (use /v1/search for fuzzy lookup)
- Invalid alpha-2 or alpha-3 format returns a schema validation error

## How this service works

Look up a language by its ISO 639-1 alpha-2 code, ISO 639-2 alpha-3 code (bibliographic or terminologic) or English name. Provide exactly one field.

## Output

Returns structured language metadata including the language's English name, ISO 639-1 alpha-2 code, and ISO 639-2 alpha-3 code(s) — both bibliographic and terminologic variants where they differ (e.g. 'deu'/'ger' for German).

## Request schema (JSON Schema)

```json
{
 "type": "object",
 "$schema": "https://json-schema.org/draft/2020-12/schema",
 "required": [
  "input"
 ],
 "properties": {
  "input": {
   "type": "object",
   "required": [
    "type",
    "method",
    "bodyType",
    "body"
   ],
   "properties": {
    "body": {
     "type": "object",
     "properties": {
      "name": {
       "type": "string",
       "description": "Exact English name (case-insensitive). Use /v1/search for fuzzy matching."
      },
      "alpha2": {
       "type": "string",
       "description": "ISO 639-1 alpha-2 code, e.g. \"en\"."
      },
      "alpha3": {
       "type": "string",
       "description": "ISO 639-2 alpha-3 code, e.g. \"eng\" or \"deu\"/\"ger\"."
      }
     },
     "additionalProperties": false
    },
    "type": {
     "type": "string",
     "const": "http"
    },
    "method": {
     "enum": [
      "POST"
     ],
     "type": "string"
    },
    "bodyType": {
     "enum": [
      "json",
      "form-data",
      "text"
     ],
     "type": "string"
    }
   },
   "additionalProperties": false
  }
 }
}
```

## More

- Live health (JSON, refreshed every minute): https://www.zero.xyz/c/iso-639-language-lookup-5471efed/health.json
- [Zero catalog index](https://www.zero.xyz/llms.txt)
- [Other services from iso.openverbs.com](https://www.zero.xyz/host/iso.openverbs.com/llms.txt)