Resource Lists

Every collection endpoint in PokéAPI returns a NamedAPIResourceList — a thin wrapper around an array of NamedAPIResource objects (name + URL pairs). This consistent shape means the same pagination logic works across all 50+ resource types.

NamedAPIResource

The most common reference type in the API. It appears anywhere one resource points to another:

{
  "name": "electric",
  "url": "https://pokeapi.co/api/v2/type/13/"
}

namestringrequired

The resource's canonical lowercase hyphenated name.

urlstringrequired

The full URL to fetch the complete resource object.

APIResource

Some resources are identified only by ID (no name), such as evolution chains. These use APIResource:

{
  "url": "https://pokeapi.co/api/v2/evolution-chain/1/"
}

NamedAPIResourceList

The envelope returned by list endpoints:

{
  "count": 18,
  "next": null,
  "previous": null,
  "results": [
    { "name": "normal",   "url": "https://pokeapi.co/api/v2/type/1/" },
    { "name": "fighting", "url": "https://pokeapi.co/api/v2/type/2/" },
    { "name": "flying",   "url": "https://pokeapi.co/api/v2/type/3/" },
    ...
  ]
}

When count is less than or equal to the default page size (20), next and previous are both null. This is common for resource types with few entries (types, egg groups, generations).

Why shallow lists?

List endpoints return stubs, not full objects. This is intentional:

Stubs keep list responses small. A full list of 1302 Pokémon with all fields would be hundreds of megabytes. Stubs are kilobytes.

You only fetch what you need. Build an autocomplete with just the names list, then fetch individual Pokémon on demand.

Building a name-to-ID lookup

A common pattern is to fetch the full list once and build an in-memory lookup:

async function buildIndex(resource) {
  const res = await fetch(
    `https://pokeapi.co/api/v2/${resource}/?limit=100000`
  );
  const { results } = await res.json();
 
  // Extract ID from the URL: ".../pokemon/25/" → 25
  return Object.fromEntries(
    results.map(({ name, url }) => {
      const id = parseInt(url.split('/').slice(-2, -1)[0], 10);
      return [name, id];
    })
  );
}
 
const pokemonIndex = await buildIndex('pokemon');
console.log(pokemonIndex['pikachu']); // 25

Language lists

Some resources wrap list entries with a language field:

{
  "name": "en",
  "names": [
    { "name": "English", "language": { "name": "en", "url": "..." } },
    { "name": "Anglais", "language": { "name": "fr", "url": "..." } }
  ]
}

These appear in resource-level names arrays and follow the same NamedAPIResource pattern.