Side Quests — Professional Licenses & Certifications Database

2,551 professional licenses and certifications across 20 categories, 100% verified for exam delivery method. Includes an intelligent API and MCP server for AI agents.

🔗 Website: side.jr.al
🔗 API: licenses-api.jr.al
📖 License: MIT

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What Is This?

A comprehensive, searchable database of professional licenses and certifications available in the United States, with verified exam delivery information: whether it's fully online, exam-online-only, or requires in-person attendance.

Data sources:

• DoD COOL (Credentialing Opportunities On-Line) — army, USMC, and Coast Guard credential databases (2,213 entries)
• Manual research and verification for 338 hand-curated entries
• Issuer-level verification of exam delivery methods for all 675 issuing bodies

Verification Process

Every entry has been verified at the issuing body level for exam delivery method:

• 675 unique issuing bodies were researched
• 8 AI research agents ran in parallel, each verifying ~85 issuers
• Results were mapped back to all 2,551 individual certifications
• Key distinctions: "exam is online" ≠ "entire certification is online"
  • e.g., Pearson VUE center-only → online: false
  • e.g., Pearson VUE with OnVUE remote → examOnline: true
  • e.g., Cert requires clinical hours → online: false regardless of exam format

Features

Website (side.jr.al)

• Search — full-text search across names, descriptions, tags
• Filter — by category, online availability, difficulty
• Sort — A-Z, easiest/hardest first, fastest/longest first
• Cards — clean card grid with difficulty pips, cost, time, online/exam-online badges
• Modal — detailed view with exam delivery method, verification status, requirements, fun facts
• Mobile — fully responsive, works on any device

API (licenses-api.jr.al)

• Search & filter — GET /licenses?q=cybersecurity&online=true&maxCost=500
• Full details — GET /licenses/:id
• Related certs — GET /licenses/:id/related
• Path builder — GET /path?goal=cloud+engineer&budget=5000&onlineOnly=true
• Categories — GET /categories
• Statistics — GET /stats
• Random — GET /random

MCP Server (for AI agents)

• Endpoint: POST /mcp (JSON-RPC 2.0)
• 7 tools: search_certifications, get_certification, build_path, find_related, list_categories, get_stats, random_certification

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Quick Start

Run Locally

# Clone
git clone https://github.com/shieldofsteel/side-quests.git
cd side-quests

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Start dev server
npm run dev

Deploy

# Build
npm run build

# Deploy to Cloudflare Pages
npx wrangler pages deploy dist/ --project-name=side-quests

API Development

cd api/

# Install
npm install

# Run locally
npx wrangler dev

# Deploy
npx wrangler deploy

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API Reference

Search Certifications

GET /licenses?q=<query>&category=<cat>&online=<bool>&difficulty=<1-5>&maxCost=<num>&sort=<field>&limit=<n>&offset=<n>

Parameter	Type	Description
q	string	Search query
category	string	Filter by category
online	boolean	Only fully-online certs (entire process)
examOnline	boolean	Certs where exam has remote proctoring option
difficulty	integer	Exact difficulty (1-5)
minDifficulty	integer	Minimum difficulty
maxDifficulty	integer	Maximum difficulty
maxCost	integer	Maximum cost in dollars
issuingBody	string	Filter by issuing organization
examDelivery	string	Filter by delivery: online-proctored, testing-center, in-person-practical, online-self-paced, hybrid, varies
sort	string	name, difficulty-asc, difficulty-desc, cost-asc, cost-desc
limit	integer	Results per page (max 100)
offset	integer	Pagination offset

Build Certification Path

GET /path?goal=<career>&budget=<num>&timeMonths=<num>&maxDifficulty=<1-5>&onlineOnly=<bool>&count=<n>

Returns an ordered sequence of certifications with progressive difficulty, optimized for the career goal and budget constraints.

MCP Protocol

# List available tools
curl -X POST https://licenses-api.jr.al/mcp \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"method":"tools/list"}'

# Search for certifications
curl -X POST https://licenses-api.jr.al/mcp \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":2,"method":"tools/call","params":{"name":"search_certifications","arguments":{"query":"cybersecurity","online":true,"limit":5}}}'

# Build a career path
curl -X POST https://licenses-api.jr.al/mcp \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":3,"method":"tools/call","params":{"name":"build_path","arguments":{"goal":"cloud security engineer","budget":5000,"onlineOnly":true}}}'

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Data Schema

Each entry follows this schema:

interface License {
  id: string              // Unique kebab-case identifier
  name: string            // Full certification name
  category: string        // One of 20 categories
  tagline: string         // One-line description
  description: string     // 2-3 sentence description
  requirements: string[]  // Requirements list
  cost: string            // Cost range (e.g., "$100 - $500")
  timeframe: string       // Time to obtain (e.g., "3 - 6 months")
  difficulty: number      // 1 (weekend project) to 5 (years of commitment)
  issuingBody: string     // Organization that issues the cert
  region: string          // Geographic availability
  renewalInfo: string     // Renewal requirements
  funFact: string         // Interesting fact
  officialUrl: string     // Official website
  online: boolean         // TRUE only if entire process is fully online
  examOnline: boolean     // TRUE if exam has remote proctoring option
  examDelivery: string    // How the exam is delivered (see below)
  verified: boolean       // Has been verified at issuer level
  tags: string[]          // Searchable tags
}

Exam Delivery Types

Value	Meaning	Example
online-proctored	Exam taken from home with live proctor	CompTIA via OnVUE, GIAC via ProctorU
testing-center	Must go to Pearson VUE / Prometric / PSI center	CPA exam, NCLEX, bar exam
in-person-practical	Hands-on skills assessment required	FAA checkride, welding test, CPR skills
online-self-paced	Unproctored online exam/assessment	Google via Coursera, HubSpot Academy
hybrid	Mix of online and in-person components	NBPTS (portfolio + exam), some ETA certs
varies	Differs by specific certification or jurisdiction	State licenses, FCC (depends on license class)

Understanding Online Fields

• online: true = You can complete the ENTIRE certification without going anywhere in person. No testing center, no clinical hours, no field work.
• examOnline: true = The exam itself can be taken remotely (e.g., OnVUE, PSI Bridge), but the certification may still require in-person clinical hours, supervised practice, or other requirements.
• online: false + examOnline: false = You must appear in person for the exam AND potentially other requirements.

Categories

Category	Count	Fully Online	Exam Online	Description
Health & Medical	771	178 (23%)	297 (39%)	Medical board certs, nursing, pharmacy
Online & Digital	541	354 (65%)	397 (73%)	Cloud, cybersecurity, web development
Construction	381	132 (35%)	253 (66%)	ICC inspections, ACI concrete, NCCER
Skilled Trades	131	14 (11%)	27 (21%)	HVAC, welding, electrical, plumbing
Maritime & Diving	124	4 (3%)	4 (3%)	USCG licenses, PADI diving, sailing
Aviation	111	2 (2%)	24 (22%)	FAA pilot, mechanic, dispatcher
Education	103	54 (52%)	73 (71%)	NBPTS board certs, teaching credentials
Finance & Banking	75	51 (68%)	55 (73%)	CPA, CFA, financial planning
Government	72	51 (71%)	54 (75%)	Government finance, intelligence
Technology	70	24 (34%)	61 (87%)	CompTIA, Cisco, AWS
Legal	40	16 (40%)	17 (43%)	Paralegal, notary, compliance
Science & Lab	28	17 (61%)	21 (75%)	Laboratory, environmental
Emergency	22	2 (9%)	2 (9%)	EMT, paramedic, CPR
Outdoor	20	4 (20%)	4 (20%)	Hunting, fishing, forestry
Food & Beverage	15	3 (20%)	3 (20%)	Food handler, sommelier
Driving & CDL	15	1 (7%)	1 (7%)	CDL Class A/B, endorsements
Sports & Fitness	14	1 (7%)	2 (14%)	Personal trainer, coaching
Creative & Media	8	1 (13%)	1 (13%)	Adobe, photography
Agriculture	6	2 (33%)	2 (33%)	Pesticide, organic, soil
Firearms	4	0 (0%)	0 (0%)	FFL, concealed carry, ATF

Totals: 825 fully online (32%) · 1,223 exam online (48%) · 2,551 total

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Tech Stack

• Frontend: Vite + vanilla JS + Tailwind CSS v4
• API: Cloudflare Workers + KV
• Hosting: Cloudflare Pages (frontend) + Cloudflare Workers (API)
• Icons: Lucide (lucide-static)
• Fonts: Space Grotesk (headings) + Inter (body)

Contributing

Contributions welcome! To add or correct a certification:

1. Fork this repo
2. Edit src/data/licenses.js
3. Follow the data schema above
4. Ensure online is TRUE only if the entire certification process is fully online
5. Set examOnline if the exam has a remote proctoring option
6. Set examDelivery to the appropriate delivery type
7. Submit a PR with sources for any new data

License

MIT — see LICENSE for details.

Built by Shield of Steel.