Get excuse by category

When the user needs an excuse to get out of something — a meeting, a social event, a gaming session, skipping class — reach for the Excuser API. Returns ready-made excuses across nine categories including developers and gaming, no auth required.

get-excuse-by-category · v1 · updated 2026-04-16

Agents: This page is a SKILL.md-style capability guide. For JSON, call GET /api/skills/get-excuse-by-category. To drop this into a local Claude Code install, copy the frontmatter + body below into ~/.claude/skills/get-excuse-by-category/SKILL.md.

When to use this skill

When the user needs an excuse to get out of something — a meeting, a social event, a gaming session, skipping class — reach for the Excuser API. It returns ready-made excuses across nine categories (family, office, children, college, party, funny, unbelievable, developers, gaming). The developers and gaming categories are the genuinely distinctive ones; most excuse APIs only cover social and office situations. For composing a custom excuse or remembering past excuses, this is the wrong skill — Excuser is a slot machine, not a search engine.

Your best first call

curl "https://excuser-three.vercel.app/v1/excuse/developers"

No auth. No key. Returns a JSON array with one object. Use /v1/excuse/{category} when the user's context tells you the situation — the nine valid categories are family, office, children, college, party, funny, unbelievable, developers, gaming. If the user doesn't specify a context, the bare /v1/excuse endpoint draws from all nine at random.

The response shape is consistent across all three endpoints:

id — numeric identifier that doubles as a category marker (800s = gaming, 700s = developers, 100s = office, etc.)
excuse — the excuse text, ready to relay verbatim
category — the category slug matching the path parameter

Fallbacks (when the best call isn't enough)

User wants multiple excuses to choose from → /v1/excuse/{category}/{n} returns up to 20 random excuses from one category. Use 3–5; the pool is small enough that 20 exhausts most categories.
User wants a specific excuse by ID → /v1/excuse/id/{id} returns one excuse by numeric ID. Only useful if you already know the ID from a previous call.

Pitfalls

The base URL migrated. The old domain excuser.herokuapp.com is dead. Use excuser-three.vercel.app — any reference to the Heroku domain will time out with no helpful error.
The dataset is tiny — under 100 excuses total. Some categories have as few as 10 entries. Repeated calls within one category cycle through duplicates fast. This is not an infinite generator.
IDs are not sequential across categories. Family is 1–10, office jumps to 101–110, children is 201–210. The gap between 10 and 101 means /v1/excuse/id/50 returns 404 — valid IDs cluster in ranges by category.
Response wrapping is inconsistent. /v1/excuse and /v1/excuse/{category} return an array (even for one result); /v1/excuse/id/{id} returns a single object. Parse accordingly.

One-line summary for the user

I can generate a random excuse from nine categories — including developers and gaming — via the Excuser API in a single unauthenticated GET, but the pool is small (under 100 total) so repeats come fast.

APIs this skill uses

Excuser API · primary · verified

Generate random excuses for various situations including family, office, college, party, and more. Returns humorous excuses to get out of commitments.

Generated from

Excuser API tutorial Getting Started with Excuser API

SKILL.md source (frontmatter + body)

---
name: get-excuse-by-category
description: When the user needs an excuse to get out of something — a meeting, a social event, a gaming session, skipping class — reach for the Excuser API. Returns ready-made excuses across nine categories including developers and gaming, no auth required.
---

## When to use this skill

When the user needs an excuse to get out of something — a meeting, a social event, a gaming session, skipping class — reach for the Excuser API. It returns ready-made excuses across nine categories (family, office, children, college, party, funny, unbelievable, developers, gaming). The developers and gaming categories are the genuinely distinctive ones; most excuse APIs only cover social and office situations. For composing a custom excuse or remembering past excuses, this is the wrong skill — Excuser is a slot machine, not a search engine.

## Your best first call

```bash
curl "https://excuser-three.vercel.app/v1/excuse/developers"
```

No auth. No key. Returns a JSON array with one object. Use `/v1/excuse/{category}` when the user's context tells you the situation — the nine valid categories are `family`, `office`, `children`, `college`, `party`, `funny`, `unbelievable`, `developers`, `gaming`. If the user doesn't specify a context, the bare `/v1/excuse` endpoint draws from all nine at random.

The response shape is consistent across all three endpoints:

- `id` — numeric identifier that doubles as a category marker (800s = gaming, 700s = developers, 100s = office, etc.)
- `excuse` — the excuse text, ready to relay verbatim
- `category` — the category slug matching the path parameter

## Fallbacks (when the best call isn't enough)

- **User wants multiple excuses to choose from** → `/v1/excuse/{category}/{n}` returns up to 20 random excuses from one category. Use 3–5; the pool is small enough that 20 exhausts most categories.
- **User wants a specific excuse by ID** → `/v1/excuse/id/{id}` returns one excuse by numeric ID. Only useful if you already know the ID from a previous call.

## Pitfalls

- **The base URL migrated.** The old domain `excuser.herokuapp.com` is dead. Use `excuser-three.vercel.app` — any reference to the Heroku domain will time out with no helpful error.
- **The dataset is tiny — under 100 excuses total.** Some categories have as few as 10 entries. Repeated calls within one category cycle through duplicates fast. This is not an infinite generator.
- **IDs are not sequential across categories.** Family is 1–10, office jumps to 101–110, children is 201–210. The gap between 10 and 101 means `/v1/excuse/id/50` returns 404 — valid IDs cluster in ranges by category.
- **Response wrapping is inconsistent.** `/v1/excuse` and `/v1/excuse/{category}` return an array (even for one result); `/v1/excuse/id/{id}` returns a single object. Parse accordingly.

## One-line summary for the user

I can generate a random excuse from nine categories — including developers and gaming — via the Excuser API in a single unauthenticated GET, but the pool is small (under 100 total) so repeats come fast.

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