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Biodiversity informatics workbenches and aggregators that make their data externally accessible via application programming interfaces (APIs) facilitate the development of customized applications that fit the needs of a diverse range of communities. In the past, the technical skills required to host web-facing applications placed constraints on many researchers: they either needed to find technical help, or expand their own skills. These limits are now significantly reduced when free or low-cost web-site hosting is combined with small, well-documented applications that require minimal configuration to setup. We illustrate two applications that take advantage of this approach: an interactive key engine (presently named "distinguish") and TaxonPages, a taxon page service application. Both applications make use of TaxonWorks' API. We discuss the limits, e.g., the user must be online to access the data behind the application, and advantages of this approach, e.g., the application server can be served locally, on the users' own computer, and the underlying data are all accessible in more technical formats. 

TaxonWorks is a web-based workbench facilitating curation of a broad cross-section of biodiversity informatics concepts. Its development is currently led by the Species File Group. TaxonWorks has a large, JSON serving, application programming interface (API). This API is slowly being exposed for external use. The API is documented at https://api.taxonworks.org. Here we highlight some existing key features of the API focusing on the TaxonWorks concepts of People, Sources, Collection Objects, Taxon Names, and Downloads and provide a brief roadmap for upcoming additions. Highlights include the ability for data curators to produce shareable bibliographies, DarwinCore Archives (DwC-A), and Catalogue of Life-formatted datasets, access their nomenclature as autocompletes and via many filter facets, share Person metadata including numerous identifier types, and perform basic Geo-JSON and simple DwC-A parameter-based filtering on Collection Objects. As examples of what can be done with the API, we provide several visualizations that are straightforward to implement by those with basic R, Python, Javascript, or Ruby programming skills. 

TaxonWorks is an open-source workbench for biodiversity researchers. With several years of development behind it, we highlight its present status, and discuss if and when it makes sense to release a version 1.0, i.e. software completed to specific stage. TaxonWorks' scope is broad; it seeks to touch nearly all areas that might be of interest to taxonomists, i.e. those who integrate everything that is known about a taxon into a single resource. Its role as a software platform is placed in a broader context, where many instances of TaxonWorks each can support multiple research projects. Instances may be supported by individuals or organizations. A suite of technical tools including containerization and unit tests facilitate collaboration at many different levels. TaxonWorks is a research tool, mechanisms for analyzing the results of data curation including its application programing interface are described. The long-term development of TaxonWorks is supported by an endowment to the Species File Group. Its source is available on Github.