How to use the Evergreen API¶

Evergreen's difference to other methods of finding and installing applications, is that Evergreen queries only official vendor sources when you use Get-EvergreenApp. This ensures that the information returned can be trusted because it comes from the vendor and is not crowd sourced.

Evergreen supports an API that returns the same application version information as Get-EvergreenApp. The API supports the same applications as the Evergreen module because data is sourced via the module. The API runs on Cloudflare Workers with data that is updated every 8 hours.

Full documentation for the API is available here: evergreen-api; however, if you're familiar with Get-EvergreenApp in the Evergreen module, the API should be easy to use.

Data that is returned by the Evergreen API can be viewed at the Evergreen App Tracker.

Usage¶

In its current version, the API has only two endpoints that return data in JSON format - /apps, /app/{appName}. In PowerShell, the API can be queried with Invoke-RestMethod.

Return the list of supported applications from /apps - this is the equivalent of running Find-EvergreenApp:

PS C:\> Invoke-RestMethod -Uri "https://evergreen-api.stealthpuppy.com/apps"

Details for a specific application are returned from the /app/{appName} endpoint along with the name of the supported application.

PS C:\> Invoke-RestMethod -Uri "https://evergreen-api.stealthpuppy.com/app/MicrosoftEdge"

Data returned from the API can be filtered and sent to Save-EvergreenApp to download binaries:

$Edge = Invoke-RestMethod -Uri "https://evergreen-api.stealthpuppy.com/app/MicrosoftEdge"
$Edge | Where-Object { $_.Architecture -eq "x64" -and $_.Channel -eq "Stable" -and $_.Release -eq "Enterprise" } | Save-EvergreenApp -Path "C:\Apps"

If an unknown application is passed to the /app endpoint, an error is returned:

PS C:\> Invoke-RestMethod -Uri "https://evergreen-api.stealthpuppy.com/app/UnsupportedApp"
Invoke-RestMethod: {message: "Application not found. List all apps for valid application names. Application names are case sensitive.}

Get-EvergreenAppFromApi¶

Evergreen includes the Get-EvergreenAppFromApi function that is used in much the same way as Get-EvergreenApp. This function is simpler than using Invoke-RestMethod, and it automatically filters for available applications. For example, to query the API for application data for Microsoft Edge, use:

PS C:\> Get-EvergreenAppFromApi -Name "MicrosoftEdge"

Version      : 89.0.774.76
Platform     : Windows
Channel      : Stable
Release      : Enterprise
Architecture : x64
Date         : 12/4/2021
Hash         : 9E7A29B4BE6E1CD707F80B4B79008F19D2D5DD5C774D317A493EC6DE5BE0B7D7
URI          : https://msedge.sf.dl.delivery.mp.microsoft.com/filestreamingservice/files/4d12f620-174c-4259-85e6-8a80ea45ff10/MicrosoftEdgeEnterpriseX64.msi

This returns the current version and download URLs for Microsoft Edge using the official Microsoft Edge update API at https://edgeupdates.microsoft.com/api/products.

Just as with Get-EvergreenApp, the output can be filtered for the specific application installer with Where-Object. The example below returns the current version and download URL for the Stable channel of the 64-bit Enterprise ring of Microsoft Edge.

Get-EvergreenAppFromApi -Name "MicrosoftEdge" | Where-Object { $_.Architecture -eq "x64" -and $_.Channel -eq "Stable" -and $_.Release -eq "Enterprise" }