Equinox on ESI: structures, sovereignty, and access lists
Sovereign capsuleers,
Equinox reshaped nullsec — new structures, new colony resources, and a lot more. ESI is catching up. New routes cover the latest Upwell deployables, Access Lists get a read API, and sovereignty data is easier to work with than before. The static data export picks up a few related files as well.
You can find the details of these new routes in the API Explorer, using today’s compatibility date (2026-05-19).
New structure types
Several Equinox-era structures are now represented in ESI. If you build sov maps, intel tools, or structure browsers: this is for you!
Sovereignty Hubs are the heart of modern nullsec sovereignty — upgrades, resource allocation, and system control all flow through them. ESI now exposes them alongside other Upwell structures so you can show what’s online in a system, who owns it, the amount of reagents they have left, and what upgrades are installed.
Orbital Skyhooks expand on nullsec planetary industry, producing Power, Workforce, or reagents. You can now place them on sov maps and drill into their details.
The Raidable Skyhooks route is a rolling list of Skyhooks across New Eden that are either becoming raidable or are currently raidable (reagent silo vulnerable). Handy to know which next-door neighbors to poke at next.
Mercenary Dens and Mercenary Tactical Operations completes the picture for the gameplay tied to Skyhooks. Mercenary Dens are deployable structures with development and anarchy parameters; MTOs are the sites that spawn from them. Both are now queryable through ESI so tools can track Mercenary Den status and active operations.
Access Lists
Access Lists (also known as ACL) show up everywhere, but, until now, there was no dedicated ESI route to list what’s on an Access List you manage.
That changes with the new Access List route. Given a valid token with the right access, a character who manages an Access List can retrieve the entities on that list: characters, corporations, alliances, and whether they are blocked or allowed.
Sovereignty systems: one route, better data
Sovereignty data currently lives on two routes today: /sovereignty/map for occupancy, /sovereignty/structures for what’s anchored in each system. Although both are useful on their own, if you want the full system picture in your app, you have to combine the data yourself.
The new Sovereignty Systems route brings map and structure information together in a single response. One call, one shape to parse: occupancy, structures, and how they are related to each other.
Additionally, this new route comes with a more detailed Activity Defense Multiplier that returns separate values for the Military, Industry, and Strategic Index. If you run sov dashboards or campaign planners, you can show capsuleers why a system’s Activity Defense Multiplier looks the way it does.
Fixes to existing routes
While the new route is the recommended path forward, the older sovereignty endpoints received attention too.
Structures are no longer duplicated.
Activity Defense Multiplier values now match what is shown in-game.
Sovereignty data updates when the game changes — occupancy no longer changes only after the next downtime.
Mercenary Tactical Operations
ESI routes tell you which Mercenary Tactical Operation (MTO) is active at a Mercenary Den right now. To build planners, fit checkers, or reference pages, you also need the full catalog of what MTOs can spawn — and which ships are allowed to run it.
Recent static data releases add:
mercenaryTacticalOperations— every MTO definition in one place (site types, parameters, etc).archetypes,dungeons, andtypelists— together, these describe access rules: which hull groups or type lists qualify for a given dungeon or operation. Combine them with mercenaryTacticalOperations to answer “can my Gila access this MTO?” without guessing or hardcoding.
The typelists file is not MTO-specific. The same mechanism shows up across New Eden wherever the client gates content by ship type. If you maintain fit validators, mission guides, or eligibility checks of any kind, it is worth getting familiar with — chances are you will reuse it outside mercenary content too.
Schema changes are listed in schema-changelog.yaml.
Wrapping up
Nullsec tools live and die on accurate structure and sov data. This release adds the missing Equinox pieces, gives Access List managers a proper listing API, makes sovereignty queries less of a puzzle, and fills in static data for Mercenary Tactical Operations. The OpenAPI specs and API Explorer are the source of truth for field names, scopes, and cache timings; the static data is the place for mercenaryTacticalOperations, typelists, and friends.
Feedback on shape, naming, and what’s still missing is always welcome. Drop by the official EVE Online Discord, channel #3rd-party-dev-and-esi, and share what works and what doesn’t.
Cheers,
Your friendly developers of the EVE Sovereignty Interlink (working title)