I've not used AniDB much, but I once half-finished an API wrapper for Node.js so I guess I'm about as qualified as we're gonna get.
In my experience, AniDB is effectively unmaintained code. They have developers, the developers just don't know the codebase well and they don't mess with old stuff. I've heard this is because it's a behemoth Perl script, but I don't know for sure.
But to cover your main point of "an API checking file hashes/fingerprints against episodes to add to your list", I just wanna say that this is kind of a silly system: you can easily extract that data from a filename.
For example, the desktop app Taiga has an open-source parser which extracts lots of data effectively (https://github.com/erengy/anitomy) and I myself wrote a simple regex-based one for my own client. Both are capable of extracting at least the episode number, subber, and series title.
So why would Hummingbird want to store hundreds of thousands of MD5 checksums when there's better options?
Just want to quickly add the Taiga will support Hummingbird fairly soon. Within the next week or so.
We also have incredible desktop apps like HAPU that detect what you're watching (including from sources like Hulu and Crunchyroll) and updates your library. No fingerprinting or hashes necessary.
Mainly because the checksum is a very good source of truth. Not every file you get is named correctly, or the same as originally intended.
Regardless of the checking method, will there be an API to add episodes to a personal list, regardless of check sum or filname checking?
Next feature: notification of new episodes, particular by collecting group?
These are pretty much the 2 killer features I personally use AniDB for. The back end code for me is less important, because everything I need it to do, is being done. :)
In my experience, AniDB is effectively unmaintained code. They have developers, the developers just don't know the codebase well and they don't mess with old stuff. I've heard this is because it's a behemoth Perl script, but I don't know for sure.
But to cover your main point of "an API checking file hashes/fingerprints against episodes to add to your list", I just wanna say that this is kind of a silly system: you can easily extract that data from a filename.
For example, the desktop app Taiga has an open-source parser which extracts lots of data effectively (https://github.com/erengy/anitomy) and I myself wrote a simple regex-based one for my own client. Both are capable of extracting at least the episode number, subber, and series title.
So why would Hummingbird want to store hundreds of thousands of MD5 checksums when there's better options?