@kellogh @andypiper I've used this one before in some of my playing.

>>> import requests
>>> apikey=‘<redacted -- get one on instances.social>’
>>> r = requests.get("https://instances.social/api/1.0/instances/list?count=0", headers={'Authorization':f'Bearer {apikey}'}).json()
>>> len(r['instances'])
17422
>>> r['instances'][250]['name']
's.ovalerio.net'
>>> r['instances'][250]['up']
True
>>> r['instances'][250]['dead']
False

(Full path that is possibly truncated above [by Mastodon] is: /api/1.0/instances/list?count=0]