diff --git a/AGENTS.md b/AGENTS.md
index 7117b9b6d..ad30cc711 100644
--- a/AGENTS.md
+++ b/AGENTS.md
@@ -57,7 +57,7 @@ This codebase (Rails 8.1)
 
 | Directory | Purpose | Count |
 |---|---|---|
-| `app/controllers/` | Rails controllers (admin/, events/) | ~78 files |
+| `app/controllers/` | Rails controllers (admin/, events/, home/, api/) | ~80 files |
 | `app/views/` | ERB templates | ~745 files |
 | `app/decorators/` | Draper decorators for view logic | ~40 files |
 | `app/policies/` | ActionPolicy authorization rules | ~55 files |
diff --git a/app/controllers/api/base_controller.rb b/app/controllers/api/base_controller.rb
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..25d34b052
--- /dev/null
+++ b/app/controllers/api/base_controller.rb
@@ -0,0 +1,16 @@
+module Api
+  # Base for the public, read-only JSON API. These endpoints serve only
+  # unconditionally public data, so authentication is skipped and errors are
+  # rendered as JSON rather than the HTML redirects ApplicationController uses.
+  class BaseController < ApplicationController
+    skip_before_action :authenticate_user!
+
+    rescue_from ActiveRecord::RecordNotFound do
+      render json: { error: "Not found" }, status: :not_found
+    end
+
+    rescue_from ActionPolicy::Unauthorized do
+      render json: { error: "Forbidden" }, status: :forbidden
+    end
+  end
+end
diff --git a/app/controllers/api/v1/stories_controller.rb b/app/controllers/api/v1/stories_controller.rb
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..61aa234ae
--- /dev/null
+++ b/app/controllers/api/v1/stories_controller.rb
@@ -0,0 +1,38 @@
+module Api
+  module V1
+    class StoriesController < Api::BaseController
+      # Cap page size so a caller can't request an unbounded payload.
+      DEFAULT_PER_PAGE = 25
+      MAX_PER_PAGE = 100
+
+      # GET /api/v1/stories
+      # Publicly featured stories only (published + publicly_visible +
+      # publicly_featured).
+      def index
+        authorize! Story, to: :index?
+        # `authorized_scope` layers StoryPolicy (anonymous callers collapse to
+        # `publicly_visible`) over the `publicly_featured` scope, which already
+        # includes the public floor.
+        @stories = authorized_scope(Story.publicly_featured)
+          .includes(:windows_type, :organization, :author, :primary_asset, :sectors,
+                    { categories: :category_type }, created_by: :person)
+          .order(created_at: :desc)
+          .paginate(page: params[:page], per_page: per_page)
+      end
+
+      # GET /api/v1/stories/:id
+      def show
+        @story = Story.publicly_featured.find(params[:id])
+        authorize! @story
+      end
+
+      private
+
+      def per_page
+        requested = params[:per_page].to_i
+        return DEFAULT_PER_PAGE unless requested.positive?
+        [ requested, MAX_PER_PAGE ].min
+      end
+    end
+  end
+end
diff --git a/app/views/api/v1/stories/_story.json.jbuilder b/app/views/api/v1/stories/_story.json.jbuilder
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..e0c7dcd44
--- /dev/null
+++ b/app/views/api/v1/stories/_story.json.jbuilder
@@ -0,0 +1,36 @@
+json.title story.title
+
+# Credited author, honoring the story's privacy preference (may be "Anonymous").
+json.author story.author_credit
+
+json.organization do
+  json.name story.organization_name
+  json.locality story.organization_locality
+end
+
+json.url story_url(story)
+
+# Tags applied to the story: the windows type, categories (grouped by category
+# type, e.g. "Age range", "Story category"), and sectors.
+json.tags do
+  json.windows_type story.windows_type&.name
+  # Always emit `categories` as an object (`{}` when untagged) so consumers can
+  # iterate it unconditionally.
+  json.categories story.categories
+    .group_by { |c| c.category_type&.display_label || "Other" }
+    .transform_values { |cats| cats.map(&:name).sort }
+  json.sectors story.sector_names_all
+end
+
+json.body story.rhino_body.to_plain_text
+
+if story.primary_asset&.file&.attached?
+  json.image_url rails_blob_url(story.primary_asset.file)
+  json.thumbnail_url rails_representation_url(story.primary_asset.file.variant(:thumbnail))
+else
+  json.image_url nil
+  json.thumbnail_url nil
+end
+
+json.created_at story.created_at.iso8601
+json.updated_at story.updated_at.iso8601
diff --git a/app/views/api/v1/stories/index.json.jbuilder b/app/views/api/v1/stories/index.json.jbuilder
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..a2f7189e4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/app/views/api/v1/stories/index.json.jbuilder
@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+json.stories @stories, partial: "api/v1/stories/story", as: :story
+
+json.meta do
+  json.current_page @stories.current_page
+  json.per_page @stories.per_page
+  json.total_entries @stories.total_entries
+  json.total_pages @stories.total_pages
+end
diff --git a/app/views/api/v1/stories/show.json.jbuilder b/app/views/api/v1/stories/show.json.jbuilder
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..85d426cbc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/app/views/api/v1/stories/show.json.jbuilder
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+json.story do
+  json.partial! "api/v1/stories/story", story: @story
+end
diff --git a/config/routes.rb b/config/routes.rb
index 3764344ea..6948f3faa 100644
--- a/config/routes.rb
+++ b/config/routes.rb
@@ -317,5 +317,12 @@
     resources :video_recordings, only: :index
   end
 
+  # Public, read-only JSON API for publicly visible stories. No authentication.
+  namespace :api, defaults: { format: "json" } do
+    namespace :v1 do
+      resources :stories, only: [ :index, :show ]
+    end
+  end
+
   root to: "home#index"
 end
diff --git a/spec/requests/api/v1/stories_spec.rb b/spec/requests/api/v1/stories_spec.rb
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..aabb4a1ad
--- /dev/null
+++ b/spec/requests/api/v1/stories_spec.rb
@@ -0,0 +1,102 @@
+require "rails_helper"
+
+RSpec.describe "Api::V1::Stories", type: :request do
+  let!(:public_featured_story) do
+    create(:story, :published, :publicly_visible, :publicly_featured,
+           title: "Public featured story")
+  end
+
+  # publicly visible but not publicly featured — excluded from this API
+  let!(:public_story) do
+    create(:story, :published, :publicly_visible, title: "Public story")
+  end
+
+  # published but not publicly_visible
+  let!(:internal_story) do
+    create(:story, :published, title: "Internal story")
+  end
+
+  # not published at all
+  let!(:draft_story) do
+    create(:story, :unpublished, :publicly_visible, :publicly_featured, title: "Draft story")
+  end
+
+  def json
+    JSON.parse(response.body)
+  end
+
+  describe "GET /api/v1/stories" do
+    it "returns only publicly featured stories, without authentication" do
+      get "/api/v1/stories"
+
+      expect(response).to have_http_status(:ok)
+      expect(response.media_type).to eq("application/json")
+
+      titles = json["stories"].map { |s| s["title"] }
+      expect(titles).to contain_exactly("Public featured story")
+      expect(titles).not_to include("Public story", "Internal story", "Draft story")
+    end
+
+    it "includes pagination metadata" do
+      get "/api/v1/stories"
+
+      expect(json["meta"]).to include(
+        "current_page" => 1,
+        "per_page" => Api::V1::StoriesController::DEFAULT_PER_PAGE,
+        "total_entries" => 1
+      )
+    end
+
+    it "caps per_page at the maximum" do
+      get "/api/v1/stories", params: { per_page: "9999" }
+
+      expect(json["meta"]["per_page"]).to eq(Api::V1::StoriesController::MAX_PER_PAGE)
+    end
+  end
+
+  describe "GET /api/v1/stories/:id" do
+    it "returns a publicly featured story" do
+      get "/api/v1/stories/#{public_featured_story.id}"
+
+      expect(response).to have_http_status(:ok)
+      expect(json["story"]).to include(
+        "title" => "Public featured story",
+        "url" => story_url(public_featured_story)
+      )
+    end
+
+    it "groups the story's tags into categories (by type) and sectors" do
+      story    = create(:story, :published, :publicly_visible, :publicly_featured, title: "Tagged story")
+      age_type = create(:category_type, name: "AgeRange")
+      category = create(:category, name: "6-12", category_type: age_type)
+      sector   = create(:sector, name: "Domestic violence")
+      create(:categorizable_item, category: category, categorizable: story)
+      create(:sectorable_item, sector: sector, sectorable: story)
+
+      get "/api/v1/stories/#{story.id}"
+
+      tags = json["story"]["tags"]
+      expect(tags["categories"]).to eq("Age range" => [ "6-12" ])
+      expect(tags["sectors"]).to eq([ "Domestic violence" ])
+    end
+
+    it "404s for a publicly visible story that is not publicly featured" do
+      get "/api/v1/stories/#{public_story.id}"
+
+      expect(response).to have_http_status(:not_found)
+      expect(json["error"]).to eq("Not found")
+    end
+
+    it "404s for a story that is not publicly visible" do
+      get "/api/v1/stories/#{internal_story.id}"
+
+      expect(response).to have_http_status(:not_found)
+    end
+
+    it "404s for an unknown id" do
+      get "/api/v1/stories/0"
+
+      expect(response).to have_http_status(:not_found)
+    end
+  end
+end
diff --git a/spec/routing/api/v1/stories_routing_spec.rb b/spec/routing/api/v1/stories_routing_spec.rb
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..c46c0984e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/spec/routing/api/v1/stories_routing_spec.rb
@@ -0,0 +1,17 @@
+require "rails_helper"
+
+RSpec.describe Api::V1::StoriesController, type: :routing do
+  describe "routing" do
+    it "routes to #index" do
+      expect(get: "/api/v1/stories").to route_to("api/v1/stories#index", format: "json")
+    end
+
+    it "routes to #show" do
+      expect(get: "/api/v1/stories/1").to route_to("api/v1/stories#show", id: "1", format: "json")
+    end
+
+    it "does not route to #create" do
+      expect(post: "/api/v1/stories").not_to be_routable
+    end
+  end
+end