Quickstart

Curl is a popular command line tool used by developers to send HTTP requests. Many operating systems include curl by default. You can check if you have curl installed by opening your terminal application and running the following command: curl https://google.com. If curl is set up and you are connected to the Internet, this command will send an HTTP request to fetch the contents of “google.com”. If you get a “curl not found” error, it means curl is not installed on your machine; you can install it by following the instructions on the curl homepage.

After installing curl, you should locate an Opkit API key. If your organization has not already provided you with one, you will need to create it. For security reasons, Opkit doesn’t allow users to do this manually. Instead, they must reach out to an Opkit team member. Please send an email to support@opkit.co with the subject line “API Key”. Make sure to send this email from the account associated with the Opkit customer organization. (Don’t send it from your personal Gmail address!) Our team will respond with a new API key that is valid for your organization. Copy this value some where safe. Don’t lose it or expose it to the public!

Once you have an API key, you should set this value to the OPKIT_API_KEY environment variable in your terminal application. This ensures that it is always available when you start a new terminal session. The instructions for completing this step vary based on your operating system:

MacOS:

1. Open the Terminal application.
2. Open your shell profile in a text editor. Use the command open ~/.bash_profile or open ~/.zshrc (for newer MacOS versions). Windows:
3. Add the OPKIT_API_KEY enviornment variable to your shell profile by inserting the line below. Make sure to replace <YOUR-API-KEY> with the value of your actual API key:

export OPKIT_API_KEY='<YOUR-API-KEY>'

4. Safe the file and exit the text editor.
5. Reload your shell profile in the current terminal session. Use the command source ~/.bash_profile or source ~/.zshrc (for newer MacOS versions).
6. Verify the environment variable is present by running the following command: echo $OPKIT_API_KEY. It should output your API key.

Windows:

1. Open the Command Prompt application. You can find it by searching “cmd” in the start menu.
2. Set environment variable in the current session by running the command below. Make sure to replace <YOUR-API-KEY> with the value of your actual API key:

setx /m OPKIT_API_KEY "<YOUR-API-KEY>"

3. Verify the environment variable is present by running the following command: echo %OPKIT_API_KEY%. It should output your API key.

Finally, it’s time to send an API request! Let’s start with a simple request to one of Opkit’s “list” endpoints: GET /targets. (A target is a resource that represents a unique phone number that can be contacted through the Opkit platform.) Run the following command in your terminal application:

curl https://api.opkit.co/v1/targets \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $OPKIT_API_KEY"

If the request succeeded, you should see a JSON response object containing target resources in your terminal output. If you do not see this, make sure you completed the steps above correctly and refer to our documentation on errors. If after doing these things you are still experiencing problems, contact Opkit support.