PartFinder API quickstart: your first authenticated call

This guide takes you from no account to a verified, authenticated request. It should take about five minutes.

Never hardcode API keys in client-side code, in version-controlled files, or anywhere reachable by someone who should not have them. Store keys in environment variables or a secrets manager and read them at runtime.

Create an API key

Sign in to the PartFinder Console and create a key in your organization. Anyone can create an account at console.partfinder.dev/sign-up and pick pay as you go or a monthly or yearly plan (see pricing). Pay as you go starts with 100 free credits, once per person and per company. To bring in teammates, see Console.Keys belong to the organization rather than to you personally, so a key keeps working when somebody leaves the team. The secret is shown once, when you create it, and cannot be shown again. If you lose it, use Rotate on the key, or create a replacement and revoke the old one.Keys look like ak_ followed by 32 characters.

Store it where your code can read it

export PARTFINDER_API_KEY="ak_..."

Verify the key

/v1/ping confirms your key is valid and tells you which organization it belongs to. It costs no credits, so it is the right thing to call from a health check or a deployment smoke test.

import os

import requests

res = requests.get(
    "https://api.partfinder.dev/v1/ping",
    headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {os.environ['PARTFINDER_API_KEY']}"},
)
res.raise_for_status()
data = res.json()

const res = await fetch("https://api.partfinder.dev/v1/ping", {
  headers: { Authorization: `Bearer ${process.env.PARTFINDER_API_KEY}` },
});

if (!res.ok) throw new Error(`PartFinder returned ${res.status}`);
const data = await res.json();

curl https://api.partfinder.dev/v1/ping \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $PARTFINDER_API_KEY"

A valid key returns 200:

{
  "as_of": "2026-09-18T10:00:55.303Z",
  "summary": "Authenticated. The PartFinder API is reachable and this key is valid.",
  "notice": "Informational only. Risk scores, stock levels, lead times and alternate-part suggestions may be incomplete, delayed or inaccurate. Independently verify before making procurement, engineering, compliance, safety or sourcing decisions.",
  "authenticated": {
    "organization_id": "org_2b7c...",
    "key_id": "ak_9f31..."
  }
}

A missing, unknown, revoked or expired key returns 401. See Errors.

What every response looks like

Every endpoint returns the same envelope, so you can handle it once:

Field	What it is
`as_of`	ISO 8601 timestamp for the data in this response
`summary`	One or two plain sentences your own agent or UI can relay directly
`notice`	Informational-use notice. Always present, always the same

Beyond those, each endpoint adds its own payload. Scores and measures follow rules worth knowing before you parse anything: see Conventions.

Authentication

Key lifecycle, revocation timing, and what the 401s mean.

Conventions

How scores, units, nulls and freshness work across every response.

Errors

Status codes and how to handle them.

API Reference

Every endpoint, generated from our OpenAPI document.

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PartFinder API quickstart: your first authenticated call

What every response looks like

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Authentication

Conventions

Errors

API Reference

​What every response looks like

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Authentication

Conventions

Errors

API Reference

What every response looks like

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