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Prerequisites

Before getting started with Layer’s API, you will need:
  • A Layer account. Reach out to your Layer contact or contact our team.
  • Client credentials (client_id and client_secret) provided by Layer.

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Environments

Layer provides two environments for development and production use:
EnvironmentBase URLOAuth Scope
Sandboxhttps://sandbox.layerfi.comhttps://sandbox.layerfi.com/sandbox
Productionhttps://api.layerfi.comhttps://api.layerfi.com/production
Use sandbox for development and testing. All examples in this guide use the sandbox environment.
1

Obtain your client credentials

Layer uses OAuth2’s client credentials flow to authenticate API clients. To start your development, we will give you a set of client_id and client_secret tokens.
To obtain a set of client credentials, reach out to your Layer contact or contact our team here.
2

Get a bearer token

Calls to the Layer API require a bearer access token. To receive an access token and make calls to other API endpoints, provide your client_id and client_secret in the body of a POST request to Layer’s authorization server.
curl -X POST https://auth.layerfi.com/oauth2/token  \
  -u <client_id>:<client_secret>  \
  -H "Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded" \
  --data-urlencode "grant_type=client_credentials" \
  --data-urlencode "scope=https://sandbox.layerfi.com/sandbox" \
  --data-urlencode "client_id=<client_id>"
The authorization server will respond with your granted access token:
{
  "access_token": "<access_token>",
  "expires_in": 3600,
  "token_type": "Bearer"
}
Extract the access_token value from the response. You’ll use this in the Authorization header for all API requests.
3

Make a test API call

Use the access token to make a request to the API by including it as a Bearer token in the authorization header.
curl https://sandbox.layerfi.com/whoami \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer <access_token>"
The API will respond with your client name and client id:
{
  "data":{
    "type":"whoami",
    "clientName":"Layer Example",
    "clientId":"018f1657-dc66-7482-917b-c0c0e532f52b"
  }
}
Access tokens expire after 1 hour. To refresh your access token, make another call to Layer’s authorization endpoint with your client_id and client_secret. We recommend refreshing tokens for new sets of requests rather than persisting access tokens.

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Next Steps

Now that you’re authenticated, you can: