Quickstart

Make your first January REST API request with an API key and curl.

1. Create an API key

Open the January Developer Dashboard, select API keys, and create a key. Copy the secret when it is shown; the full value is displayed only at creation time.

API keys begin with sk-. Keep the key on a backend or another machine you control, never in browser or mobile app code.

2. Store it for this terminal session

export JANUARY_API_KEY="sk-your-key"

Do not commit the key to source control.

3. Search for a food

curl --get 'https://partners.january.ai/v1.2/foods' \
  --data-urlencode 'query=greek yogurt' \
  --data-urlencode 'limit=5' \
  --header "Authorization: Bearer ${JANUARY_API_KEY}" \
  --header 'Accept: application/json'

A successful response lists matching foods, best match first, trimmed here:

{
  "items": [
    { "id": "70376084", "name": "greek yogurt", "type": "generic", "nutrients": { … }, "servings": [ … ], … }
  ]
}

A 401 means the key is missing, malformed, or not recognized. A 403 forbidden means the key was issued for API v1.1.

Next steps

PreviousOverview

NextHow authentication works

Last updated 16 days ago

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