# Quickstart Three steps take you from nothing to today's calls. ## 1Get a key In the Vocatech portal, open your company and go to the **Integrations** page. Under **Portal Public API**, press **Generate** and copy the key. This is your main key, and it reaches every route. For texting only, make an [API Messaging key](https://vocatech.com/developers/guide/keys#keys) instead. Put the key in an environment variable. The Node, Python and PHP examples in this guide use the small `vt()` helper below: save it next to your code. curl needs nothing else. **curl** ```bash # Put the key in the environment once. Every curl example reads it from there. export VOCATECH_API_KEY="paste-your-key-here" # That is all curl needs. ``` **Node** ```javascript // vocatech.mjs: a tiny client. Node 18 or newer, no packages. const BASE = 'https://api.vocatech.com'; const KEY = process.env.VOCATECH_API_KEY; export async function vt(method, path, body) { const res = await fetch(BASE + path, { method, headers: { Authorization: `Bearer ${KEY}`, ...(body === undefined ? {} : { 'Content-Type': 'application/json' }), }, body: body === undefined ? undefined : JSON.stringify(body), }); const text = await res.text(); let data = null; try { data = text ? JSON.parse(text) : null; } catch { data = { raw: text }; } if (!res.ok) { const err = new Error(`${res.status} ${errorText(data)}`); err.status = res.status; err.retryAfter = Number(res.headers.get('retry-after')) || null; err.body = data; throw err; } return data; } // The API writes errors in a few shapes. This reads all of them. export function errorText(body) { if (!body) return ''; if (typeof body.error === 'string') return body.message || body.error; if (body.error) return body.error.message || body.error.description || ''; return body.raw || ''; } ``` **Python** ```python # vocatech.py: a tiny client. Python 3.8 or newer, and: pip install requests import os import requests BASE = "https://api.vocatech.com" KEY = os.environ["VOCATECH_API_KEY"] def error_text(body): """The API writes errors in a few shapes. This reads all of them.""" if not isinstance(body, dict): return "" err = body.get("error") if isinstance(err, str): return body.get("message") or err if isinstance(err, dict): return err.get("message") or err.get("description") or "" return "" class VocatechError(Exception): def __init__(self, status, body, retry_after): super().__init__(f"{status} {error_text(body)}") self.status = status self.body = body self.retry_after = retry_after def vt(method, path, body=None, params=None): r = requests.request( method, BASE + path, params=params, json=body, headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {KEY}"}, timeout=60, ) try: data = r.json() if r.content else None except ValueError: data = {"raw": r.text} if not r.ok: retry = r.headers.get("Retry-After") raise VocatechError(r.status_code, data, int(retry) if retry else None) return data ``` **PHP** ```php $method, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER => $headers, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true, CURLOPT_TIMEOUT => 60, CURLOPT_HEADERFUNCTION => function ($ch, string $line) use (&$retryAfter): int { if (stripos($line, 'Retry-After:') === 0) { $retryAfter = (int) trim(substr($line, 12)); } return strlen($line); }, ]); $raw = curl_exec($ch); if ($raw === false) { throw new RuntimeException('Network error: ' . curl_error($ch)); } $status = (int) curl_getinfo($ch, CURLINFO_RESPONSE_CODE); $data = $raw === '' ? null : json_decode($raw, true); if ($status >= 400) { throw new VocatechError($status, is_array($data) ? $data : null, $retryAfter); } return is_array($data) ? $data : null; } ``` The Node examples are ES modules: save them as `.mjs` files and run them with Node 18 or newer. ## 2Check the connection `GET /v1/whoami` answers with your company id and the address the API sees you calling from. Every key may call it. **curl** ```bash curl https://api.vocatech.com/v1/whoami \ -H "Authorization: Bearer $VOCATECH_API_KEY" ``` **Node** ```javascript import { vt } from './vocatech.mjs'; const me = await vt('GET', '/v1/whoami'); console.log(me.company_id, me.client_ip, me.ip_restricted); ``` **Python** ```python from vocatech import vt me = vt("GET", "/v1/whoami") print(me["company_id"], me["client_ip"], me["ip_restricted"]) ``` **PHP** ```php