# Accessing the API

> Learn how to access the Untether Labs API

The Untether Labs API uses OAuth 2.0 `client_credentials` grant for machine to machine authentication.
You may read more information on this flow [here](https://www.oauth.com/oauth2-servers/access-tokens/client-credentials/).

## Obtaining Credentials

Please [reach out](mailto:support@untetherlabs.com) to create a bot account for your company.

Once approved and created, you will receieve two credentials:

-   **Client ID**: A public identifier for your application.
-   **Client Secret**: A secret known only to your application and the authorization server.

## Access Token Exchange

The Client ID and Client Secret do not provide access to the API by themselves, you must
exchange them for a short-lived access token. This is accomplished by sending them to the
`/oauth/token` endpoint:

```bash Token Request icon=file-terminal
curl -X POST --location "https://app.untetherlabs.com/api/oauth/token" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded" \
  -d 'grant_type=client_credentials&client_id={CLIENT_ID}&client_secret={CLIENT_SECRET}'
```

```json Token Response icon=braces
{
    "access_token": "{ACCESS_TOKEN}",
    "token_type": "Bearer",
    "expires_at": "{ISO TIMESTAMP}"
}
```

<Note>
    Machine access tokens are short lived (1 hour by default). You may repeat the token
    exchange at any time to obtain a new access token.
</Note>

## Your First Request

With an access token, you are now free to make requests to the API any time before `expires_at`.

For example, we can fetch our own user information:

```bash First API Request icon=file-terminal
curl -X GET --location "https://app.untetherlabs.com/api/v1/users/{CLIENT_ID}" \
    -H "Authorization: Bearer {ACCESS_TOKEN}"
```

```json Get User Response icon=braces
{
    "id": "{CLIENT_ID}",
    "type": "bot",
    "name": "My API Client",
    "email": "api@untetherlabs.com",
    "status": "active"
}
```

<Info>
    For more information about this endpoint, see `GET /v1/users/{userId}` in the API
    reference.
</Info>