Initial Setup

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.

Environments

Layer provides two environments for development and production use:

Environment	Base URL	OAuth Scope
Sandbox	`https://sandbox.layerfi.com`	`https://sandbox.layerfi.com/sandbox`
Production	`https://api.layerfi.com`	`https://api.layerfi.com/production`

Use sandbox for development and testing. All examples in this guide use the sandbox environment.

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.

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>"

import requests
from requests.auth import HTTPBasicAuth

response = requests.post(
    "https://auth.layerfi.com/oauth2/token",
    auth=HTTPBasicAuth("<client_id>", "<client_secret>"),
    headers={"Content-Type": "application/x-www-form-urlencoded"},
    data={
        "grant_type": "client_credentials",
        "scope": "https://sandbox.layerfi.com/sandbox",
        "client_id": "<client_id>"
    }
)

token_data = response.json()
access_token = token_data["access_token"]

const axios = require('axios');

const getAccessToken = async () => {
  const response = await axios.post(
    'https://auth.layerfi.com/oauth2/token',
    new URLSearchParams({
      grant_type: 'client_credentials',
      scope: 'https://sandbox.layerfi.com/sandbox',
      client_id: '<client_id>'
    }),
    {
      auth: {
        username: '<client_id>',
        password: '<client_secret>'
      },
      headers: {
        'Content-Type': 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded'
      }
    }
  );

  return response.data.access_token;
};

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.

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>" 

import requests

response = requests.get(
    "https://sandbox.layerfi.com/whoami",
    headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {access_token}"}
)

print(response.json())

const axios = require('axios');

const response = await axios.get(
  'https://sandbox.layerfi.com/whoami',
  {
    headers: {
      'Authorization': `Bearer ${accessToken}`
    }
  }
);

console.log(response.data);

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.

Next Steps

Now that you’re authenticated, you can:

Onboard a business - Create your first business in Layer
Import financial data - Start passing transaction data
Explore the API reference - Learn about available endpoints
Set up embedded components - Add Layer’s pre-built UI components to your platform

Get Started

Importing Financial Activity

Offering Accounting

API Details

Initial Setup

Prerequisites

Environments

Next Steps

​Prerequisites

​Environments

​Next Steps

Prerequisites

Environments

Next Steps