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This walkthrough takes about five minutes. By the end you’ll have an API key, a successful request, and enough scaffolding to start exploring the rest of the catalog. Test update

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1. Get a key

Sign in to the developer portal, accept the Developer Agreement, and mint a Free key from your dashboard.
The raw key is shown once, at creation. Copy it into your password manager or an environment variable immediately — the portal stores only a hash, so a key you didn’t save is a key you have to revoke and replace.
A live key looks like this: 
elestrals_live_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Anything starting with elestrals_test_ is reserved for a future sandbox; only live keys work today.

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2. Make a request

Pass your key as a Bearer token. Keys in query strings are rejected. 
curl https://api.elestrals.com/v1/cards/et-100 \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $ELESTRALS_KEY"

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3. Read the response

Every successful response uses the same envelope: 
{
  "data": { "id": "et-100", "name": "Waspivy", "...": "..." },
  "pagination": { "next_cursor": null, "has_more": false },
  "meta": { "request_id": "req_01H...", "cached": false, "attribution_required": true }
}
  • data is the resource (object) or list (array).
  • pagination is present on list endpoints; cursor-based, max limit=250. Single-resource endpoints return null/false.
  • meta.request_id is the value to quote in any support ticket.
  • meta.cached tells you whether the edge served the response.

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4. Watch your headers

Every authenticated response carries rate-limit context: 
X-RateLimit-Limit: 60
X-RateLimit-Remaining: 59
X-RateLimit-Reset: 1714512000
When you exceed your per-minute or monthly budget, the API returns 429 Too Many Requests with a Retry-After header and an error body that names which limit was hit: 
{
  "error": {
    "code": "rate_limit_exceeded",
    "message": "Rate limit exceeded: 60 requests per minute on the free tier.",
    "request_id": "req_01H...",
    "docs_url": "https://docs.elestrals.com/errors/rate_limit_exceeded"
  }
}

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What’s next

Browse the reference

Every endpoint, parameter, and response shape.

Apply for Partner

Higher limits, bulk export, set-release webhooks.