---
title: "Getting started"
description: "Introduces the Mindtickle API families and the standards for its standard REST APIs, including base URLs, authentication, rate limits, and status codes."
contentType: "overview"
url: "https://developer.mindtickle.com/docs/getting-started/"
---

Mindtickle offers a set of public REST APIs that let you interact programmatically with the platform to automate tasks, integrate with external systems, and manage data. This category maps the API families and introduces the technical standards for the standard REST APIs. Follow the separate access guidance for Call AI and Reporting.

## Prerequisites and shared context

- **Credentials:** An API key, a secret key, and your learning site URL, available in the Mindtickle admin site. See [Authentication](/docs/getting-started/authentication-and-setup/#authentication).
- **Access token:** Exchange your credentials for a Bearer token at `POST /services/data/auth_token`, then send it in the `Authorization` header of every request. Tokens are typically valid for 60 minutes; use the expiration information returned by the authentication endpoint.
- **Base URL:** The standard host or the API3 host, depending on the API and the region that hosts your account. See [Base URLs](/docs/getting-started/authentication-and-setup/#base-urls).
- **Data format:** JSON for request bodies and responses, with UTF-8 character support.
- **Rate limits and status codes:** Platform defaults and API-specific exceptions. See [Rate limits](/docs/getting-started/authentication-and-setup/#rate-limits) and [Status codes](/docs/getting-started/authentication-and-setup/#status-codes).

:::note
These standards do not apply to the [Reporting API](/docs/reporting/), which is built on OData, or to [Call AI](/docs/call-ai/), which uses GraphQL with its own OAuth 2.0 flow.
:::

## In this category

- [API overview](/docs/getting-started/api-overview/): the Mindtickle API families and what each one does.
- [Authentication and setup](/docs/getting-started/authentication-and-setup/): base URLs, authentication, data format, rate limits, and status codes for the public REST APIs.

## Related

- [Reporting](/docs/reporting/): the OData Reporting API, which uses its own access model.
- [Call AI](/docs/call-ai/): conversation intelligence over GraphQL, with its own authentication flow.