> ## Knowledge Base Index
> Fetch the complete knowledge base index at: https://help.cloudbridal.com/sitemap.xml
> Use this file to discover available pages before exploring further.
> Pure-Markdown content can be obtained by appending a '.md' suffix to the content URLs listed in the sitemap (without the trailing slash).

# API Access

# API Access

**_Plan Requirement_**: Basic and up, plus the API Access add-on — the sandbox is free

API Access lets a developer connect outside tools — your own website, a chatbot, a reporting spreadsheet, another system you already run — straight to your store's data. You create a key, tick the permissions that tool needs, and hand the key to whoever is building the integration.

This is a developer feature. You don't need to write any code yourself, but someone does: your web developer, the company behind the tool you're connecting, or a freelancer.

## What the API Can Do

Give this list to whoever is building your integration:

- **Appointments and availability** — read and write, including checking open slots and booking
- **Customers and events** — read and write
- **Inventory, orders and payments** — read only. There is no way to take a payment, issue a refund or edit an order through the API
- **Messages** — send your store's own emails and texts, and client portal invitations, subject to the customer's consent settings
- **Webhooks** — have CloudBridal notify another system the moment something changes, instead of it repeatedly asking

The full developer reference — endpoints, examples and a place to try calls — is linked from the API Access screen. Open it from there and hand the link to whoever is building for you.

## Finding the API Access Screen

1. Go to [Settings > Integrations](https://go.cloudbridal.com/settings/integrations)
2. Find the **API Access** card and open it

The screen has four sections: **Sandbox**, **API Keys**, **Activity** and **Webhooks**.

## Trying It Free in the Sandbox

Switching API Access on — before buying anything — creates a **sandbox**: a separate practice account called "Your Shop (Sandbox)" where your developer can build and test the whole integration at no cost. It is completely isolated from your live store, so nothing done in one affects the other.

- It appears in the store switcher at the top of the screen, under a **Practice** heading, and shows an orange banner across the top so nobody mistakes it for the real thing
- **Nothing in the sandbox emails or texts a real customer.** Webhooks still fire, so the developer can test those
- API keys and webhooks created inside the sandbox work straight away. Keys against your real store need the paid add-on
- It never expires

### What's in the Sandbox

The sandbox starts with a copy of your store-wide settings, such as your business address, time zone, currency, tax rates and customer types. Your contact details, texting credentials and payment credentials are left out, and payments are switched off.

Nothing else is copied — not your appointment types, rooms and their schedules, store closed dates, staff, inventory, customers or orders. Instead, the sandbox comes with one sample appointment type ("Consultation") and one room ("Fitting room", open Monday to Saturday, 10am–5pm) so there's something to book against right away. Add any other appointment types, rooms or inventory items your developer needs to test with, the same way you would in your live store.

Nothing moves from the sandbox to your live store either. When you go live, keys and webhooks are created again in the live store.

### Sandbox Card Buttons

- **Copy settings from this store** — replaces the sandbox's settings with your live store's current ones. Only settings are copied; appointment types, rooms, inventory and anything else in the sandbox are left as they are
- **Start over** — retires the sandbox along with its keys and creates a fresh one from your live store's current settings. Your live store is untouched

To leave the sandbox, use the store switcher or the **Back to live store** button in the banner.

## Going Live

Working against your real store data requires the paid API Access add-on.

- **$50 a month** in the US, **£38 a month plus VAT** in the UK, **CA$70 a month** in Canada, **AU$75 a month** in Australia
- It's billed on your existing CloudBridal subscription as an extra line on the same invoice, prorated if you add it partway through a billing cycle
- Any paid plan can add it. Switching API Access on, purchasing it and turning it off all require the **Settings > Manage** permission on your role — see [Staff Members & Roles](https://help.cloudbridal.com/en/article/staff-members-roles-atrx7g/)
- It can't be purchased on a trial that hasn't been verified yet, or on a subscription already scheduled to cancel — undo the scheduled cancellation first, then purchase

## API Keys

A key is what an outside tool uses to reach your store. Each one carries only the permissions you tick.

To create one:

1. Click **Create API Key**
2. Give it a name you'll recognise later, such as "Website chatbot" — the name appears beside everything that key does in your activity history
3. Tick the permissions that tool actually needs, and nothing more
4. Click **Create Key**

The full key is shown **once**, on the screen right after you create it, along with a ready-to-run test command your developer can paste to confirm it works. Copy it then; it can't be shown again. If it's lost, revoke the key and create a new one.

After that:

- **Editing permissions** doesn't change the key itself — whatever is using it keeps working with the permissions you leave ticked
- **Revoking** a key cuts off whatever is using it immediately and can't be undone. Revoked keys stay in the list, under a **Revoked** tab, as a record of what they did
- A store can have up to **10 active keys**. Revoke one you no longer use before creating another

||| **⚠️** Treat a key like a password. It must never be pasted into your website's code, an app, or anything else a visitor's browser can read — it belongs on a server your developer controls.

## Activity

The Activity section is where you check what has actually been happening:

- **API calls coming in**, kept for 7 days
- **Webhook deliveries going out**, kept for 30 days

Filter either list by a particular key or webhook, or tick **Failed only** to see just the problems. Every API response also carries a request id — if you contact support about a specific call, quoting that id identifies it exactly.

## Webhooks

Instead of another system repeatedly asking CloudBridal whether anything has changed, a webhook has CloudBridal tell it. Your developer supplies an https address and picks which events it should receive — appointments, customers, orders, payments and inventory each have their own events.

Adding one:

1. In the **Webhooks** section, add the https address deliveries should go to
2. Tick the events that address should receive
3. A **signing secret** is shown once when you save. Copy it — your developer's system uses it to confirm a delivery genuinely came from CloudBridal. **New Secret** issues a replacement later if it's ever exposed

Each endpoint in the list offers:

- **Send Test** — sends a sample delivery so your developer can confirm their end is listening
- **History** — every event sent to that address, what their system answered, and the exact message that was sent
- **Replay** — sends a past event again, useful after a fix on their end

If a delivery fails, CloudBridal retries it automatically — five attempts over roughly seven and a half minutes. After **20 events in a row** fail, the endpoint switches itself off so a dead address doesn't keep collecting failures; it shows as **Switched off** with a **Turn Back On** button once the problem is fixed.

The address of an endpoint can't be edited, because the signing secret was issued for that specific receiver. A different address is a new endpoint. Up to **10 endpoints** per store.

## Turning It Off

Disabling the API Access plugin stops the billing and the access at the same time: existing keys stop working, webhooks stop being delivered, and the sandbox disappears from the store switcher. If the add-on lapses because a payment didn't go through, the screen shows a **Payment Required** state until billing is sorted out.

## Getting Help

CloudBridal supports **the API itself**: an endpoint not behaving as the reference describes, a webhook that didn't deliver, a problem with a key or its permissions, or help reading the activity log. Contact support the usual way and quote the request id.

We don't build or debug your integration, and we don't offer developer consulting. The code that calls the API is your developer's work, and questions about it go to them. If a key ever causes trouble for other stores, we may narrow its permissions or revoke it; your staff's access to CloudBridal is never affected.

## Related Documentation

- [Managing Your Subscription](https://help.cloudbridal.com/en/article/managing-your-subscription-1hn3v3s/)
- [Linking Multiple Stores](https://help.cloudbridal.com/en/article/linking-multiple-stores-1mguj50/)
- [Embedding CloudBridal on Your Website](https://help.cloudbridal.com/en/article/embedding-on-your-website-16eggfi/)
- [API Changelog](https://help.cloudbridal.com/en/article/api-changelog-bjjj7s/) — what changed in the API and when, for whoever builds your integration