> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.particle.pro/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Introduction

> Particle API reference — base URL, authentication, and machine-readable specs.

export const DashboardLink = ({children}) => {
  return <a href="https://platform.particle.pro/dashboard">{children}</a>;
};

## Base URL

All API endpoints are served from:

```
https://api.particle.pro
```

## Authentication

Every endpoint that returns user data requires an API key. Two header forms are accepted; `X-API-Key` is recommended.

### `X-API-Key` header (recommended)

```bash theme={"dark"}
curl https://api.particle.pro/v1/podcasts \
  -H "X-API-Key: $PARTICLE_API_KEY"
```

### `Authorization: Bearer` header

Equivalent in every way; useful when you're routing through middleware that already understands bearer tokens.

```bash theme={"dark"}
curl https://api.particle.pro/v1/podcasts \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $PARTICLE_API_KEY"
```

The `/v1/embed/*` endpoints are public and intentionally do not require authentication.

## Get an API key

1. Sign up or log in at the <DashboardLink>API Dashboard</DashboardLink>
2. Create an organization and project
3. Open the project's **API Keys** section
4. Click **Create API Key** and copy the key — it won't be shown again

## Machine-readable resources

For automated integrations and AI-assisted development:

| Resource            | URL                                                         | Use it for                                                |
| ------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------- |
| Public OpenAPI spec | [`/openapi.json`](/openapi.json)                            | Code generation, schema validation, contract testing      |
| `llms.txt`          | [`/llms.txt`](https://docs.particle.pro/llms.txt)           | Compact index of every doc page for LLM context           |
| `llms-full.txt`     | [`/llms-full.txt`](https://docs.particle.pro/llms-full.txt) | Full-text concatenation of every guide for deep retrieval |

The OpenAPI spec is auto-generated from the server source on every release and the page-level reference that follows is rendered directly from it. It is the authoritative reference for endpoint structure; for individual field semantics, defer to the live API response when the two disagree (occasional drift can happen between schema annotations and serialized values).

## Conventions

See [Concepts](/concepts) for the rules every endpoint follows: ID/slug resolution, cursor pagination, error envelope, and pricing weight.