Getting started

The BudgetBakers partner platform gives your product bank data: your users connect their bank accounts through a hosted flow, and you read accounts and transactions over a REST API — with signed webhooks telling you when things happen. This page takes you from zero to your first authenticated API call.

1. Create your partner account

Register in the partner portal (Google sign-in). Registration is instant and provisions sandbox access immediately — no card, no business verification. Those come later, only when you go live.

2. Get your sandbox API key

In the portal, open API keys and create a sandbox key. The full key — bb_test_ followed by 32 characters — is shown exactly once at creation; store it in your secret manager. Only a fingerprint is kept on our side, so a lost key means minting a new one (keys rotate with zero downtime — see Authentication).

3. Make your first call

Every request authenticates with the X-Api-Key header. Ask the API who you are:

curl https://partner.bbapi.io/v1/partner/config \
  -H "X-Api-Key: {{BB_API_KEY}}"

{
  "partnerId": "2f5a1c3e-9b7d-4e21-a6c8-0d4f5e6a7b8c",
  "name": "Acme Lending",
  "mode": "sandbox",
  "capabilities": { "refresh": true, "reconnect": true, "enrichment": false }
}

capabilities is worth reading once at startup: calling a capability that is disabled for your plan returns 403 capability_disabled.

4. See the sandbox banks

curl https://partner.bbapi.io/v1/providers \
  -H "X-Api-Key: {{BB_API_KEY}}"

In sandbox mode you get the fictional *_xf providers (e.g. Sandbox Bank XF). They behave like real banks — OAuth screens, accounts, transactions, failure scenarios — but with test data and no real credentials.

Sandbox vs live

The mode is selected by the API key, nothing else:

Key prefix	Mode	Banks	Billing
bb_test_…	sandbox	fictional *_xf providers	free
bb_live_…	live	real banks	metered

Sandbox is a complete, permanent environment — keep using it for CI and staging after you go live. Live keys become available once the go-live checks in the portal pass (card verification, automated business check, terms acceptance); your code stays identical, only the key changes.

Pick your quickstart

Platform	Guide	What you build
Node.js / TypeScript	Quickstart	server integration with @budgetbakers/partner-sdk
Python	Quickstart	server integration with budgetbakers-partner-sdk
iOS (Swift)	Quickstart	launching the hosted flow with the BBConnect Link SDK
Android (Kotlin)	Quickstart	launching the hosted flow with the BBConnect Link SDK

The mobile Link SDKs handle only the connect flow hand-off — every mobile integration also needs one of the server quickstarts on your backend (API keys never ship inside an app).

Next steps

• The hosted connect flow — how sessions, redirects and connection states work.
• Authentication & API keys — key lifecycle, scoping, rate limits.
• Webhooks — signed events and how to verify them.
• Error handling — the error envelope and all machine codes.
• Go-live checklist — the gates and integration readiness.
• Downloads — SDK packages and the example integration.