Quickstart

This guide gets you from "I have no idea what this API does" to "I just ordered a wheel of aged Gouda programmatically" in about three minutes. The other two minutes are for eating the Gouda.

Prerequisites

You'll need:

• An HTTP client (curl, Postman, your browser's dev tools, a trained carrier pigeon with REST knowledge)
• A free Cheese Store developer account
• A basic understanding of JSON (if {"cheese": "good"} makes sense to you, you're set)

1. Get your API key

Sign up at cheesy.sourcey.com/developers. Your API key appears on the dashboard immediately. It looks like this:

sk_live_cheddar_4a7b2c9d8e1f...

Yes, all our API keys contain cheese puns. No, this is not configurable.

2. Make your first request

Let's find some cheese. Open your terminal and run:

curl -s 'https://cheesy.sourcey.com/v2/cheeses?limit=3' \
  -H 'Authorization: Bearer sk_live_your_key_here' | python -m json.tool

You should get back something like:

{
  "items": [
    {
      "id": "aged-gouda-beemster",
      "name": "Beemster X-O",
      "origin": "Noord-Holland, Netherlands",
      "milk": "cow",
      "texture": "hard",
      "aged_weeks": 130,
      "tasting_notes": "Butterscotch, caramel, crystalline crunch. The kind of cheese that makes you question all your previous cheese choices.",
      "stinkiness_rating": 3,
      "price_per_kg": 42.50,
      "in_stock": true
    }
  ],
  "total": 247,
  "hasMore": true,
  "nextCursor": "eyJpZCI6M30="
}

Congratulations. You've just queried a cheese database. Your CS degree is finally paying off.

3. Place a test order

Switch to sandbox mode (just use the sandbox URL) and place an order:

curl -X POST 'https://sandbox.cheesy.sourcey.com/v2/orders' \
  -H 'Authorization: Bearer sk_live_your_key_here' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{
    "items": [
      { "cheeseId": "aged-gouda-beemster", "quantity_kg": 0.5 }
    ],
    "shipping": {
      "method": "temperature_controlled",
      "address": {
        "line1": "42 Fromage Lane",
        "city": "Cheesington",
        "country": "GB"
      }
    }
  }'

The sandbox doesn't ship real cheese (we tried, the legal team said no), but the order lifecycle is identical to production.

4. Explore the API reference

Head to the API Reference to see every endpoint, request schema, and response format. Each endpoint includes auto-generated code samples in cURL, JavaScript, and Python.

Next steps