---
title: "Quickstart"
description: "Make a first call, read a response, and learn how errors and keys work."
url: https://developer.tendralhealth.com/docs/quickstart
---

# Quickstart

Make one call, read the response, and learn how errors and keys work. It takes five minutes and needs no key.

## 1. Call the health endpoint

`GET /v1/health` needs no key. It tells you the API is reachable from where your code runs.

```bash curl
curl -i https://api.tendralhealth.com/v1/health
```

```typescript Node
const res = await fetch('https://api.tendralhealth.com/v1/health')
console.log(res.status, await res.json())
```

```python Python
import httpx

res = httpx.get("https://api.tendralhealth.com/v1/health")
print(res.status_code, res.json())
```

## 2. Read the response

A reachable API answers `200` with three fields:

```json Response
{
  "status": "ok",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "timestamp": "2026-10-07T14:02:11.000Z"
}
```

- `status` is `ok` when the API is up.
- `version` is the API build that answered.
- `timestamp` is the server's clock, in UTC, as ISO 8601.

## 3. Handle errors

Authenticated endpoints answer every failure with one envelope. Branch on `error.type`, show `error.message` in your logs, and quote `error.request_id` when you write to us. Every `error.code` links to its own entry on the [Errors](/docs/errors) page through `error.doc_url`.

## 4. Get an API key

Every other endpoint needs a key (`Authorization: Bearer tk_live_…`). Keys are issued to organizations during onboarding; there is no self-serve key yet. [Request access](https://tendralhealth.com/contact) and tell us what you want to build.

If your organization already has a key, [sign in to your partner docs](/partner/sign-in) with it to see the endpoints it can call.