Get API access

Use the Substy API at https://api.substy.ai from your own application or server. You need an API key created in Substy, for an agency you belong to.

Before you create a key

API access must be enabled for your agency. Your role must also allow Use personal API keys. Owner and Admin roles include this permission by default; your agency's actual role settings determine your access.

Keys are personal: each key acts as the user who created it, within one agency. It cannot access more creators or perform more actions than that user. Create a separate key for each application and agency. Organization-owned keys are not supported.

There is no paid-plan requirement for creating a key once your agency has access. Your agency's best active plan determines its shared rate limits; upgrading a plan does not by itself enable API access.

If API keys is missing or unavailable

Select the correct agency first. If API keys is missing, ask your agency owner to confirm that API access is available for that agency. If Create key is disabled, ask the owner to check your Use personal API keys permission.

Agency access is not a setting customers can enable themselves. If your agency does not have access, contact Substy through the support chat in the dashboard to ask about availability. Include your agency name and the integration you want to build. Access is subject to availability; creating an account or choosing a plan does not automatically activate it.

Create your key

Sign in to Substy with your own account and select your agency.
Open the application menu and select API keys. It is also available in Profile Settings → API keys when your agency has access.
Select Create key.
Check Agency, enter a descriptive Name, and choose an expiration under Expires: 30, 90, or 365 days.
Under Permissions, choose No access, Read, or Read and act for each category. For listing creators, set Creators to Read. Leave unrelated categories at No access.
Select Create key and copy the secret from API key created before selecting Done.

Substy shows the secret only once. Store it in your server's secret manager or local environment, never in browser code, source control, URLs, screenshots, or AI prompts. The key ID shown in the list is not the secret used for authentication.

Make your first request

Set SUBSTY_API_KEY securely in your environment, then run this from your terminal or server:

curl --fail-with-body 'https://api.substy.ai/v1/agencies' \
  --header "Authorization: Bearer $SUBSTY_API_KEY"

Use the agency identifier in the response's data for subsequent requests. Continue with Make your first request to list accessible creators. A successful sign-in to the dashboard does not replace the API key in this header.

Change or revoke access

To change a key's permissions or expiration, create a replacement with the settings you need. Update your application, verify a request, then revoke the old key.

In API keys, open the key's three-dot menu, select Revoke key, and confirm. Integrations using that key lose access immediately. If a secret is exposed, revoke it immediately and create a replacement. You can still revoke your own keys after losing the permission to create or use them.

Your current agency role and creator assignments apply to every request. Removing your agency membership or Use personal API keys permission blocks existing keys too.

Connecting an AI assistant instead?

REST integrations use the API key described here. MCP clients use browser sign-in and OAuth consent, with separate agency and category approval; do not paste a REST API key into an MCP sign-in flow. See API and MCP for client setup. An API key does not establish or verify an MCP connection.