API quickstart

There is no public Accolade API today. This article used to describe one, with its own API base-URL subdomain, a documentation subdomain and a pair of hourly rate limits. None of those hosts exist and neither do the limits. Our Acceptable Use Policy says the same thing, and this page has been corrected to match rather than left contradicting it.

What that means in practice

• /docs, /api-docs, /developers and /api/docs all return 404, and robots.txt disallows /api/.
• There is no published, versioned, externally authenticated endpoint. Nothing you write against a guessed URL will keep working.
• There are no official SDKs. Earlier versions of this page listed Python, Node and PHP SDKs plus community Ruby and Go libraries. They do not exist.

We would rather tell you this on the page you found in a search than have you scope a two-week integration around it.

What does exist

Setup → API & Integrations is a real module with real screens, and if you are on a plan that includes it you will see five tabs: Connected Services, Available, API Keys, Webhooks, Claude AI, plus Usage & Logs and Settings.

Under API Keys, + Generate New Key creates a key with a Key Name, an Environment, a Rate Limit, an Expiry and a set of permissions. The scopes are nominations:read, nominations:write, sponsors:read, sponsors:write, events:read, events:write, finance:read and admin. Keys can be revealed, copied, revoked and deleted.

Treat a key like a password: it is a bearer credential, so anyone holding it can use it. Generate a separate key per integration so you can revoke one without breaking the others, set an expiry, and give it the narrowest scopes that do the job — admin is rarely the right answer.

The Settings tab carries API Version, Default Rate Limit, Request Timeout, Max Payload Size, Auth Method, CORS Allowed Origins, HTTPS enforcement and request signing. Those are the controls that would govern an API, and they are configured ahead of one being published.

What to do instead, today

• Getting data out: every module has an Export, and Settings & Branding → Data & Privacy → Export All Data gives you the whole workspace. See Exporting and deleting your data.
• Getting data in: Import CSV on Nominations and Import Guest List on the Guest List cover the two bulk cases people usually want an API for.
• Embedding: the nomination form can be embedded rather than linked — Award Categories offers Copy Embed Code as an iFrame, a JavaScript snippet or raw HTML. The Judging Panel has an Embeddable Widget tab. Neither needs a key.

If you need an integration

Email support@accolade.live with what you are trying to connect and in which direction. If it is a scheduled export or an import from another system, that is often solvable now. If you need a live API, tell us — it is the demand that decides what gets built, and we would rather have a real requirement than a guess.

See also Webhooks, which is in the same state and says so.