export const metadata = {
  title: 'Quickstart',
  description:
    'This guide will get you all set up and ready to use the Protocol API. We’ll cover how to get started an API client and how to make your first API request.',
}

# Quickstart

This guide will get you all set up and ready to use the Protocol API. We'll cover how to get started using one of our API clients and how to make your first API request. We'll also look at where to go next to find all the information you need to take full advantage of our powerful REST API. {{ className: 'lead' }}

<Note>
  Before you can make requests to the Protocol API, you will need to grab your
  API key from your dashboard. You find it under [Settings &raquo; API](#).
</Note>

## Choose your client

Before making your first API request, you need to pick which API client you will use. In addition to good ol' cURL HTTP requests, Protocol offers clients for JavaScript, Python, and PHP. In the following example, you can see how to install each client.

<CodeGroup>

```bash {{ title: 'cURL' }}
# cURL is most likely already installed on your machine
curl --version
```

```bash {{ language: 'js' }}
# Install the Protocol JavaScript SDK
npm install @example/protocol-api --save
```

```bash {{ language: 'python' }}
# Install the Protocol Python SDK
pip install protocol_api
```

```bash {{ language: 'php' }}
# Install the Protocol PHP SDK
composer require protocol/sdk
```

</CodeGroup>

<div className="not-prose">
  <Button href="/sdks" variant="text" arrow="right">
    <>Check out our list of first-party SDKs</>
  </Button>
</div>

## Making your first API request

After picking your preferred client, you are ready to make your first call to the Protocol API. Below, you can see how to send a GET request to the Conversations endpoint to get a list of all your conversations. In the cURL example, results are limited to ten conversations, the default page length for each client.

<CodeGroup tag="GET" label="/v1/conversations">

```bash {{ title: 'cURL' }}
curl -G https://api.protocol.chat/v1/conversations \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer {token}" \
  -d limit=10
```

```js
import ApiClient from '@example/protocol-api'

const client = new ApiClient(token)

await client.conversations.list()
```

```python
from protocol_api import ApiClient

client = ApiClient(token)

client.conversations.list()
```

```php
$client = new \Protocol\ApiClient($token);

$client->conversations->list();
```

</CodeGroup>

<div className="not-prose">
  <Button href="/conversations" variant="text" arrow="right">
    <>Read the docs for the Conversations endpoint</>
  </Button>
</div>

## What's next?

Great, you're now set up with an API client and have made your first request to the API. Here are a few links that might be handy as you venture further into the Protocol API:

- [Grab your API key from the Protocol dashboard](#)
- [Check out the Conversations endpoint](/conversations)
- [Learn about the different error messages in Protocol](/errors)