For AI agents: the complete documentation index is available at https://docs.snaptrade.com/llms.txt, and the full documentation text is available at https://docs.snaptrade.com/llms-full.txt. Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending .md to the URL path.
logo
Book A Demo
Book A Demo
View as Markdown
Guides

Getting Started with SnapTrade

This guide will help you connect a brokerage account, retrieve account data, and, where enabled, place a trade. Start by choosing the customer model that matches who will use the integration.

For definitions used throughout this guide, see Terminology. For more detail about the two customer models, see SnapTrade Personal vs Commercial and Authentication Methods.

The interactive Getting Started Demo currently demonstrates the Commercial flow.

Choose a Customer Model

Personal users can share their connected brokerage data with OAuth-enabled apps or access it directly with a Personal API key. Commercial integrations use an API key to manage brokerage accounts for their end users.

PersonalCommercial
Use whenYou are accessing your own brokerage accountsYour application manages brokerage accounts for its end users
Access methodsOAuth for sharing data, or a Personal API key for direct accessA Commercial API key
User identityYour signed-in SnapTrade account identifies youEach app user has a SnapTrade userId and userSecret
User registrationNot requiredRequired before connecting a brokerage
TradingAvailable through Personal API keys where enabled; OAuth is currently read-onlyAvailable for app users where enabled
WebhooksAvailable for Personal API keysAvailable

SnapTrade SDKs

We recommend using a SnapTrade SDK. If you call the API directly, follow Request Signatures to sign each request.

LanguageSDK Link
Pythonhttps://pypi.org/project/snaptrade-python-sdk
TypeScripthttps://www.npmjs.com/package/snaptrade-typescript-sdk
Javahttps://central.sonatype.com/artifact/com.snaptrade/snaptrade-java-sdk
Rubyhttps://rubygems.org/gems/snaptrade
C#https://nuget.org/packages/SnapTrade.Net
PHPhttps://packagist.org/packages/konfig/snaptrade-php-sdk
Gohttps://pkg.go.dev/github.com/passiv/snaptrade-sdks/sdks/go

Personal Quickstart

Use this path when you are connecting and managing your own brokerage accounts.

1. Create a Personal Account

  1. Create a Personal account in the SnapTrade Dashboard.
  2. Verify your email.

2. Choose How to Access Your Data

Most Personal users connect their brokerage accounts in the SnapTrade Dashboard and share that data with apps through OAuth. You can also create a Personal API key when you want to access your data programmatically.

Share Your Data Through OAuth

  1. Connect and manage your brokerage accounts in the SnapTrade Dashboard.
  2. In an OAuth-enabled app or AI assistant, choose SnapTrade as a data source.
  3. Sign in to SnapTrade and approve the app's requested read access.

The app receives a scoped OAuth token instead of your Personal API credentials. Do not give an app your consumerKey. OAuth currently supports reading account data and managing connections, but it does not support trading.

To share data with an AI assistant, see the SnapTrade MCP Server. Developers building an app that receives shared data should see Build an OAuth App.

Access Your Data With a Personal API Key

  1. Enable two-factor authentication in the SnapTrade Dashboard.
  2. Create your Personal API key from the API Key page.
  3. Store the clientId and consumerKey securely.

Your Personal API key represents you. Do not register a separate SnapTrade user, and do not send a userId or userSecret in Personal API requests.

3. Connect a Brokerage With Your API Key

If you already connected your brokerage account in the Dashboard, you can skip this step. To add another connection programmatically:

  1. Open and select Personal API Key authentication.
  2. Enter your Personal clientId and consumerKey. Leave userId and userSecret unset.
  3. If you intend to trade, set connectionType to trade-if-available. The default read connection type supports data access only.
  4. Send the request and open the returned Connection Portal URL.
  5. Complete the Connection Portal flow for your brokerage.

A connection represents a linked set of brokerage credentials. Completing the portal flow makes the brokerage accounts under that connection available through SnapTrade.

For more ways to open and configure the portal, see Methods to Integrate the Connection Portal into Your Application.

4. Retrieve Accounts and Positions

  1. Call using Personal API Key authentication to list your accounts.
  2. Choose the accountId for the account you want to inspect.
  3. Call with that accountId.

You can also retrieve balances with and orders with .

5. Place an Equity Trade

Personal users can trade their own accounts when trading is enabled for the API key, brokerage, connection, and account.

  1. Build the order using the account ID and the brokerage ticker in the symbol field.
  2. Validate the order details and confirm them before submission.
  3. Call to submit the order to the brokerage.

Use Personal API Key authentication throughout and continue to omit userId and userSecret.

For order types, brokerage support, and other asset classes, see Trading with SnapTrade.

Personal Next Steps

Back to customer models

Commercial Quickstart

Use this path when you are building an application that manages brokerage connections for its own end users.

1. Create a Commercial API Key

  1. Create a Commercial account in the SnapTrade Dashboard.
  2. Verify your email.
  3. Enable two-factor authentication.
  4. Create a test API key from the API Key page.
  5. When you are ready for production, complete the required approval and billing steps in the Dashboard and create a production key.
  6. Store the clientId and consumerKey on a secure backend.

For plan limits and production requirements, see Billing.

2. Register a SnapTrade User

A Commercial integration creates one SnapTrade user for each end user in the application.

  1. Call with a stable, immutable userId from your system. Avoid using an email address.
  2. Store the returned userSecret securely. SnapTrade returns it only when the user is registered.

The userId and userSecret identify this app user in subsequent user-scoped requests.

3. Connect a Brokerage

  1. Call using Commercial API Key authentication.
  2. Provide the app user's userId and userSecret.
  3. If the user intends to trade, set connectionType to trade-if-available. The default read connection type supports data access only.
  4. Open the returned Connection Portal URL and send the end user through the portal flow.

After the user completes the flow, the connection and its brokerage accounts are available through SnapTrade.

For more ways to open and configure the portal, see Methods to Integrate the Connection Portal into Your Application.

4. Retrieve Accounts and Positions

  1. Call with the user's userId and userSecret.
  2. Choose the accountId for the account you want to inspect.
  3. Call with the accountId, userId, and userSecret.

You can also retrieve balances with and orders with .

5. Place an Equity Trade

Commercial integrations can trade when trading is enabled for the API key, brokerage, connection, and account.

  1. Build the order using the account ID and the brokerage ticker in the symbol field.
  2. Validate the order details in your application and have the end user confirm them.
  3. Call to submit the order to the brokerage.

Include the user's userId and userSecret in each user-scoped request.

For order types, brokerage support, and other asset classes, see Trading with SnapTrade.

Commercial Next Steps

Back to customer models

For troubleshooting, see the FAQ. If you still need help, contact us through Discord.

Edit this page
Made with Konfig