We’re happy to announce that last night, the first piece of the Zen API went live. You can use it to push and pull information between Zen and your own applications. Our plan is to roll the API out in phases, and this first step represents only the beginning of the functionality that the API will provide.

To use the Zen API, you need to generate an API key. This key must be supplied with every request – it’s essentially your password, but only for API requests. You can also optionally enable the Developer Console, which lets you interact with the API in a testing environment.

Here’s how to get started:

1. Go to your dashboard, and click Settings.
2. Choose the Developer tab.
3. Check Enable Developer Console.
4. Click New API Key. Zen will generate and display a new API key. Give it a description (just for your reference).
5. Click Save Changes.
6. Click Dashboard, and you will see the Developer Console link on the navigation bar.

Here’s what the developer tab looks like:

Once you have access to the developer console, head over to the new Zen documentation wiki to learn what requests are available, and how to structure them. The documentation is admittedly a bit messy at the moment, but just as we’re working to improve the API gradually, the documentation will also improve over time. :)

For a limited time, the API is open to all users (including those with free accounts), but eventually it will be restricted to paid accounts only.

So, go start tinkering! As always, we’re very interested in any feedback that you have. Please let us know if you have ideas for improving the API, and of course, if you use it to build something cool, we’d like to know that as well!