Quickstart

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1. API keys

Let’s test out running Vital locally by cloning the Quickstart app.

To create a team and get your API keys, you first need to sign up for a Vital account in the Dashboard.

Once registered, you can create a team by hovering over your username at the bottom of the Dashboard sidebar. A team is associated with a region (either EU or US), the region dictates where data is stored. You can learn more at regions.

To create your API keys, go to the configuration section of the Dashboard. For each region, you’ll have access to two environments Sandbox and Production. We’ll start in the Sandbox environment, so create a new Sandbox API key.

Environment
sandbox	Testing, Connect up to 10 live users	https://api.sandbox.tryvital.io
production	Live environment to use with real customers	https://api.tryvital.io

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2. Running Quickstart locally

Once you have your API keys, it’s time to run the Vital Quickstart locally! The instructions below will guide you through the process of cloning the Quickstart repository, customizing the .env file with your own Vital API_KEY and finally, building and running the app.

Open a new shell and start the frontend app. Your app will be running at http://localhost:3000.

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3. Creating your first User

When retrieving data or connecting devices, Vital will require a user_id as input. A user_id is a unique representation that we hold for a user. It allows you to fetch data for that user. To create a user, you need to pass an unique id (client_user_id). This represents the user in your system. Our recommendation is to store the Vital user_id in your db against the user row.

Enter a new client_user_id and tap Create:

This can also be achieved via the API as follows.

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4. Connecting a source

A source, at Vital, is a medical device, wearable, or lab. It is a source of information for health data. To connect a source tap the connect button, this will launch the Vital Link Widget for that user.

Once you have entered your credentials and moved to the next screen, you have connected your first source! You can now make API calls to retrieve data for that Source.

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How it works

As you might have noticed, you use both a server and a client-side component to access the Vital APIs. A more detailed explanation on how linking works can be found in link flow

The first step is to create a new link_token by making a /link/token request and passing in the required configuration. This link_token is a short lived, one-time use token that authenticates your app with Vital Link, our frontend module.

Once you have a link_token, you can use it to initialize Link. Link is a drop-in client-side module available for web, iOS, and Android that handles the authentication process. The Quickstart uses Link on the web, which is a pure JavaScript integration that you trigger via your own client-side code.

This is what your users see to connect their medical device or wearables:

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5. Making your first API request

We can now explore what happens when you press the analyze button in the Quickstart to make an API call. As an example, we’ll look at the Quickstart’s call to /summary/sleep, which retrieves sleep summary data for a user. The request is simple and requires the Vital user_id, start_date and end_date.

Getting user sleep data

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6. SDK’s and Libraries

We offer different SDKs so you can start building your app right away:

vital-python	Python library for calling Vital API on your backend
vital-link	React Library for initializing link
vital-node	Vital Node Client
vital-ios	Vital iOS Client
Java	Soon to be added
Go	Soon to be added

You can also download our API collection or by installing postman first and clicking on the below button.

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Next Steps

Congratulations, you have completed the Vital Quickstart!

There are a few directions you can go in now:

• Vital Link
• Vital SDKs
• Vital Webhooks