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Getting Started
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Getting Started Guide

This comprehensive guide will walk you through setting up and using our APIs from scratch.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, make sure you have:

  • A modern web browser
  • Basic knowledge of HTTP requests
  • Your preferred programming language and tools
  • A text editor or IDE
Congruit Onboarding process

Account Setup

When you are ready for onboarding, we will supply you with credentials to access our services.

Making Your First Request

Bearer Token Authentication

All API requests require a bearer token in the Authorization header:

curl -H "Authorization: Bearer BEARER_TOKEN" \
     https://api.congruitcredit.com/v1/tokens/health

See the Authentication Guide for full details.

Response Format

exchange API for furnishing ACH records and tradelines have responses that follow this structure:

{
  "report": {
    "transactionId": "string",
    "receivedAt": "2019-08-24T14:15:22Z",
    "results": { … }
  }
}

evaluation API credit/fraud inquiry responses follow this structure:

{
  "report": {
    "transactionId": "string",
    "receivedAt": "2019-08-24T14:15:22Z",
    "results": { … },
    "errors": [ … ],
    "consumerAlerts": [ … ]
  }
}

Versioning

Congruit uses versioned API paths so that new features can be made available without compromising existing services and support an orderly upgrade path. We will notify customers as new API versions become available.

Common Error Codes

CodeMeaningAction
400Bad RequestCheck your request parameters
401UnauthorizedVerify your bearer token
403ForbiddenCheck your permissions
404Not FoundVerify the endpoint URL
422UnprocessibleCheck your request parameters
429Rate LimitedWait and retry
500Server ErrorContact support

Security

  • Never commit API credentials to version control
  • Use environment variables for API credentials
  • Use HTTPS for all requests
  • Validate all inputs before sending

Sandbox

You must develop your integration against our Sandbox URLs before being approved for Production credentials. Be aware that you will have a different sets of credentials for each environment.

We deploy the same service to both Sandbox and Production so the behavior you see will be exactly the same. However, there is no consumer production data in Sandbox. All consumer data in Sandbox is mocked.

Sandbox root URL: https://api.sandbox.congruitcredit.com/

Production root URL: https://api.congruitcredit.com/

Testing

Workhorse API calls against Sandbox are evaluated against completely separate databases of resources than production. Aside from that, the Sandbox environment behaves exactly the same as Production and the same codebase is deployed in both.

To test your API calls in Sandbox, use these test details:

Test ItemDescription
required
explanIdyour Account Manager will set up your first Explan and share the ID with you.
phoneNumberuse any valid 10-digit phone number. Or use ours! 727 606 4841 This is a string field that will be parsed for validation, so dashes may be included. It just needs to be a valid number, not necessarily assigned to someone.
nameuse any random name here - but not an obviously fake name (Mickey Mouse) as these will fail validation.
addressuse any random real address or it will fail validation. Or use ours! 1703 N McMullen Booth Road, #207 Safety Harbor, FL 34695
optional
ipAddressany address in dot format
governmentIdcurrently the only ID supported is SSN - use a random but valid SSN

🔒 It is important you never submit real consumer identities to our Sandbox. Not even your own. Always use random but valid data items to construct your consumer details.

Pinning and Test Data

Both Production and Sandbox attempt to pin the consumer before executing any FCRA-actionable products (see Credit and Fraud). Non-FCRA-actionable products do not require pinning. Pinning failure will result in returning an error message.

Pinning involves a weighted match score on provided elements of the consumer's identity. In Sandbox, as long as there is sufficient identity elements provided, we will almost always successfully pin the consumer.

Here is a file of rich, but fake, consumer identities suitable for Sandbox that will successfully pin. Ignore the id column.

good_test_scenarios.csv

Data from External Providers

Congruit products sometimes include real time calls to external data providers. We do not call those providers in Sandbox. Instead any data in the response is mocked. For this reason, Sandbox performance is typically faster than Production for those products.

Refresh

We refresh (wipe out) our Sandbox databases periodically. As you would expect in production, the submission of data items in one API will affect the the results of the next API call. You are submitting credit inquiries against the consumer identities you are creating and testing. In addition, other Congruit customers are also hitting Sandbox so the specifics of each result is never predictable in advance. However, the format and structure of the responses will always remain invarient unless you move to a new version of the API call.

Next Steps

Now that you're set up, explore:

Need Help?

API Documentation

Authentication