Spider Impact has an API that lets other software read and change information across nearly the whole application, including datasets, scorecards, initiatives, Forms, dashboards, charts, reports, imports, exports, files, Apps, alerts, and administration.

API Tokens

Everything that uses the Spider Impact API needs an API token. To manage these API tokens, go to the API Access screen in administration. The same screen also lists the AI tools people have connected to Spider Impact; see Connecting ChatGPT, Claude, and Copilot to Spider Impact.

When you click “Create API Token” it shows this dialog where you give your new API token a name. It’s a good idea to call it something related to the computer or software that will be using it.

You now have a new API token, and anyone who uses it will interact with Spider Impact as the user you’re logged in as right now. Copy the API token by clicking on the Copy link on the right. The token has your permissions, so it can see and change exactly what you can, and nothing more.

Interactive API Documentation

You'll find an “interactive API documentation” link in the blue banner at the top of the API Access screen, and in the blue instructions in the last screenshot. When you click this, you’ll be taken to the full API documentation that is part of your installation of Spider Impact. This is accessible at a URL like:
https://yourserver.example.com/api-docs

This documentation page lists every endpoint, grouped by the part of Spider Impact it belongs to, and explains how to communicate with Spider Impact’s API. It also allows you to test the API by interacting with your real data. To start, click the green “Authorize” button.

Then paste in your API Token and click Authorize.

Finally click Close.

Now, when you’re viewing the API documentation you’ll be able to click the “Try it out” buttons.

These allow you to directly interact with your real data. In this example we’ve chosen to view information about a specific scorecard, and then clicked the Execute button. The interactive documentation not only shows you the results from the server, but it also shows you the exact request you need to make to the Spider Impact API to get that same data.

Using the API with AI Tools and Code Generators

Behind the interactive documentation is a single file that describes the entire API in the standard OpenAPI format. It's at a URL like https://yourserver.example.com/api-docs/spec.json. Give that URL to an AI agent or a code generator, and it has everything it needs to use the API correctly. Reading the file doesn't require a login, but every API request still needs an API token. To use Spider Impact from ChatGPT, Claude, or Microsoft 365 Copilot, you don't need the API or a token at all; see Connecting ChatGPT, Claude, and Copilot to Spider Impact.