API Documentation

This page is meant for developers, vendors, and IT administrators to understand how to generate the bearer token to access our API to get/create/update shortlinks.

Bearer Token & API Key Generation

Bearer authentication (also called token authentication) is an HTTP authentication scheme that involves security tokens called bearer tokens. GoGovSG uses bearer authentication.

To generate the token, click on "API Integration" in the navigation bar. From there, click on Generate API key and copy the token. Use this key to start using GoGovSG's API.

Keep the bearer token safe: You should not share the bearer token with anyone. Use services like 1Password to store it.

Authentication

GoGovSG's API uses APIKey for authentication. User can view and manage API Keys in Go API Dashboard.

Staging secret keys will have test_v1_version prefix.

Production secret keys will have live_v1_version prefix.

Authentication to the API is performed via bearer auth.

curl --location --request POST 'https://go.gov.sg/api/v1/urls' \
--header 'Authorization: Bearer live_v1_YOUR_API_KEY'

All API requests must be made over HTTPS. Calls made over plain HTTP will fail and requests without authentication will also fail.

Errors

Go API uses conventional API Error to indicate the success or failure of an API request.

Status Codes	Description
200 - OK	Everything worked as expected.
400 - Bad Request	The request was unacceptable, often due to missing a required parameter.
401 - Unauthorized	No valid API key provided.
402 - Request Failed	The parameters were valid but the request failed.
404 - Not Found	The requested resource doesn't exist.
429 - Too Many Requests	Too many requests hit the API too quickly. We recommend an exponential backoff of your requests.
500, 502, 503, 504 - Server Errors	Something went wrong on GoGovSG's API end.

{
  "message": "Unauthorized"
}

Rate Limits

GoGovSG supports a default rate limit of 5 requests per second for each user. If you require higher rate limits, please write to us at [e-mail] with more details.

If you have exceeded your rate limit, your incoming requests will be blocked for 10 seconds as a cooling off period. We recommend throttling your requests and implementing exponential backoff for retries to ensure that your requests can be accepted.

Endpoints

Environment	Endpoint
Production	https://go.gov.sg/api/
Staging	https://staging.go.gov.sg/api/

Get Urls

GET /v1/urls?...

Request Query Parameters:

Parameter	Type	Default value	Required?
limit	number	1000	No, optional
offset	number	0	No, optional
searchText	string	nil	No, optional
state	enum (”ACTIVE”, “INACTIVE”)	nil	No, optional
orderBy	enum (”createdAt”, “clicks”)	createdAt	No, optional
sortDirection	enum (”desc”, “asc”)	desc	No, optional
isFile	boolean	nil	No, optional

Note: Max values for limit = 1000

Returns:

{
  "urls": [
    {
      "shortUrl": "197abc",
      "longUrl": "https://link.com",
      "state": "ACTIVE",
      "clicks": 0,
      "createdAt": "2022-09-19T03:31:00.131Z",
      "updatedAt": "2022-09-19T03:31:00.131Z"
    }
  ],
  "count": 1
}

Explanation of fields returned:

Field Returned	What it means	Example
shortUrl	Short link name	agsubmit (ie. full URL will look like https://go.gov.sg/agsubmit)
longUrl	Original link	https://google.com
state	Whether short link is active or inactive	"ACTIVE" or "INACTIVE"
clicks	Number of clicks on the short link since creation	888
count	Counts the total number of links matching search filters (except limit and offset)	8

Create Url

POST /v1/urls

Request body:

Property	Type	Required?
longUrl	string	Yes, required
shortUrl	string	No, optional

• longUrl has to start with https://

• If no shortUrl is provided, then a random 8 character alphanumeric shortUrl name will be generated for the link.

Returns:

{
  "shortUrl": "197abc",
  "longUrl": "https://link.com",
  "state": "ACTIVE",
  "clicks": 0,
  "createdAt": "2022-09-19T03:31:00.131Z",
  "updatedAt": "2022-09-19T03:31:00.131Z"
}

{
  "message": "Short link \\"asd\\" is already used.",
  "type": "ShortUrlError"
}

Update Url

PATCH /v1/urls/{shortUrl}

Note: Indicate shortUrl name you wish to update in above PATCH request, ie. {shortUrl}

Request body:

Property	Type	Required?
longUrl	string	No, optional
state	enum (”ACTIVE”, “INACTIVE”)	No, optional

• longUrl has to start with https://

Returns:

{
  "shortUrl": "197abc",
  "longUrl": "https://link.com",
  "state": "ACTIVE",
  "clicks": 0,
  "createdAt": "2022-09-19T03:31:00.131Z",
  "updatedAt": "2022-09-19T03:31:00.131Z"
}