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Machine API Docs

Quick Start

This guide walks through creating a project, capturing a snapshot, and retrieving it.

1. Bootstrap a project

Section titled “1. Bootstrap a project”

This is the only endpoint that doesn’t require authentication.

Terminal window
curl -X POST https://apis.jameslin.info/machine/keys/bootstrap \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"projectName": "my-first-project"}'

Response:

{
  "projectId": "a1b2c3d4-...",
  "apiKeyId": "e5f6g7h8-...",
  "apiKey": "mk_1a2b3c4d5e6f...",
  "message": "Store this API key securely — it will not be shown again."
}

Save the apiKey value. It’s only returned once.

2. Capture a snapshot

Section titled “2. Capture a snapshot”
Terminal window
curl -X POST https://apis.jameslin.info/machine/snapshots \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -d '{
    "machineName": "my-laptop",
    "os": "darwin",
    "arch": "arm64",
    "runtimeVersions": { "node": "20.11.0", "python": "3.12.1" },
    "envVars": { "NODE_ENV": "development" }
  }'

Response:

{
  "id": "snap-uuid-...",
  "machineName": "my-laptop",
  "createdAt": "2026-02-07T12:00:00.000Z"
}

3. Retrieve the snapshot

Section titled “3. Retrieve the snapshot”
Terminal window
curl https://apis.jameslin.info/machine/snapshots/SNAPSHOT_ID \
  -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_API_KEY"

Environment variables are decrypted automatically in the response.

4. Compare two snapshots

Section titled “4. Compare two snapshots”

Once you have snapshots from two different machines:

Terminal window
curl -X POST https://apis.jameslin.info/machine/snapshots/compare \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -d '{"snapshotA": "SNAPSHOT_ID_1", "snapshotB": "SNAPSHOT_ID_2"}'

The response contains a structured diff of OS, architecture, runtimes, dependencies, and env var keys.

Next steps

Section titled “Next steps”