API token

An Application Programming Interface (API) token is a secret, unique string that allows you to access the SAO/NASA ADS API. You need a token to access any of the API end points at SAO/NASA ADS.

Follow these steps to create and store your API token:

1. Register or sign-in to ADS (opens this in a new window)

2. Navigate to the Settings/API Token page of ADS, and click the ‘Generate a new key’ button.

3. Write the API token to a file called ~/.ads/token, or save it as an environment variable named ADS_API_TOKEN.

 

Warning

Your API token should always remain a secret. That means you should never store it in source code that is going to be accessible to anyone else. If you ever make your API token public by mistake, you should go back to the API token page in ADS and generate a new token. This will invalidate the old (public) token.

 

Now that you have installed ads and you have a valid API token, you are ready to start searching.