REST API

Use the REST API to authenticate as a user, get information about flows and post messages.

Authentication
Flow resource
Message resource
Private conversation resource
Private message resource
User resource
Organization resource
Source resource (for team inbox messages)
Invitation resource
Files

Structure of an API request

HTTP Method

We try to uphold RESTful principles in the API. Listing, showing and other non-state-altering actions are done with GET, creating with POST and deleting with DELETE.

PATCH is used for most update methods instead of PUT because of PUT’s inefficiency and inconvenient requirements of idempotency.

URL Breakdown

https://user:pass@api.flowdock.com/flows/:org/:flow/messages/:message_id

https: The CA Flowdock API is served over secure HTTP only.
user:pass: HTTP basic authentication credentials. You can use a user’s email/password or user-specific tokens. See Authentication. NOTE: When using email/password, remember to URI encode them. Characters outside the ASCII character set can exist in the e-mail address (the @ sign) and password.
api.flowdock.com: The API endpoint domain.
flows: The resource which is being requested.
org: The parameterized_name of the organization.
flow: The parameterized_name of the flow.
messages: The sub-resource, a resource which is accessed in the scope of the parent resource. In some cases there may be multiple sub-resources.
message_id: Identifier of the sub-resource.

Body

Both JSON and HTTP POST data is accepted as request body formats. In the API documentation, JSON examples are used.

Example of posting a message:

POST /flows/organization/main/messages

{
  "event": "message",
  "content": "Hi all!"
}

Response:

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Content-Type: application/json; charset=utf-8
Flowdock-User: 2

{}

Headers

Content-Type must be defined in the header of requests that contain data.

Content-Type: application/json

Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded

The Accept header should be set to application/json since that is the supported return format of the API.

Accept: application/json

Structure of an API response

Response body

The API always returns JSON.

Example:

GET /flows/some_organization

Response:

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Content-Type: application/json; charset=utf-8
Flowdock-User: 2

[
  {
    "id": "e2366fd7-d720-4272-b32c-3dc995fc549d",
    "name": "My flow",
    "organization": "Acme",
    "unread_mentions": 0,
    "url": "https://api.flowdock.com/flows/acme/my-flow",
    "web_url": "https://acme.flowdock.com/flows/my-flow"
  },
  {
    "id": "26dd3da8-4d6d-42a0-8032-c22fc55907b0",
    "name": "Another flow",
    "organization": "Acme",
    "unread_mentions": 0,
    "url": "https://api.flowdock.com/flows/acme/another-flow",
    "web_url": "https://acme.flowdock.com/flows/another-flow"
  },
]

Response headers

In addition to standard headers like Content-Type, the response headers also include the user id of the authenticated user in the Flowdock-User header (when available).

Status: 200
Content-Length: 27
Content-Type: application/json; charset=utf-8
Flowdock-User: 1