# Intro and Quickstart

The <code class="expression">space.vars.product\_name</code> API allows you to automate all your private cloud interactions and perform operations such as creating or updating virtual machines, downloading images, creating networks, creating storage volumes, and any other <code class="expression">space.vars.product\_name</code> operation.

You can use the API to:

* Create and update [Broken link](https://docs.platform9.com/api-docs/broken-reference "mention")
* Create and update one or more virtualized clusters
* Fetch, download, edit [Broken link](https://docs.platform9.com/api-docs/broken-reference "mention")
* Deploy, edit, rebuild, resize, power-cycle [Broken link](https://docs.platform9.com/api-docs/broken-reference "mention")
* Deploy, edit, resize block storage [Broken link](https://docs.platform9.com/api-docs/broken-reference "mention")
* Create, edit, delete [Broken link](https://docs.platform9.com/api-docs/broken-reference "mention")

and a lot more, all using REST API calls.

{% stepper %}
{% step %}

#### Getting started

You will need a <code class="expression">space.vars.product\_name</code> account to start with. If you don’t already have an account, you need to contact your <code class="expression">space.vars.product\_name</code> administrator to get an account created. For users of <code class="expression">space.vars.product\_name</code> community edition, use your community edition login credentials and account info that you received post installation.
{% endstep %}

{% step %}

#### Create an access token

After creating an account, you'll be able to create a personal access token using the [Broken link](https://docs.platform9.com/api-docs/broken-reference "mention") method to get a token.

This token represents your user in <code class="expression">space.vars.product\_name</code> and allows you to make API calls, create or update virtual machines, storage volumes, networks, and any other objects, in any <code class="expression">space.vars.product\_name</code> tenants that you're a part of, depending on your user role and privileges specific to the tenants.

Once you have your token, you are now ready to make your first API call.<br>
{% endstep %}

{% step %}

#### Make your first API call

The example below shows how to make an API call to list all virtual machines within a specific tenant.

```bash
curl -L \
  --url 'https://example.platform9.com/nova/v2.1/servers' \
  --header 'X-Auth-Token: YOUR_ACCESS_TOKEN' \
  --header 'Accept: */*'
```

{% endstep %}
{% endstepper %}

<code class="expression">space.vars.product\_name</code> API has many different API calls that allow you to interact with <code class="expression">space.vars.product\_name</code> in different ways. After making your first API call, explore the API reference to review the different objects and API calls that you can make on those objects.

#### &#x20;<a href="#explore-gitbooks-api" id="explore-gitbooks-api"></a>

<br>


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