Getting Started

This guide will walk you through creating an application, authenticating, and making your first request to the Local Universe API.

Create an Application

To interact with the Local Universe API, you first need to create an Application. Applications give you a Service token (api_key and api_secret) you can use to authenticate requests.

1. Log in to Local Universe
2. Navigate to your Settings and find the Applications section
3. Click Create Application and give it a name
4. Copy the api_key and api_secret — you'll need these to authenticate

Make your first request

With your Service token in hand, you can make your first API request. Below we'll fetch the list of discoverable systems — communities that are publicly listed on Local Universe.

curl https://api.localuniverse.io/v1/systems/discoverable \
  -H "Authorization: Service {api_key}:{api_secret}"

[
  {
    "id": "1344387816333352652",
    "name": "Local Universe",
    "slug": "localuniverse",
    "flags": 0,
    "access": 2,
    "icon": "https://cdn.localuniverse.io/icons/lu.png",
    "description": "The official Local Universe system",
    "member_count": 1024,
    "created_at": "2025-02-26T19:17:12.848375Z"
  }
]

Authentication overview

Local Universe supports two authentication methods:

• Bearer Token — for user-authenticated requests (obtained via the OTP login flow)
• Service Token — for bot/application requests (obtained when creating an Application)

See the Authentication guide for full details on both methods.

Connect to the Gateway

For real-time events (messages, presence updates, system changes), connect to the Wormhole Gateway via WebSocket. The gateway pushes events to your client as they happen, rather than requiring you to poll the API.

See the Wormhole Gateway guide to learn how to connect and handle events.

What's next?

Now that you've made your first request, explore these resources to build on the Local Universe platform:

• Systems — create and manage communities
• Users — work with user profiles and relationships
• Wormhole Gateway — receive real-time events
• Permissions — understand the permission system