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# Get Started

Make your first post to the Bluesky app via the API in under 5 minutes.

## Install the SDK

Choose the SDK you want to work with. Below, we use TypeScript and Python. You can follow the instructions for the community-maintained [atproto.dart package here](https://atprotodart.com/docs/intro).

<Tabs groupId="sdk">
  <TabItem value="ts" label="Typescript">
    Install [@atproto/api](https://www.npmjs.com/package/@atproto/api) using your preferred package manager.

    ```
    yarn add @atproto/api
    ```
  </TabItem>
  <TabItem value="curl" label="CURL">
    Install CURL if you need to. It comes pre-installed on most operating systems.
  </TabItem>
  <TabItem value="python" label="Python">
      Install [atproto](https://pypi.org/project/atproto/) using your preferred package manager.

      ```
      pip install atproto
      ```
    </TabItem>
</Tabs>

## Create a session

Create an authentication session with your username and password.

<Tabs groupId="sdk">
  <TabItem value="ts" label="Typescript">
    ```typescript
    import { BskyAgent } from '@atproto/api'

    const agent = new BskyAgent({
      service: 'https://bsky.social'
    })
    await agent.login({
      identifier: 'handle.example.com',
      password: 'hunter2'
    })
    ```
  </TabItem>
  <TabItem value="curl" label="CURL">
    Replace `$BLUESKY_HANDLE` and `$BLUESKY_PASSWORD` with your credentials, and `$PDSHOST` with your PDS host (including `https://`).

    ```bash
    curl -X POST $PDSHOST/xrpc/com.atproto.server.createSession \
        -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
        -d '{"identifier": "'"$BLUESKY_HANDLE"'", "password": "'"$BLUESKY_PASSWORD"'"}'
    ```
  </TabItem>
  <TabItem value="python" label="Python">
      ```python
      from atproto import Client

      client = Client()
      client.login('handle.example.com', 'hunter2')
      ```
    </TabItem>
</Tabs>

The `com.atproto.server.createSession` API endpoint returns a session object containing two API tokens:
* `accessJwt`: an access token which is used to authenticate requests but expires after a few minutes
* `refreshJwt`: a refresh token which lasts longer and is used only to update the session with a new access token

<Tabs groupId="sdk" className="hiddenTabs">
  <TabItem value="ts" label="Typescript">
    The agent object stores this session information for you, and will include it in the headers of its requests.
  </TabItem>
  <TabItem value="curl" label="CURL">
  </TabItem>
  <TabItem value="python" label="Python">
      The client instance stores and manages this session information for you, and will include it in the headers of its requests.
  </TabItem>
</Tabs>

## Create a post

Now you can create a post by sending a POST request to the createRecord endpoint.


<Tabs groupId="sdk">
  <TabItem value="ts" label="Typescript">
    ```typescript
    await agent.post({
      text: 'Hello world! I posted this via the API.',
      createdAt: new Date().toISOString()
    })
    ```
  </TabItem>
  <TabItem value="curl" label="CURL">
    Replace `$BLUESKY_HANDLE` with your handle, `$PDSHOST` with your PDS host (including `https://`), and and `$ACCESS_JWT` with the JWT in the response from createSession.

    ```bash
    curl -X POST $PDSHOST/xrpc/com.atproto.repo.createRecord \
        -H "Authorization: Bearer $ACCESS_JWT" \
        -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
        -d "{\"repo\": \"$BLUESKY_HANDLE\", \"collection\": \"app.bsky.feed.post\", \"record\": {\"text\": \"Hello world! I posted this via the API.\", \"createdAt\": \"$(date -u +%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ)\"}}"
    ```
  </TabItem>
  <TabItem value="python" label="Python">
    ```python
    post = client.send_post('Hello world! I posted this via the Python SDK.')
    ```
  </TabItem>
</Tabs>

This will return an object containing the post's URI and a CID (a hash of the content).


<Tabs groupId="sdk" className="hiddenTabs">
  <TabItem value="ts" label="Typescript">
    ```json
    {
        "uri": "at://did:plc:abc123..../app.bsky.feed.post/xyz...",
        "cid": "abc..."
    }
    ```
  </TabItem>
  <TabItem value="curl" label="CURL">
    ```json
    {
        "uri": "at://did:plc:abc123..../app.bsky.feed.post/xyz...",
        "cid": "abc..."
    }
    ```
  </TabItem>
  <TabItem value="python" label="Python">
    ```python
    post.uri  # at://did:plc:abc123..../app.bsky.feed.post/xyz...
    post.cid  # abc...
    ```
  </TabItem>
</Tabs>

Check out your profile to see the post you just created!

## Next Steps

- Jump to one of the [Starter Templates](/docs/category/starter-templates):
  - [Bots](/docs/starter-templates/bots)
  - [Custom Feeds](/docs/starter-templates/custom-feeds)
  - [Clients](/docs/starter-templates/clients)
- Continue reading [Tutorials](/docs/category/tutorials) to learn more.