# Your first request

Start anonymously. Add a Free key when you need its history and page allowances.

## Read one record
Run this in a terminal, Python interpreter, or Node.js with fetch support. No SDK installation is required.

```curl
curl --fail-with-body --silent --show-error --max-time 30 "https://china-snapshot.com/api/datasets?dataset=documents&limit=1"
```

```python
import json
from urllib.request import Request, urlopen
request = Request('https://china-snapshot.com/api/datasets?dataset=documents&limit=1')
with urlopen(request, timeout=30) as response:
    data = json.load(response)
print(json.dumps(data, ensure_ascii=False))
```

```typescript
const response = await fetch("https://china-snapshot.com/api/datasets?dataset=documents&limit=1");
if (!response.ok) throw new Error(`HTTP ${response.status}`);
console.log(await response.json());
```

## Read the response
The JSON contains items, row_count, next_cursor, as_of, fields, sources and coverage. row_count counts this page, not every match. Preserve source_url when citing a result; as_of describes the query, not when the publisher released each item. Empty items is a valid query result.

## Get a Free key
Open [Get a free key](/api#get-a-key) and use an address you control. The signup response normally says key_emailed: the key is in your inbox, not in the response. Store it as CS_API_KEY in your environment or secret manager. See [authentication](/docs/getting-started/authentication) for the one-time delivery fallback.

## Make an authenticated request
These examples require CS_API_KEY to be set. They never print the key.

```curl
curl --fail-with-body --silent --show-error --max-time 30 -H "Authorization: Bearer $CS_API_KEY" "https://china-snapshot.com/api/series/pmi-manufacturing"
```

```python
import json
import os
from urllib.request import Request, urlopen
request = Request('https://china-snapshot.com/api/series/pmi-manufacturing', headers={'Authorization': 'Bearer ' + os.environ['CS_API_KEY']})
with urlopen(request, timeout=30) as response:
    data = json.load(response)
print(json.dumps(data, ensure_ascii=False))
```

```typescript
const key = process.env.CS_API_KEY;
if (!key) throw new Error("Set CS_API_KEY first");
const response = await fetch("https://china-snapshot.com/api/series/pmi-manufacturing", { headers: { Authorization: `Bearer ${key}` } });
if (!response.ok) throw new Error(`HTTP ${response.status}`);
console.log(await response.json());
```

## Next steps
[Find records](/docs/guides/find-records), [retrieve a record](/docs/guides/retrieve-record), or [export a cited CSV page](/docs/guides/export-csv).