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Endstate gives physical products a secure digital identity - so brands can protect authenticity, deepen user engagement, and turn every product into a connected experience. This API is how you build them: create a digital record for each product, pair it with a secure NFC chip, and confirm a product is authentic the moment a user taps it. When a tap is verified, you receive a session token and the product’s full digital record - ready to power ownership, loyalty, and any other product-aware action in your application. The API is organized around three core resources - collections, units, and chips - and a lightweight verification call that ties them together. All resources are JSON, all requests are HTTPS, and the production base URL is https://api2.endstate.io.

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The mental model

  • Collection - a group of related items (a product line, a drop, a release). Create a collection first; it defines the namespace that units within it share.
  • Unit - the unique digital record for a single physical item. One unit maps to one physical product.
  • Chip - a real, physical NFC chip (an NTAG 424 DNA) attached to or embedded in the product. Pair a chip to a unit to link the hardware to its digital record. Each tap produces a fresh, one-time credential.
  • Verification - pass that credential to the API to confirm the product is authentic. The API records the tap and returns a session token.
  • Session token - short-lived proof that a specific chip was just tapped. Use it to authorize unit-scoped actions without exposing your API key.

Quickstart

Create a collection, add a unit, pair a chip, and run your first verification in minutes.

Credentials

Learn about API keys, session tokens, and publishable keys - the credentials the API uses.

Core concepts

Understand collections, units, chips, and the verification model in depth.

API reference

Full endpoint reference with request and response schemas.

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How it works

  1. Create a collection - define a group for your items. The collection is provisioned asynchronously; poll until it is ready before adding units.
  2. Create a unit - add a digital record for each physical item inside the collection.
  3. Pair a chip - link the physical NFC chip on the item to the unit. This triggers issuance: the unit receives a serial number within the collection.
  4. User taps - the tap URL delivers a chip_id and a one-time credential (e value) to your application.
  5. Verify - send chip_id and e to POST /v1/taps. The API validates the credential, records the tap, and returns the unit’s metadata plus a session token. Call it from your server with an API key, or straight from your page with a publishable key - same endpoint either way.
  6. Use the session token - pass it to GET /v1/session-tokens/current from your client to confirm scope without exposing the API key.
For testing without physical hardware, create a test chip (is_test: true) and use POST /v1/test-helpers/taps to simulate a tap.

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Next steps

  • Follow the Quickstart to run a complete verification flow in a few minutes.
  • Read Core concepts for a deeper look at how collections, units, and chips relate to each other.