Quick start

From nothing to real planning data in about two minutes. You need an email address; no card.

1. Get a demo key

• Create a free account (or sign in) and confirm your email address.
• On the API page, tick the box to accept the API & Data Licence and select Get a free demo key.
• Copy the key straight away. It starts ps_live_ and is shown only once.

Save it as an environment variable so it stays out of your code:

export PLANNING_SIGNAL_API_KEY="ps_live_your_key_here"

2. Check the key (free)

The councils list uses no records, so it is a safe first call:

curl "https://planningsignal.co.uk/api/v1/authorities" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $PLANNING_SIGNAL_API_KEY"

A 401 means the header is wrong or the key was revoked; see authentication.

3. Fetch applications

curl -i "https://planningsignal.co.uk/api/v1/applications?authority=Camden&since=2026-09-01&limit=5" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $PLANNING_SIGNAL_API_KEY"
# -i prints the X-Records-* headers

You get up to five applications and a next_cursor for the next page. Those five used five of your demo records; fetching them again this month is free. X-Records-Remaining shows what is left.

Next steps

• Every filter: List applications
• What each field means: Fields reference
• Collect new applications daily: recipe
• Need more than the demo? Choose a plan