Skip to content

Sortly API

The Sortly API lets you work with your inventory from your own systems: add and update items, keep stock levels in sync, and track what goes out on a job.

Available on the Sortly Enterprise Plan. All requests go to https://api.sortly.co over HTTPS and return JSON. Email dev-support@sortly.com with questions or issues.

New here? Start with Getting Started, then read Items and Folders so the vocabulary in the endpoint reference makes sense. Once you know what you're building, jump to the matching Use Case Guide.

Download OpenAPI description
index.json
index.yaml
Languages
Servers
https://api.sortly.co

Getting Started

Make your first Sortly API call in about five minutes.

Guides

The mechanics every integration needs, whatever you are building: how to authenticate, how to page through results, what the rate limit costs you, and what Sortly sends back when something goes wrong.

Core Concepts

The vocabulary the endpoint reference assumes you already have. Read these once and the field names in the reference stop needing explanation.

Build Your Inventory

Goal: get your existing inventory into Sortly from a spreadsheet, database or another system.

Every command below runs as-is once you swap in your own secret key.

Manage Your Inventory

Goal: keep the inventory you have already loaded accurate as it changes: what it looks like, how much of it there is, and where it sits.

Track Stock Levels

Goal: be told when something is running low, instead of watching it yourself.

Sync Inventory

Goal: keep another system (an ERP, a warehouse tool, a dashboard) in step with Sortly.

Sync Jobs

Goal: keep Sortly jobs in step with the work orders in your external system, from the moment one is raised to the moment it closes, so field staff work against accurate inventory and nobody keys the same movement in twice.

A job is a work order. Creating one also creates a folder to hold the items assigned to it. Jobs move through three statuses: not_started, in_progress, completed.

Each subsection below maps to one event in your system. Your system owns the job lifecycle and drives each of these calls; where you need to see the state on the Sortly side, read it with GET /api/v1/jobs on whatever schedule suits you.

Sync Purchase Orders

Goal: keep Sortly purchase orders in step with the accounting or ordering system you buy through, so both sides agree on what was ordered, what it costs and where it has got to.

A purchase order records what you ordered from a vendor and on what terms, with a list of line items drawn from your inventory. You don't need to send amount, sub_total, total or line_number: Sortly works them out from the lines.

How an order moves:

  • draft, ready_for_review and approved can each move to one another, or on to ordered
  • From ordered you can request voided or closed
  • From ordered, receiving stock also moves the order to partially_received and then received, through the receive flow rather than a status call
  • From partially_received or received, the only status you can request is closed
  • voided and closed are final

For the transitions themselves, see Manage PO Statuses.

Manage PO Statuses

Goal: move a Sortly purchase order to match where it has got to in your own process, whether that decision was made in another system or over email.

Every transition uses the same endpoint and the same two fields: the target status and the version you got from your last read.

  • A stale version is rejected with 409. Read immediately before writing, and retry with the new one.
  • Sending a status the order already has changes nothing, so a retried delivery is safe.
FromCan move to
draft, ready_for_review, approvedeach other, or ordered
orderedvoided or closed
partially_received, receivedclosed
voided, closedfinal

Anything outside that returns 400. received and partially_received cannot be requested here at all: Sortly sets them when a delivery is recorded against the order, either in the app or through the receive endpoint.

Items

Items are the things you track: stock, tools, assets, supplies. Each one has a quantity and can carry a price, photos, tags and custom fields.

Items and folders share these endpoints; type is what tells them apart. Pass "type": "item" here. For the folder side of the same endpoints, see Folders.

Operations

Folders

Folders are how you organize inventory by location, category, job, or whatever fits how you work. They can be nested, and items live inside them.

Folders use the same endpoints as items, with "type": "folder" and no quantity or price. Nest one inside another by setting parent_id; leave it out for the top level. To list a folder's contents, pass its id as folder_id when listing items.

Operations

Custom Fields

The extra fields defined on your account. Fetch these to get the custom_attribute_id values you need when writing custom field values onto items.

Operations

Units of Measure

The units available for tracking quantity: weight, length, volume and count.

Operations

Alerts

Alerts tell your team when stock runs low, or when a date you're tracking is coming up. Two kinds: Quantity and DateReminder.

Operations

Create an Alert

Request

Creates a new alert on an item or custom field value. item_id is required.

For Quantity alerts: set item_id to the item's numeric ID, then choose a threshold_method such as quantity_less_than and a threshold_value.

For DateReminder alerts, set:

  • item_id and custom_attribute_id, the datetime custom field to watch
  • threshold_method to before, after or same_day
  • threshold_interval to days, weeks, months or years, with threshold_value as the count

So 30 with days and before fires 30 days ahead of the date. same_day ignores the interval and the value.

triggerable_type and triggerable_id are response fields only. Sortly derives them from item_id and custom_attribute_id, and sending them is rejected with 422 Item can't be blank. Create and update take the same identifying fields.

Security
BearerAuth
Bodyapplication/json
item_idnumberrequired

The item the alert watches. Required on create and on every update, whatever the alert's type. Leave it out and the request is rejected with 422.

Example: 12345
custom_attribute_idnumber or null

For a DateReminder, the datetime custom field to watch. Pairs with item_id: together they identify whose field value the alert is about.

typestringrequired

Quantity fires when an item's stock crosses a threshold. DateReminder fires relative to a date held in a datetime custom field.

Enum"Quantity""DateReminder"
Example: "Quantity"
threshold_methodstring(AlertThresholdMethod)

What triggers the alert. Use a quantity_* method (or less_than_or_equal_to_min_quantity) with type: Quantity, and before, after or same_day with type: DateReminder.

Enum"less_than_or_equal_to_min_quantity""quantity_greater_than""quantity_less_than""quantity_less_than_equal_to""quantity_greater_than_equal_to""before""after""same_day"
Example: "quantity_less_than"
threshold_valuenumber

The number the alert is compared against.

Example: 5
threshold_intervalstring or null(AlertThresholdInterval)

How far before or after the date to fire. Required for DateReminder alerts, null for Quantity.

Enum"days""weeks""months""years"null
Example: "days"
recipient_groupsArray of strings

Who gets notified when the alert fires. Defaults to owners if omitted.

Items Enum"owners""admins""members"
Example: ["owners"]
is_deletedboolean

Whether the alert has been deleted.

Example: false
curl -X POST 'https://api.sortly.co/api/v1/alerts' \
  -H 'Authorization: Bearer YOUR_SECRET_KEY' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"type": "Quantity", "item_id": 12345, "threshold_method": "quantity_less_than", "threshold_value": 5, "recipient_groups": ["owners"]}'

Responses

Created

Headers
Sortly-Rate-Limit-Maxstring
Sortly-Rate-Limit-Remainingstring
Sortly-Rate-Limit-Resetstring
Bodyapplication/json
dataobject
Response
application/json
{
  "data": {
    "item_id": 55,
    "custom_attribute_id": null,
    "threshold_method": "quantity_less_than",
    "threshold_value": 5,
    "threshold_interval": null,
    "is_fired": null,
    "type": "Quantity",
    "is_deleted": false,
    "recipient_groups": [ … ]
  }
}

Update an Alert

Request

Updates an existing alert's threshold, method, or recipient groups. All updatable fields follow the same schema as POST /alerts.

Security
BearerAuth
Path
alert_idnumberrequired

ID of the alert.

Example: 42
Bodyapplication/json
typestring

Quantity fires when an item's stock crosses a threshold. DateReminder fires relative to a date held in a datetime custom field. Change this to convert an alert from one to the other.

Enum"Quantity""DateReminder"
Example: "Quantity"
item_idnumberrequired

The item the alert watches. Required on every update, whatever the alert's type and even when you are only moving a threshold. Leave it out and the request is rejected with 422. On a DateReminder it pairs with custom_attribute_id: together they identify whose field value to watch, so it is not redundant there. Change it to point the alert at a different item.

Example: 12345
custom_attribute_idnumber or null

For a DateReminder, the datetime custom field the alert watches.

threshold_methodstring(AlertThresholdMethod)

What triggers the alert. Use a quantity_* method (or less_than_or_equal_to_min_quantity) with type: Quantity, and before, after or same_day with type: DateReminder.

Enum"less_than_or_equal_to_min_quantity""quantity_greater_than""quantity_less_than""quantity_less_than_equal_to""quantity_greater_than_equal_to""before""after""same_day"
Example: "quantity_less_than"
threshold_valuenumber

The number the alert is compared against.

Example: 5
threshold_intervalstring or null(AlertThresholdInterval)

How far before or after the date to fire. Required for DateReminder alerts, null for Quantity.

Enum"days""weeks""months""years"null
Example: "days"
recipient_groupsArray of strings

Who gets notified when the alert fires.

Items Enum"owners""admins""members"
curl -X PUT 'https://api.sortly.co/api/v1/alerts/42' \
  -H 'Authorization: Bearer YOUR_SECRET_KEY' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"threshold_method": "quantity_less_than", "threshold_value": 10}'

Responses

Created

Headers
Sortly-Rate-Limit-Maxstring
Sortly-Rate-Limit-Remainingstring
Sortly-Rate-Limit-Resetstring
Bodyapplication/json
dataobject
Response
application/json
{
  "data": {
    "id": 1234,
    "threshold_method": "before",
    "threshold_value": 5,
    "threshold_interval": "days",
    "is_fired": null,
    "triggerable_type": "CustomAttributeValue",
    "triggerable_id": 374,
    "type": "DateReminder",
    "is_deleted": false,
    "recipient_groups": [ … ]
  }
}

Delete Alert

Request

Permanently deletes an alert by its ID. Returns an empty body on success.

Security
BearerAuth
Path
alert_idstringrequired

an alert ID attribute

Example: 3
curl -X DELETE 'https://api.sortly.co/api/v1/alerts/42' \
  -H 'Authorization: Bearer YOUR_SECRET_KEY' \
  -H 'Accept: application/json'

Responses

No Content

Bodyapplication/json
object
Response
application/json
{}

Purchase Orders

Purchase orders record what you have ordered from a vendor and on what terms. Each one carries vendor and ship-to details plus a list of line items drawn from your inventory.

How an order moves:

  • draft, ready_for_review and approved can each move to one another, or on to ordered
  • From ordered you can request voided or closed
  • Receiving stock moves an ordered order to partially_received and then received, through the receive flow rather than a status call
  • From partially_received or received, the only status you can request is closed
  • voided and closed are final

Use the status endpoint for these transitions rather than the update endpoint.

Operations

Jobs

Jobs are work orders. Create a job, assign items to it, move it through not_started, in_progress and completed, and return items when it's done.

Operations

Changelog

Aug 5, 2026. Added Purchase Orders: list, create, fetch, update and change status.

Jul 31, 2026. Added Jobs: list, create, fetch, update, change status and delete, plus adding items to a job and returning them.

Jun 17, 2021. Added yard and gallon units of measure.

Jun 5, 2021. Added support for item variants (Item Groups).

Jan 4, 2021. Renamed attribute_value to value on custom field values (attribute_value still works). Added tags to item reads and search.

Sep 1, 2020. Added the search endpoint.

Jun 15, 2020. Added alerts.

Mar 2, 2019. First release.

© Sortly Inc.