The units available for tracking quantity: weight, length, volume and count.
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.
The API uses bearer token authentication. Send your secret key in the Authorization header on every request:
Authorization: Bearer YOUR_SECRET_KEYGenerate a key pair at app.sortly.com/public-api. Treat the secret key like a password. Keep it server-side, never in browser or mobile app code, and never commit it. All requests must use HTTPS.
A missing or invalid key returns 401 Unauthorized. If you're getting a 401 you didn't expect, check that the header reads Bearer <key> with a single space, that you're using the secret key rather than the key ID, and that the key hasn't been revoked.
Using "Try it" on this page? The console stores whatever token you enter in your browser's local storage so it survives a reload. On a shared or public machine, use a key you can rotate rather than your production one.
Endpoints that return lists are paginated. Alongside data you get a meta object, carrying the pagination fields directly:
| Field | Meaning |
|---|---|
page | The page you're on |
total_pages | How many pages there are |
total_count | How many records match in total |
next_page_url | URL for the next page, or null when you're on the last one |
Set per_page to control page size. The default is 10 and the maximum is 100 on most endpoints. Walk the pages by following next_page_url until it comes back null:
Try it: GET /api/v1/items
curl 'https://api.sortly.co/api/v1/items?per_page=100&page=1' \
-H 'Authorization: Bearer YOUR_SECRET_KEY'Your account can make 1,000 requests per 15 minutes. The limit is shared across the whole account, not per endpoint and not per key, so every integration, script and key you have draws from the same budget. Every response tells you where you stand:
| Header | Meaning |
|---|---|
Sortly-Rate-Limit-Max | Requests allowed in the window. |
Sortly-Rate-Limit-Remaining | Requests you have left. |
Sortly-Rate-Limit-Reset | When the window resets. |
Go over the limit and you'll get 429 Too Many Requests. Watch Sortly-Rate-Limit-Remaining and back off before you hit zero. For bulk syncs, request 100 records per page rather than making many small calls.
Because the budget is account-wide, a job that runs flat out can starve everything else you have connected. If you run more than one integration, pace the heavy ones and lean on Webhooks for anything that needs to be current.
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.
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_reviewandapprovedcan each move to one another, or on toordered- From
orderedyou can requestvoidedorclosed - From
ordered, receiving stock also moves the order topartially_receivedand thenreceived, through the receive flow rather than a status call - From
partially_receivedorreceived, the only status you can request isclosed voidedandclosedare final
For the transitions themselves, see 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
versionis rejected with409. 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.
| From | Can move to |
|---|---|
draft, ready_for_review, approved | each other, or ordered |
ordered | voided or closed |
partially_received, received | closed |
voided, closed | final |
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 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 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
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_reviewandapprovedcan each move to one another, or on toordered- From
orderedyou can requestvoidedorclosed - Receiving stock moves an
orderedorder topartially_receivedand thenreceived, through the receive flow rather than a status call - From
partially_receivedorreceived, the only status you can request isclosed voidedandclosedare final
Use the status endpoint for these transitions rather than the update endpoint.
Operations
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.