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Our API allows you to programmatically access and leverage your professional network data, search profiles and companies, and map relationships across your team’s connections.

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Before You Begin

To use The Swarm API, you’ll need:
  1. An active Swarm account - Sign up at app.theswarm.com
  2. Team owner or admin role - API access requires owner or admin permissions
  3. Appropriate plan - API access is included in the Premium plan (14-day free trial available)
  4. An API key - Generate your key from Team Settings

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Getting Your API Key

Follow these steps to obtain your API key:
  1. Navigate to Team Settings by clicking your Team name in the top-left corner of the sidebar
  2. Go to the API tab
  3. Click Generate API Key to create your key
  4. Copy the generated key to your clipboard

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Authentication

All API requests must include your API key in the headers: 
x-api-key: your_api_key_here
This authenticates your requests and provides access to your team-specific data, including profiles, lists, tags, and network connections. Example Request: 
curl -X POST https://api.theswarm.com/v1/profiles/search \
  -H "x-api-key: your_api_key_here" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "query": {
      "match_all": {}
    },
    "limit": 10
  }'

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Available Endpoints

The Swarm API provides five core endpoints to help you search, retrieve, and analyze professional network data:

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Search Profiles

Search through profiles using powerful OpenSearch query capabilities. Filter by job titles, locations, industries, skills, and more. Perfect for finding specific professionals across your network. View Documentation →

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Fetch Profiles

Retrieve detailed information about specific profiles by their IDs. Get comprehensive data including employment history, education, contact information, and connection details. View Documentation →

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Search Companies

Find companies based on various criteria such as industry, size, location, and more. Access company intelligence data across your network. View Documentation →

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Fetch Companies

Get detailed company information including employee counts, locations, industries, and associated profiles from your network. View Documentation →

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Network Mapper

Discover pathways and connections between your team and target profiles or companies. Visualize relationship strength and find warm introductions. View Documentation →

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Security Best Practices

Your API key is a powerful credential. Protect it like a password:
  • Keep it private - Never share your API key in public repositories (like GitHub) or client-side code
  • Protect your access - Unauthorized use can compromise your data and system integrity
  • Rotate regularly - Generate new keys periodically and revoke old ones
  • Monitor usage - Track API calls to detect any unusual activity

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Getting Started Tips

When beginning with the API, we recommend:
  1. Start small - Test with a small batch of requests first to validate your setup
  2. Review the mapping - Understand the OpenSearch mapping before building complex queries
  3. Check examples - Review our example queries for common use cases
  4. Mind rate limits - Be aware of rate limits to avoid throttling
  5. Use pagination - For large result sets, utilize pagination tokens for efficient data retrieval

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Encoding Standards

When working with the API, note these encoding conventions:
  • URLs - Always stored and returned encoded using %<hex> format for special characters
  • Slugs - Stored, returned, and sent in requests decoded, exactly as entered
  • Recommendation - Use encoded URLs and decoded slugs in all requests

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