Quick start - absentify®

Welcome to the absentify API! This quick start guide will walk you through the basic steps to make your first API request.

Access to the API requires a Plus-Plan subscription. If you haven’t subscribed yet, please do so to obtain your API key.

Step 1: Get your API key

Every request to the absentify API requires an API key. Without it, requests will be rejected with an error. To get your API key, log into the absentify Dashboard and follow the prompts to generate one. If you signed up with email, you must confirm your email address before you can create an API key. For details on how to use the API key in requests, refer to the Authentication section.

Step 2: Set up authentication

Include the API key in the headers of each request to authenticate with the absentify API. Use the following settings:

Header name: x-api-key
Header value: Your unique API key

Step 3: Make your first request

With authentication set up, you’re ready to send your first request. Start by making an authenticated GET request to the /requests endpoint, which returns a list of current absence requests.

import requests

url = "https://api.absentify.com/api/v1/requests"
api_key = "your_api_key_here"

headers = {
    "x-api-key": api_key,
    "Content-Type": "application/json"
}

response = requests.get(url, headers=headers)
print(response.json())

const fetch = require('node-fetch');

const url = "https://api.absentify.com/api/v1/requests";
const apiKey = "your_api_key_here";

const headers = {
    "x-api-key": apiKey,
    "Content-Type": "application/json"
};

fetch(url, { headers })
    .then(response => response.json())
    .then(data => console.log(data))
    .catch(error => console.error('Error:', error));

curl -X GET "https://api.absentify.com/api/v1/requests" \
-H "x-api-key: your_api_key_here" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json"

Be sure to replace "your_api_key_here" with your actual API key from Step 1.

Date and time format

Many endpoints accept date or time parameters. Examples include the required start and end parameters when listing requests or absences over a period, and employment_start_date and birthday when creating a member. Always send dates and times in ISO 8601 format:

You want	Send	Interpreted as
A whole day	`2026-06-01`	`2026-06-01T00:00:00Z` (UTC midnight)
A specific time	`2026-06-01T09:00:00Z`	09:00 UTC
A time in another zone	`2026-06-01T09:00:00+02:00`	07:00 UTC

When sending a time of day, always include a time-zone designator (Z for UTC, or an offset like +02:00). A value without one is interpreted in the server’s time zone and may shift the result.

Do not use localized date formats such as 01.06.2026 or 06/01/2026. They are not rejected — they are silently misinterpreted (for example 01.06.2026 is read as 6 January 2026, not 1 June), so your request returns data for the wrong period. Stick to ISO 8601.

For example, to list all requests in June 2026:

curl -X GET "https://api.absentify.com/api/v1/requests?start=2026-06-01&end=2026-06-30" \
-H "x-api-key: your_api_key_here" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json"

All dates and times in API responses are likewise returned in ISO 8601 with a UTC Z suffix (e.g. 2026-06-01T00:00:00.000Z). The end parameter is inclusive. For example, start=2026-06-01&end=2026-06-30 returns everything that overlaps June, including absences on 30 June. For /requests, /requests_per_day, and /absences_per_day, the start…end window may span at most 1826 days (5 years). Wider or inverted ranges return 400; retrieve longer periods in consecutive, smaller windows. See Limits for details.

Filtering by member or department

Endpoints that return lists (such as /requests, /requests_per_day and /absences_per_day) accept optional request_member_ids and department_ids filters. Pass multiple IDs as a comma-separated string, e.g. department_ids=dept1,dept2. Semicolons (;) are also accepted as a separator for backward compatibility.

curl -X GET "https://api.absentify.com/api/v1/requests?start=2026-06-01&end=2026-06-30&department_ids=dept1,dept2" \
-H "x-api-key: your_api_key_here" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json"

Next steps

Review the Limits section to understand request rate limits and ensure consistent API usage.
Check the Responses section to learn how to handle successful and error responses effectively.

With these steps, you’re ready to integrate absentify API features into your application. Happy coding!

​Step 1: Get your API key

​Step 2: Set up authentication

​Step 3: Make your first request

​Date and time format

​Filtering by member or department

​Next steps

Step 1: Get your API key

Step 2: Set up authentication

Step 3: Make your first request

Date and time format

Filtering by member or department

Next steps