Content Management API

The Polycam Content Management API allows Enterprise users to programmatically access and manage captures, retrieve metadata, and export capture artifacts at scale. This article covers how to get started, key endpoints, and best practices for working with the API.

Plan Availability

API access is available exclusively to Enterprise subscribers. Access depends on which type of Enterprise plan you're on: self-serve Enterprise accounts include API access automatically, while custom Enterprise plans require API access to be added to your contract through your account representative.

Overview

Once enabled for your account, the Content Management API gives your developers programmatic access to your Polycam library. Common use cases include:

• Automating retrieval of capture metadata across large projects
• Downloading processed mesh data and thumbnails at scale
• Triggering and monitoring artifact export jobs (OBJ, GLTF, LAS)
• Integrating Polycam capture data into third-party platforms and workflows

Prerequisites & Access

1Generate an API Token

Any account with API access, meaning all self-serve Enterprise accounts, or nominated accounts on a custom Enterprise plan, can generate an API token by following these steps:

1. Navigate to your team workspace
2. On the left-hand side, select the Settings drop-down
3. Click API settings
4. Under Create a new API key, enter a Name for your API key to help identify it later
5. Optionally, check API key expires if you'd like to set an expiration date. Leave unchecked for no expiry.
6. Click Create API key

API Usage Limits

Once your token is created, the API Usage section of the API Keys page displays your current consumption against your account's limits:

API Documentation

Full API reference documentation is available at poly.cam/docs/api. This covers all available endpoints, request parameters, response schemas, and authentication requirements.

Noteworthy API Endpoints

The following endpoints cover the most common workflows. For the full list of available endpoints and parameters, refer to the API documentation.

Security & Best Practices

Protecting Your API Token

• Store API tokens in a secure secrets manager or environment variable. Never hard-code them in source code
• Restrict token access to only the team members and services that require it
• If a token is compromised or lost, generate a new one immediately

Managing Developer Account Access

• On custom Enterprise plans, nominate only accounts that have a genuine need for API access
• On custom Enterprise plans, notify your account representative promptly when a developer's access should be removed (e.g., team changes, role transitions)

Troubleshooting & FAQs

My account doesn't have API access after the contract was updated

This applies to custom Enterprise plans, since self-serve Enterprise accounts have API access included automatically. Confirm that your email address was included in the list submitted to your account representative. Access is enabled per account, not at the organization level automatically. Contact your account representative to verify the status.

I lost or forgot to save my API token

API tokens are only displayed once at creation and cannot be retrieved afterward. You will need to generate a new token. Navigate to Account → Go to API Keys to create a replacement.

My export job isn't completing

Export jobs may take some time depending on capture size and format. Continue polling the Get Export Job endpoint at reasonable intervals. If a job remains in a non-complete state for an extended period, contact Enterprise support with the job ID for investigation.