# Quickstart

Five minutes from a key to a draft guide. You need a Sceniq creator account.

## 1. Make a key

In the studio, open **Settings, API keys** and make a key. Pick the scope:

- **Read and write** for building and editing guides. This is what agents need.
- **Read only** for reports and checks.
- **Read, write and publish** only if the agent should also publish changes to a guide that is already live, and only when you ask it to.

The key is shown once. Keep it in an environment variable, never in a prompt or a file you share:

```bash
export SCENIQ_API_KEY="sk_sceniq_YOUR_KEY"
```

## 2. Ask who the key belongs to

```bash
curl https://sceniq.earth/api/v1/me \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SCENIQ_API_KEY"
```

The answer names the creator, the key's scopes, the request limits and every endpoint. [whoami](https://developers.sceniq.earth/reference/whoami.md) has the full response.

## 3. List your guides

```bash
curl https://sceniq.earth/api/v1/guides \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SCENIQ_API_KEY"
```

Each guide carries its `productId`, which every guide operation takes.

## 4. Create a draft guide

```bash
curl -X POST https://sceniq.earth/api/v1/guides \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SCENIQ_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"name": "American West: Parks at First Light"}'
```

The guide starts as a draft that nobody else sees. Add spots with [create_spot](https://developers.sceniq.earth/reference/create_spot.md), group them with [create_chapter](https://developers.sceniq.earth/reference/create_chapter.md), then run [get_guide_readiness](https://developers.sceniq.earth/reference/get_guide_readiness.md) to see what is left before it can go on sale.

## 5. Let an agent do the rest

Most creators do not call the API by hand. [Connect an agent](https://developers.sceniq.earth/get-started/connect-an-agent.md) and ask it to build the guide from your notes; it follows the [authoring guide](https://developers.sceniq.earth/machine-readable.md) Sceniq hands every agent.