# Create an Integration
Setting up an integration is the first step that is required to deploy an Airnode. Here you will capture the required details for your existing API, which will be used to populate the files for deploying an Airnode. See Deployment Files in the Airnode document set for more information.
Select the Integrate menu in the navigation bar on the left side of the
page. Then select the Integrate API button. ChainAPI will step-you-through
the integration creation.
# New API
This section captures high-level details around your API. These details should be helpful to anyone viewing your API and will play a role in the future discovery of your API on ChainAPI. After completing this section click on the Next button.
# Name
This field canât be changed after completing the integration. The reason for this is around backwards compatibility; if you were to update your integration and redeploy your Airnode we donât want any smart contracts to break.
# Category
This is to help developers find your API in future features.
# Description
What does your API do?
# API Documentation URL
If you have an existing and public documentation, you can enter that link here and thisâll be helpful to developers when they try to connect to your API.
# Enter your API Specifications
The base URL to your API operations and the necessary security that Airnode must use when calling the any API operations.
# Base URL
This is the first part of the URL to which all requests are made. The full request URL is made up of two parts: the Base URL and the path. The paths are captured by various (?) endpoints which weâll get to in a second.
# Security Schemes
Typically, APIs are secured in one way or another. They can be secured by API Keys, cookies, and OAuth. After choosing the type of security scheme, you can specify where it will be set, weâll say in the header, and will give the key a name.
We will never ask for your apiKey due to security and because ChainAPI never wants to handle your sensitive data. You will be asked to enter your apiKey when you deploy your Airnode, but that's just between you and your cloud provider. ChainAPI will never see that key.
# New Endpoint
# Path/Method
Endpoints are classified by path and method. Currently we support GET and POST, but as Airnode supports the different http methods weâll add them here.
# Endpoint Documentation
We can capture some documentation- summary, description, and an existing external URL.
# Parameters
Airnode works by using a scheme that allows access to your parameters. When a developer tries to access your API, they can only submit parameters that have been allowed by you. So, we need to set those parameters here.
# Name
The name of the parameter as it is accepted by the API operation request.
# In
Choose where that parameter will be set in the request.
- header
- path
- query
# Value Source
This can be either user defined, which means that the caller can specify whatever value they would like, or it can be fixed. For fixed parameters, we hardcode a value that will never be overwritten by the user.
Similar to the high level details, we can also capture documentation around the parameter. For example, is it required, the description, and the example value. You are free to capture as many parameters as the endpoint requires.
# Reserved Parameters
These are used by Airnode before submitting values back to the blockchain. There are several restrictions around what you can and cannot handle on the blockchain, and these are handled by the reserved parameters. For example, if your API returns a number value, you would want to have the user be able to pass that in int256 or uint256 which are the types on the Ethereum blockchain. Similarly if you had a string value, you would set that to bytes32. Like the value source in your other parameters, these can also be fixed or user defined.
The _path
defines how the values to be sent back to the blockchain should be
selected.
The _times
parameter is useful when youâre dealing with numbers. Many
blockchains donât support decimal values, so using this parameter multiplies the
api value by the value specified
Complete the integration by selecting the Finish button.