API Documentation

Getting Started

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Below is a guide to help you:

Your Sila Journey

Start your journey with a multi-step process that prioritizes your success. The exact timeline will depend on the specifics of your business case and turn-around times. We designed it to safeguard your investment by minimizing the risk of spending time and effort on projects unlikely to secure approval from key stakeholders along the way.

All business requirements will be communicated to you by our onboarding team.

  • Phase 1: Submitting details for review for our Sales team (you can connect with them at [email protected] or from the homepage of the Console).
  • Phase 2a: Once an MSA has been signed, your Sales rep will work with our onboarding and compliance team to collect documents and perform due diligence in order to learn more about your business and the intended use of the Sila API. You will also be granted access to a dedicated Slack channel to enable you to reach the right person for any questions that arise.
  • Phase 2b: You will work with Sila's onboarding, compliance, and integration engineering teams to ensure your platform meets the technical requirements.
  • Phase 3: Once phase 2 is complete, the onboarding and compliance team will submit your package to our banking partner to request approval and access to the Sila Production environment.
    • Depending on the level of approval received by our banking partner "Production access" may be limited until testing and/or other requirements have been met.

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Technical Requirements

Please use the below docs to guide you as you build out your demo app in order to meet our technical requirements. Note that the following requirements will need to be fulfilled by all customers, however there may be additional requirements based on your use case:

Create a Sila Console Account and Register Your App

Step 1. Create a Sila Console account

Navigate to the Sila console and register a new account. You can find about more about what you can do with the console here.

Step 2. Register your application

This doc provides instructions on how to register an app in the Sila Console.

Step 3. Starting building!

BEFORE YOU START TO BUILD please familiarize yourselves with the technical requirements listed above - particularly the Demo Overview and Endpoint Specific Requirements.

The sooner you think through implementing these requirements, the smoother your onboarding process will go.

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Limited Sandbox Access

It is important to note that not all of the Sila products are available for free in the Sandbox environment. Some products require a signed MSA and others require full compliance or legal review, even with a signed MSA, prior to gaining Sandbox access.

To avoid delays it is important that you discuss with your Sales representative and our onboarding/compliance team any and all products you are intending to use on your platform.

It is recommended that you focus your initial integration on the basic API endpoints that are required for the demo submission. Once you have a completed and approved demo, you can then begin working on any other product integrations you have been approved to use (such as Instant Settlement, CKO, etc.).

Understanding the Basic API Order of Operations

There are many different use cases for the Sila API that will allow you to use many different endpoints. However, below we have outlined the a basic endpoint flows that all applications must start with:

Authentication

Start with the method you will be using to authenticate your requests made to Sila's APIs.

Newly onboarding customers are required to implement OAuth2. Please disregard our docs on ECDSA - we continue to provide support for that method but will be phasing it out in time.

  • Find an overview of the OAuth2 method utilizing JWT tokens here.
  • Find guidance on how to generate the token you will need to authenticate all requests here.

End User Onboarding / IDV

Create the end user entity object in the Sila ecosystem and pass that end user through Advanced KYC.

  1. /register - All end user onboarding begins with registering an entity (individual or business). Registration DOES NOT kick off the KYC process - it simply adds end user data to the Sila ecosystem.
  2. Kick off the KYC process - Use our Advanced KYC system as Classic KYC is now legacy and will be phased out in the long-term.
    1. Advanced KYC Implementation Guide
      1. Don't forget to create your KYC Flow in the console

Account Linking

Link external bank accounts to end users that have passed KYC using either Plaid or MX (you will need a separate contract with whoever you choose to link accounts through - our Sales team can assist in making introductions if necessary).

You will need either a processor token from Plaid or an auth code from MX in order to call Sila's /link_account endpoint.

Transacting

Once your end user has been registered, passed KYC, and (if necessary to your use case) linked an external bank account, they can begin transacting. Sila offers two methods of transacting:

  • /transact - Sila's newest transaction endpoint intended to replace the below three now-legacy endpoints. You must use this endpoint if you will be utilizing ACHNow or any instant rails (eg: RTP, FedNow).
  • /issue_sila, /transfer_sila, /redeem_sila - We do not recommend using these endpoints as they will, in the long-term, be phased out to support /transact only.

Updated 4 months ago