Getting Started
Below is a guide to help you:
- Access the Sila Console, create an account, and register your application
- Break down of the phases of the Sila Journey
- Learn to navigate the Sila API documentation
- Understand the Sila API endpoints and the order of operations
Step 1. Create a Sila Console account
Navigate to the Sila console and create your console account.
Step 2. Register your Application
This doc provides instructions on how to register an app using the Sila Console.
Step 3. 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 by one of our Sale team (you can connect with them at [email protected] or 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.
- Phase 2b: You will work with Sila's onboarding, compliance, and integration engineering teams to ensure your platform meets the technical requirements (outlined below).
- 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.
Technical Requirements
Below outlines some of the technical requirements you can access through the docs. Please note that the following requirements will need to be fulfilled by all customers, however there may be additional requirements based on your use case:
- Meeting Sila's Information Management and Security Requirements.
- Your Onboarding Specialist will provide and ask you to fill out an Information Management and Security questionnaire. Please note that Demo submissions will not be accepted without a complete and approved Info/Sec.
- Submitting your sandbox application for a demo requirements review.
- All demos are reviewed against the markers outlined in the Demo Checklist, the Agreement and Disclosures Requirements, and the Endpoint Specific Requirements documentation. Follow these closely as demos that fail to meet these markers will be rejected.
Step 4. Starting your Sandbox Application
BEFORE YOU START TO BUILD please familiarize yourselves with Sila's Information Management and Security Requirements and the Demo Overview for the checklist and requirements. The sooner you think through implementing these requirements the smoother your onboarding process will go.
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.
IMPORTANT: It is recommended that you focus your initial integration on the basic API endpoints (sections outlined below) as those are all 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, vAccounts, CKO, etc.).
Navigating the Sila API Documentation
The Sila API endpoints and other API information are grouped by sections, such as identity verification, transacting, payment instruments, etc.
- Section Headers - Use the section header to navigate to the Sila API endpoints which are relevant to a specific section of the flow or other API specific information.
- Primary Endpoint - The Sila API has several primary endpoints that must be called in a specific order for other primary endpoints and/or secondary endpoints to work.
For instance:
- You cannot use a transaction endpoint (ie:
/issue_sila
) until all of the required primary endpoints in the previous section (auth, identify verification and bank account linking) have been successfully called for an entity (individual or business end user). - You cannot call the secondary endpoint
/get_entity
until the/register
endpoint has been successfully called.
- You cannot use a transaction endpoint (ie:
- Secondary Endpoint - The Sila API provides several useful endpoints that are dependent on primary endpoints, but are not required. These endpoints often send or return secondary data pertaining to the entity (end user) or application. The secondary endpoints can be found in a drop down tab under their primary endpoint.
- Other Information - Located throughout a section and/or in a drop down tab you will find documentation that provides endpoint specific details or other information that will be useful to understanding or troubleshooting the Sila API.
-
CODE SAMPLES - Code samples for SDKs are provided for most endpoints at the bottom of the applicable docs.
Keep in mind that these are not "cut and paste" code solutions, but rather a visual guide for how the request or response should look.
-
WEBHOOKS - Sila implements webhooks so that your application can be notified when certain events occur asynchronously, eliminating the need for your app to continuously poll the Sila API to get an up-to-date status.
Webhooks are managed in the Console.
-
SILA CONSOLE & USER GUIDES - Sila has provided a UI friendly environment for many of the Sila API endpoint via the Customer Console. The Sila Console User Guide help you navigate the Console and provide guidance for managing Applications, Teams, Webhooks, and more.
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:
Legacy ECDSA
Sila continues to provide support for the Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm (ECDSA) authentication method.
Long-term, Sila plans to deprecate ECDSA, but will provide support until there is a method for transitioning already existing apps to JWT apps.
- IDENTITY VERIFICATION - All flows start with registering an entity (individual or business) using
/register
. From there, you'll follow either the Classic KYC or Advanced KYC flow (talk to Sales about enabling Advanced KYC and the differences). You can find an overview of the basic order of operations and links to relevant endpoint docs here. - ACCOUNT LINKING - The /linkaccount endpoint requires that you pass either a Plaid processor token or a MX auth code. _Required endpoint:
/link_account
To do that, you will need follow the steps in the Plaid + Sila Integration docs or the MX + Sila Integration docs.
- TRANSACTING - Requests to
/transact
,/issue_sila
, and/redeem_sila
transaction endpoints will not work until you have successfully completed the steps above. Required endpoints:/transact
OR/issue_sila
,/transfer_sila
,/redeem_sila
- note that/issue
,/transfer
, and/redeem
will eventually be deprecated in favor of/transact
. All RTP and ACHNow functionality lives in/transact
. You will NOT be able to use RTP or ACHNow without using the/transact
endpoint.
Updated 2 months ago