What the lyng API is, who it's for, and how it works.
An API (Application Programming Interface) is a way for two programs to talk to each other. Think of it like a waiter at a restaurant. You (your app) tell the waiter (the API) what you want, the waiter goes to the kitchen (lyng's servers), and brings back what you asked for.
In practice, this means you can write code that shortens URLs automatically, without anyone having to visit the lyng website manually. For example, you could build a Discord bot that shortens any link you paste into it, or a script that shortens 1000 URLs at once.
This API is for developers: people who write code and want to integrate link shortening into their own apps, bots, scripts, or workflows.
If you just want to shorten links yourself, you don't need the API. Just use the lyng website directly.
You send a message to lyng's servers over the internet using a standard format called HTTP (the same protocol your browser uses to load websites). Your message includes:
lyng processes your request and sends back a response, usually the short link you just created. All data is sent and received in a format called JSON, which is just a structured way of writing data that looks like this:
{
"shortUrl": "https://lyng.my.id/abc123",
"slug": "abc123"
}Command Prompt or PowerShell. On Mac it's called Terminal. The quickstart will walk you through using it.