# cURL Quickstart

This quickstart covers the full async flow using cURL.

## 1) Set environment variables

```bash
export REDACT_API_KEY="YOUR_API_KEY"
export REDACT_BASE_URL="https://api.redactpdf.ai"
```

## 2) Create a job and upload PDFs

`POST /v1/jobs` accepts `multipart/form-data` and one or more files.

```bash
curl -sS -X POST "$REDACT_BASE_URL/v1/jobs" \
  -H "X-API-Key: $REDACT_API_KEY" \
  -H "X-Idempotency-Key: demo-job-001" \
  -F 'files=@/absolute/path/contract.pdf;type=application/pdf' \
  -F 'files=@/absolute/path/invoice.pdf;type=application/pdf' \
  -F 'pii_categories=["Person","Email","PhoneNumber","Address"]' \
  -F 'retention=ephemeral'
```

Example response:

```json
{
  "job_id": "b3f2b2e0-6f30-4f3e-8a7b-2f2a20a7d91c",
  "status": "analyzing",
  "retention": "ephemeral",
  "documents": [
    {
      "id": "7f4f4f85-6b7a-4f88-9a8a-7b9a6a2d2fd0",
      "file_name": "contract.pdf",
      "status": "uploaded"
    },
    {
      "id": "95457f6e-bd9f-4c95-b1b2-b6e86f0137d2",
      "file_name": "invoice.pdf",
      "status": "uploaded"
    }
  ]
}
```

## 3) Poll job status

```bash
JOB_ID="b3f2b2e0-6f30-4f3e-8a7b-2f2a20a7d91c"

curl -sS -X GET "$REDACT_BASE_URL/v1/jobs/$JOB_ID" \
  -H "X-API-Key: $REDACT_API_KEY"
```

Wait until each document reaches a terminal state:

- success: `redacted`
- failure: `error`

## 4) Download each redacted output

```bash
DOC_ID="7f4f4f85-6b7a-4f88-9a8a-7b9a6a2d2fd0"

curl -sS -L "$REDACT_BASE_URL/v1/documents/$DOC_ID/output" \
  -H "X-API-Key: $REDACT_API_KEY" \
  -o contract-redacted.pdf
```

## 5) Optionally delete the job

```bash
curl -sS -X DELETE "$REDACT_BASE_URL/v1/jobs/$JOB_ID" \
  -H "X-API-Key: $REDACT_API_KEY"
```

## Next steps

- [Jobs API reference](https://redactpdf.ai/docs/api-reference/jobs.md)
- [Documents API reference](https://redactpdf.ai/docs/api-reference/documents.md)
- [Error handling guide](https://redactpdf.ai/docs/guides/error-handling.md)