Getting Sandbox and API Access

This guide is for practice teams that want programmatic access to their own Hint data.

Practices turn API Access on themselves. An admin on the practice enables it from Admin > Developers, and the sandbox is ready in the same session.

Before you enable it, check that API Access is the product you want. Hint offers two ways to get your data out of Hint, and they suit different jobs.

API Access or Data Exporter

Choose API Access if you want to

• Create or update records in Hint, not just read them
• React to changes as they happen, through webhooks
• Drive an application, a portal, or an automation that needs current data
• Look up a single patient, membership, or invoice on demand

Choose the Data Exporter if you want to

• Load Hint data into a warehouse, a BI tool, or a reporting stack
• Analyze history across every table rather than query records one at a time
• Avoid writing and operating an integration

Reporting is the most common reason teams pick the wrong product. If your goal is dashboards or analytics, the Data Exporter is usually the better fit: you get every table already joined by keys, without paging through the API and rebuilding the schema yourself. Read the Data Exporter article for its setup requirements, plan requirements, and pricing.

Some practices use both: the Data Exporter for analytics, and API Access for the workflows they automate.

flowchart TD
    A[What do you need?] --> B{Write data back<br/>into Hint?}
    B -->|Yes| C[API Access]
    B -->|No| D{Need it live,<br/>record by record?}
    D -->|Yes| C
    D -->|No| E[Data Exporter]

Both products are paid add-ons on your Hint plan. If you are unsure which one fits, contact the support team before you enable either.

What you get with API Access

When API Access is enabled, your practice gets:

• A developer area in the provider portal, under Admin > Developers
• A sandbox partner account and a sandbox practice, created for you and ready to use
• Sandbox API keys you can create right away
• Webhook endpoints and a webhook request log
• A developer team you manage separately from your practice staff list
• Live API keys, once your practice signs the API Access Agreement

Enable API Access

You must be an admin on the live practice. Do this in your live practice, not in a sandbox.

1. Sign in to app.hint.com.
2. Go to Admin > Developers > Get Started.
3. Read the price and terms shown on the page.
4. Click Purchase API Access, or Enable API Access if your plan already includes it.
5. Read the API Access Add-on Order Form in the dialog.
6. Select the agreement checkbox.
7. Click Purchase.

Hint creates your developer area, your sandbox partner, and your sandbox practice. Your practice user becomes the first member of the developer team.

Plan requirements and billing

API Access is not offered on the Launch plan. If your practice is on Launch, the page offers an upgrade instead of a purchase, and tells you the price on the lowest plan that offers API Access.

On plans that offer it, API Access is a recurring monthly add-on billed on your regular Hint invoice. On plans that include it, there is nothing to buy and no order form to sign. The page shows your practice's price before you confirm.

If you do not see Get Started

You need to be an admin on the live practice. If the Developers section is missing, ask an admin on your practice to enable API Access.

Once API Access is on, the developer area belongs to your developer team rather than to every practice admin. If the page tells you those settings are managed by someone else, ask a member of your developer team to add you. See Invite your developers below.

If anything does not behave as described here, contact the support team.

Build in the sandbox first

Your sandbox is live as soon as API Access is enabled. Nothing else has to happen first.

Go to Admin > Developers > API Keys and create a sandbox key. Sandbox keys only reach sandbox data, so you can build and test without touching real patient records.

Use the sandbox API base URL:

https://api.sandbox.hint.com

See Setting up your Sandbox Account & API Keys for what each sandbox account is for and how to add more of them.

Open live access

Live access is a separate step, and it is deliberately separate. Live API keys read and write real patient data.

1. Go to Admin > Developers > Get Started or Admin > Developers > API Keys.
2. Click Sign the API Access Agreement.
3. Read the agreement.
4. Click Agree.

Live API keys unlock immediately. Your sandbox is unaffected.

Only members of your practice's developer team can sign. Signed copies are kept under Admin > Developers > Documents.

Invite your developers

Manage your developer team from Admin > Developers > Team.

Adding a user to the developer team gives them the developer area and every sandbox account. It does not give them access to live practice data on its own. Grant live practice access separately, through your normal practice invite flow.

This lets a contractor or an in-house developer build against the sandbox without ever seeing real patient records.

Switch between accounts

A user with more than one account can switch context from the top navigation:

1. Click the current account name in the top nav.
2. Choose the account type (Practices, Companies, or Partners).
3. Click the account name to switch into it.

You can also switch into a sandbox practice from Admin > Developers > Sandboxes.

Next step

Continue to Setting up your Sandbox Account & API Keys.