Getting started

Pico provides a simple REST API for link management and analytics. This guide walks you through authentication, your first API call, and next steps.

1. Create an account

Sign up at Pico with your email or GitHub account. No credit card required.

2. Generate an API key

From your dashboard, go to Settings → API Keys and click Generate new key. Copy the key immediately — it will not be shown again.

3. Make your first API call

Use your API key in the Authorization header. Here is a curl example:

curl -X POST https://pico-ya5y.onrender.com/api/links \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer pk_pico_your_key_here" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"url": "https://example.com/my-long-article"}'

Response

{
  "id": "abc123xyz",
  "short_code": "qrV8k",
  "long_url": "https://example.com/long-article",
  "click_count": 0,
  "created_at": "2026-06-28T12:00:00Z",
  "expires_at": null,
  "disabled_at": null,
  "tags": []
}

4. Use your short link

Your short link is https://picolink.vercel.app/qrV8k. Visiting it redirects to the original URL. Track clicks from the dashboard or the analytics API.