reference· 3 min read

API overview

Concepts, base URL, conventions, and the three ways to authenticate against the we-fly API.

What the API exposes

Capability	Scope required
List a pilot's flights	`flights:read`
Read a single flight (scoring, metadata, basic analysis)	`flights:read`
Upload an IGC flight on the pilot's behalf	`flights:write`
Delete a flight	`flights:delete`
Read the pilot's profile (name, club, CIVL id)	`profile:read`
Read the pilot's email address	`profile:email`
Update the pilot's profile (planned, not yet shipped)	`profile:write`
Read public community data (sites, leaderboards) (planned)	`community:read`

The exhaustive scope list and what each grants is in the Scopes reference.

Three ways to authenticate

we-fly supports three credential flows, picked by how your integration runs:

Flow	When to use	Doc
Client credentials (OAuth 2.0)	A backend you control accesses your own account programmatically (sync from another tracker, automated import, etc.)	Server-to-server
Authorization Code + PKCE (OAuth 2.0)	A third-party app or site wants to act on behalf of any we-fly user who grants consent	User authorization
Device code (RFC 8628)	A CLI tool, vario, or embedded device with no usable browser	Device authorization grant
API keys	Personal scripts, weekend hacks	Personal API keys

All three end up presenting a Bearer token to the API. The difference is how that token was obtained and which user it represents.

Base URL

https://we-fly.cloud

Use https:// only. The API does not redirect from http://; bad schemes get a connection error.

Versioning

Path prefix	Status
`/api/v1/...`	Stable. Breaking changes require a new prefix (`/api/v2/...`) and a 6-month deprecation window with a `Sunset` header.
`/api/oauth/...`	Stable. RFC 6749 / 7009 / 7662. The shapes of these endpoints are pinned by the RFCs.
`/.well-known/oauth-authorization-server`	Stable. RFC 8414.

Anything not under /api/v1/... or /api/oauth/... is not part of the public contract — it's internal to the dashboard and may change without notice.

Conventions

Request format

All request bodies are JSON unless explicitly noted (the OAuth token endpoint and the upload endpoint accept additional content types per their respective specs).
All headers and parameters are case-insensitive in name but case-sensitive in value (so Authorization: Bearer … works, but Bearer wf_at_FOO ≠ Bearer wf_at_foo).

Response format

Success: 2xx with a JSON body shaped as { "data": …, … }.
Failure: 4xx/5xx with { "error": "code", "error_description": "human prose" }.
Lists are wrapped in { "data": [...], "pagination": { … } }.

Time

All timestamps are ISO 8601 in UTC with a trailing Z ("2026-05-27T14:30:00.000Z").
The flight_date field is calendar-date only ("YYYY-MM-DD"), parsed from the IGC HFDTE header.

IDs

Flight IDs and user IDs are MongoDB hex ObjectIds (24 chars, [a-f0-9]).
Client IDs are opaque strings prefixed wf_app_.
Tokens are opaque strings prefixed wf_at_ (access) / wf_rt_ (refresh) / wf_key_ (API key) / wf_code_ (authorization code) / wf_dc_ (device code) / wf_secret_ (client secret) / wf_whsec_ (webhook signing secret).
The prefix is stable — your secret scanner can pattern-match on it.

Operational requirements

Always send a User-Agent that identifies your integration. We use it in support requests and to scope rate-limit adjustments. Example: User-Agent: XContestSync/1.2 (+https://xcontest.org).
Honour Retry-After on 429 responses. Hammering us when limited will get your app suspended.
Refresh tokens are single-use. See the refresh-token rotation rules — if you replay an old refresh token, your entire token chain is revoked and the user has to re-authorise.
Never store secrets in client-side code (browser bundle, mobile app binary). Public clients must use PKCE; confidential clients must keep clientSecret server-side only.

There is currently no separate sandbox environment. We recommend you register a pending application against production and test with your own account first — pending applications are restricted to read-only scopes for their owner, so the blast radius is contained. Promote to approved (admin action) once you're ready to onboard other users.