Quickstart

Make your first three calls in under 10 minutes.

Get a sandbox key

Sign up at console.lmnauto.com — work email and company name, auto-approved, no waiting. Log in with the emailed one-time code, open Keys, and create a sandbox key.

The key is displayed once, at creation. LMN stores only a hash and cannot recover it for you; if you lose it, revoke and mint a new one.

Trial account limit	Value
Call budget per key	100 calls (lifetime, not per-month)
Active sandbox keys	2
IP allowlist	None — call from anywhere

Production keys carry no call budget at all. If you run out of trial calls while still building, use Request production access in the console and tell us what you’re working on — we can raise your sandbox budget without waiting for the full approval.

Base URLs

Environment	Base URL
Production	https://api.lmnauto.com
Sandbox	https://sandbox-api.lmnauto.com

All paths below are relative to the chosen base URL. Sandbox mirrors the production API surface and returns current auction inventory for read endpoints, but sandbox orders are non-binding. Use production only when you are ready to place real bid commitments.

Three calls in 5 minutes

# 1. List filter values for your search UI
curl -H "x-api-key: lmn_stg_YOUR_SANDBOX_KEY" \
  https://sandbox-api.lmnauto.com/v1/vehicles/facets

# 2. Browse inventory
curl -H "x-api-key: lmn_stg_YOUR_SANDBOX_KEY" \
  "https://sandbox-api.lmnauto.com/v1/vehicles?make=Toyota&limit=5"

# 3. Place an order (POST requires Idempotency-Key header)
curl -X POST \
  -H "x-api-key: lmn_stg_YOUR_SANDBOX_KEY" \
  -H "Idempotency-Key: $(uuidgen)" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"vehicle_id": "01HXYZ...", "max_bid_amount_usd": 15500}' \
  https://sandbox-api.lmnauto.com/v1/orders

Production keys are prefixed lmn_prd_; sandbox keys are prefixed lmn_stg_. The prefix is checked against the host — sending lmn_stg_* to api.lmnauto.com returns 401 invalid_api_key.

Watch your trial budget

Every response to a budgeted key carries two headers. Read them instead of counting calls yourself:

X-Quota-Limit: 100
X-Quota-Remaining: 94

X-Quota-Remaining is computed after the current request is counted, so the value you see is what you have left going forward. Keys without a budget — every production key, plus any sandbox key whose budget we’ve lifted — send no quota headers at all. Treat their absence as “unlimited”, not as “zero”. When the budget runs out you get 429 rate_limited.

To browse upcoming live auctions in sandbox, use date filters such as auction_date_from=2026-04-27 and page with cursor + limit. The API does not support page, perPage, fuel_type, result, or status filters.

End-to-end walkthrough

A typical integration flows through three phases:

Phase 1 — Selection
  GET  /v1/vehicles/facets       → populate filter dropdowns
  GET  /v1/vehicles               → paginated inventory list
  GET  /v1/vehicles/{id}           → full detail + price breakdown

Phase 2 — Acquisition
  POST /v1/orders                 → create order (= bid commitment)
  GET  /v1/orders/{id}             → poll until status = secured
  DELETE /v1/orders/{id}           → cancel (only from placed)

Phase 3 — Fulfillment
  GET  /v1/orders/{id}             → poll through export_processing → in_transit → delivery
  POST /v1/orders/{id}/status       → push partner-side fulfillment updates

Timing constraint: for auction vehicles, orders must be placed before order_cutoff_at. The cutoff equals auction_date − N minutes, where N is your integration’s pre-negotiated lead time (default 1440 = 24h; lower for integrations without a secondary inspection step). The cutoff is pre-computed on the Vehicle resource — read it from the response, don’t recompute. Buy-now vehicles have no cutoff. Orders with secondary_inspection_required: true have an earlier, calendar-based deadline — secondary_inspection_cutoff_at, end of day (auction day − 2) in your integration’s timezone; see Inspection request cutoff.

Error handling at a glance

All non-2xx responses share the shape:

{
  "error": {
    "code": "past_order_cutoff",
    "message": "The order window for this auction closed at 2026-04-20T12:00:00+09:00.",
    "request_id": "req_8829374"
  }
}

Branch client logic on error.code only — error.message is human-readable and may evolve. Full code matrix in Errors.