Drive PartsBox from your own systems instead of the screen. The public API is operation-oriented: rather than exposing raw tables, it offers operations for parts, stock, storage, projects, BOMs, orders, builds, and lots. It speaks JSON or EDN and authenticates with an API key. On commercial plans, each API key is its own named user with a role, it does not count toward the user limit, and its actions show under its name in stock and build history — so "the receiving station" and "the test rig" are separate, accountable users.
A receiving station scans deliveries and calls the API to add stock, so parts are booked in without anyone opening a browser. A test rig creates a build when a batch passes, deducting the exact parts consumed. A nightly script pulls a full JSON backup on a schedule. A shop that quotes jobs pushes its negotiated offers and orders in from its own tooling.
The most common pattern is larger: make PartsBox the inventory system of record behind something else — an ERP, an MES, a shop-floor script, or an AI agent — so one database holds the truth about parts and stock while the other systems read and write through the API. Lot and build data comes through too, so a quality-management system can consume the same traceability record an auditor would.
The API is documented, with a machine-readable OpenAPI description — which means an AI assistant can read the specification and write a working integration script against it. Operations are added on demand: if your automation needs an operation that is not there yet, it can usually be added quickly, so say what you are building. For automation without code, a Zapier integration connects PartsBox to other tools, with triggers for completed builds and stock changes.
The API is how your other tools talk to PartsBox, not a way to copy your data into another system that then drifts out of date. That is a deliberate line: the value of an inventory is being the single account of what exists, and wholesale replication would quietly create a second, staler one. Full backups exist for data ownership, not for mirroring.
The API and Zapier are on the Essentials plan and up.