# Can I query external APIs?

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For more general information on third-party APIs, including more options for reading and writing data, see [Working with external APIs](/techniques/working-with-external-apis.md).
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Mechanic only has first-class API support for Shopify. However, you can use the [HTTP](/core/actions/http.md) action to fetch data from any source that's accessible with an HTTP URL. (APIs that require authentication via query param or header - basic auth, for example - are all supported. APIs that require authentication via OAuth are generally not supported.)

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Tip: use [Couchdrop's Shared Links](https://couchdrop.io/features/shared-links) to make any file available via a secret URL, from an FTP server or cloud storage provider.
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For this kind of work, we recommend an execution sequence that looks like this:

1. Use an HTTP action to fire a GET request for your data's URL.
2. Set up your task to respond to mechanic/actions/perform, so you can respond to the GET request's downloaded results.
3. If needed, query the external API again to get additional results (e.g. pagination, extended data).
4. If you expect to use the retrieved data frequently, or across several tasks, consider using the [cache](/platform/cache.md) to store that data for easy re-use.

## Example

* [Demonstration: Fetch an external configuration file](https://usemechanic.com/task/demonstration-fetch-an-external-configuration-file)
* [Demonstration: Query external paginated API](https://tasks.mechanic.dev/demonstration-query-external-paginated-api)


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# Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation

If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question.

Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter:

```
GET https://learn.mechanic.dev/faq/can-i-query-external-apis.md?ask=<question>
```

The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language.
The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation.

Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.