> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://learn.mechanic.dev/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://learn.mechanic.dev/faq/can-i-query-external-apis.md).

# Can I query external APIs?

{% hint style="info" %}
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).
{% endhint %}

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.)

For API keys, passwords, signing keys, and other reusable credentials, store the value as a [shop secret](/platform/globals-and-secrets.md) and reference it from the HTTP action with `secrets.some_key`.

{% hint style="info" %}
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.
{% endhint %}

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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