PawPlacer SDK

TypeScript/JavaScript client for the PawPlacer API. Server-side only.

Installation

npm install pawplacer-sdk

Setup

Generate an API key in Settings > SDK & API. Use a read key for websites and dashboards. Use a separate write key only for backend jobs that create records.

Store the key in a server-only environment variable and create one client per process:

import { PawPlacerClient } from "pawplacer-sdk";

export const pawplacer = new PawPlacerClient({
  cache: { enabled: true, refreshFrequencyMinutes: 180 },
});

By default, the client reads process.env.PAWPLACER_API_KEY. You can also pass apiKey explicitly when you need to use a different environment variable or credential source.

Pets

List pets

const result = await pawplacer.pets.list({
  status: "available",
  species: "dog",
  limit: 12,
});

result.data; // Pet[]
result.total; // total count
result.hasMore; // pagination

Filters: limit, offset, species, status, search, updated_since (ISO-8601). The API clamps limit to 100.

Get a pet

const pet = await pawplacer.pets.get("pet-uuid");

Create a pet

const pet = await pawplacer.pets.create({
  name: "Max",
  species: "dog",
  age_category: "young",
  sex: "male",
  size: "medium",
  status: "available",
  health: "good",
});

All fields above are required. Optional: breed, color, description, adoption_fee, good_with, temperaments, image_urls, custom_field_data, and more.

Update a pet

const updated = await pawplacer.pets.update("DOG-2026-001", {
  description: "Updated bio",
  status: "available",
  image_urls: ["https://example.com/max.jpg"],
});

Updates accept either the PawPlacer pet UUID or an assigned custom_id, and the payload can include only the fields that changed. Pass a stable idempotency key as the third argument for retry-safe sync jobs.

Custom fields

const fields = await pawplacer.pets.getCustomFields();
// Use to validate custom_field_data before creating pets

People (Adopters, Fosters, Surrenders & Volunteers)

All people endpoints require a type parameter: "adopter", "foster", "surrender", or "volunteer".

List people

const result = await pawplacer.people.list({
  type: "adopter",
  status: "active",
  limit: 25,
});

result.data; // Person[]
result.type; // "adopter"
result.total;
result.hasMore;

Filters: type (required), limit, offset, status, search, updated_since.

Get a person

const adopter = await pawplacer.people.get("person-uuid", "adopter");

Create a person

const adopter = await pawplacer.people.create({
  type: "adopter",
  name: "Jane Smith",
  email: "[email protected]",
  phone: "555-0100",
  status: "active",
  custom_field_data: { has_yard: true },
});

Only type and name are required. Optional: email, phone, address, status, custom_field_data, capacity. Create status accepts pending, active, training, or inactive; admin review states such as denied, suspended, and blocked are controlled in PawPlacer.

const surrender = await pawplacer.people.create({
  type: "surrender",
  name: "Sam Surrender",
  email: "[email protected]",
  custom_field_data: { reason_for_surrender: "Moving" },
  pets: [
    {
      create: {
        name: "Buddy",
        species: "dog",
        age_category: "adult",
        sex: "male",
        size: "large",
        status: "intake",
        health: "unknown",
        breed: ["Lab Mix"],
      },
      reason: "Moving",
      urgency: "high",
    },
    {
      pet_id: "existing-pet-uuid",
      notes: "Link this surrender to an existing pet profile",
    },
  ],
});

For surrenders, pets creates related surrender pet links in the same workflow. Use create with the normal pet create payload when the SDK should create and link a new pet, or pet_id to link an existing pet.

const volunteer = await pawplacer.people.create({
  type: "volunteer",
  name: "Val Volunteer",
  email: "[email protected]",
  custom_field_data: { preferred_shift: "Saturday" },
});

Custom fields

const fields = await pawplacer.people.getCustomFields("adopter");
// Returns custom fields configured for adopter, foster, surrender, or volunteer forms

Adoption Fees

Returns the account's full adoption fee configuration (species + attribute + adjustment rules).

const fees = await pawplacer.adoptionFees.get();
// AdoptionFeeEntry[] — { species, attribute_type, attribute_value, adjustment }

Pets also include a global_adoption_fee field when the account has fee rules configured and the pet has no manual override.

Contracts

Returns terms & conditions content for a given contract type. Content is markdown.

const contract = await pawplacer.contracts.get("adopter");
contract.type; // "adopter"
contract.content; // markdown string
contract.updated_at; // ISO-8601 or null

Valid types: "adopter", "foster", "volunteer", "surrender".

API Surface

| Method | HTTP | | ----------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------- | | pets.list(params?) | GET /api/pets | | pets.get(id) | GET /api/pets/{id} | | pets.getById(id) | GET /api/pets/{id} | | pets.findMany(params?, limit?) | GET /api/pets (returns Pet[]) | | pets.search(query) | GET /api/pets (returns Pet[]) | | pets.getByStatus(status) | GET /api/pets (returns Pet[]) | | pets.getCustomFields() | GET /api/pets/custom-fields | | pets.create(payload) | POST /api/pets | | pets.update(idOrCustomId, payload) | PATCH /api/pets/{idOrCustomId} | | people.list(params) | GET /api/people?type= | | people.get(id, type) | GET /api/people/{id}?type= | | people.getById(id, type) | GET /api/people/{id}?type= | | people.findMany(params, limit?) | GET /api/people?type= (returns Person[]) | | people.create(payload) | POST /api/people | | people.getCustomFields(type) | GET /api/people/custom-fields?type= | | adoptionFees.get() | GET /api/adoption-fees | | contracts.get(type) | GET /api/contracts?type= |

Idempotency

Every create call automatically sends an Idempotency-Key header, which makes SDK-managed retries safe. For background jobs that may replay across restarts, pass a stable key:

const pet = await pawplacer.pets.create(
  {
    name: "Max",
    species: "dog",
    age_category: "young",
    sex: "male",
    size: "medium",
    status: "available",
    health: "good",
  },
  { idempotencyKey: `nightly-sync:${externalId}` },
);

pawplacer.lastResponseMeta.idempotencyReplay; // true if replayed

Pass { idempotencyKey: false } to opt out.

Caching

GET responses are cached in memory with stale-while-revalidate. The cache is per-process.

cache: {
  enabled: true,
  refreshFrequencyMinutes: 60, // minutes; defaults to 180
}

When the API returns Cache-Control headers, those take precedence. no-store or max-age=0 bypasses the cache entirely.

pawplacer.clearCache(); // drop everything
pawplacer.invalidateCache("pets:list:"); // substring match
pawplacer.invalidateCache(/^people:/); // regex match
pawplacer.cacheStats(); // { hits, misses, size }

Error Handling

import {
  PawPlacerApiError,
  PawPlacerResponseValidationError,
} from "pawplacer-sdk";

try {
  await pawplacer.pets.create({
    name: "Max",
    species: "dog",
    age_category: "young",
    sex: "male",
    size: "medium",
    status: "available",
    health: "good",
  });
} catch (error) {
  if (error instanceof PawPlacerApiError) {
    console.error(error.status, error.code, error.message);
  } else if (error instanceof PawPlacerResponseValidationError) {
    console.error("Unexpected response shape:", error.payload);
  }
}

PawPlacerApiError is thrown for structured API errors (non-2xx). PawPlacerResponseValidationError is thrown when a 2xx response doesn't match the expected shape.

Custom parsing: throwIfApiError(payload) throws PawPlacerApiError for error payloads.

Common status codes:

| Status | Cause | | ------ | ----------------------------------------------- | | 400 | Validation or payload error | | 401 | Missing or invalid API key | | 403 | Key doesn't have scope for this endpoint | | 404 | Resource not found | | 409 | Idempotency key reused with a different payload | | 429 | Rate limited |

Rate Limits

Rate limits are per API key. Headers are exposed via pawplacer.lastResponseMeta.rateLimit.

| Endpoint | Requests / hour | | ------------------------------- | --------------- | | GET /api/pets | 100 | | GET /api/pets/{id} | 400 | | GET /api/pets/custom-fields | 15 | | POST /api/pets | 10 | | GET /api/people | 100 | | GET /api/people/{id} | 400 | | GET /api/people/custom-fields | 15 | | POST /api/people | 10 | | GET /api/adoption-fees | 15 | | GET /api/contracts | 15 |

Response Metadata

const result = await pawplacer.pets.list({ status: "available" });

pawplacer.lastResponseMeta.rateLimit; // { limit, remaining, reset }
pawplacer.lastResponseMeta.requestId; // for support tickets
pawplacer.lastResponseMeta.idempotencyReplay; // true if replayed

lastResponseMeta reflects the most recent API call.

Configuration

const client = new PawPlacerClient({
  apiKey: process.env.PAWPLACER_API_KEY, // optional when PAWPLACER_API_KEY is set
  apiUrl: "https://pawplacer.com",
  timeout: 30000,
  retryLimit: 2,
  retryBackoffLimit: 3000,
  debug: false,
  allowBrowser: false,
  cache: {
    enabled: true,
    refreshFrequencyMinutes: 180,
    maxSize: 1000,
  },
});

The SDK blocks browser usage by default to protect your API key. Set allowBrowser: true only for local development. cache.refreshFrequency is accepted for backward compatibility, but deprecated. Use cache.refreshFrequencyMinutes for new code.

Deprecated aliases:

| Alias | Use instead | | ----------------------------- | ------------------------------- | | client.getPetById(...) | client.pets.get(...) | | client.findPets(...) | client.pets.findMany(...) | | cache.refreshFrequency | cache.refreshFrequencyMinutes | | PetCreateInput.breeds | PetCreateInput.breed | | PetCreateInput.colors | PetCreateInput.color | | PetCreateInput.is_published | PetCreateInput.show_public |

Setup References

Node + TypeScript

import { PawPlacerClient } from "pawplacer-sdk";

export const pawplacer = new PawPlacerClient({
  cache: { enabled: true, refreshFrequencyMinutes: 180 },
});

export async function getAvailablePets() {
  return pawplacer.pets.list({ status: "available", limit: 12 });
}

Next.js App Router

// app/api/pets/route.ts
import { PawPlacerClient } from "pawplacer-sdk";

const pawplacer = new PawPlacerClient({
  cache: { enabled: true, refreshFrequencyMinutes: 60 },
});

export async function GET(request: Request) {
  const url = new URL(request.url);
  const species = url.searchParams.get("species") ?? undefined;
  const result = await pawplacer.pets.list({
    status: "available",
    species,
    limit: 12,
  });

  return Response.json({
    pets: result.data,
    total: result.total,
    hasMore: result.hasMore,
  });
}

Keep the SDK in API routes, server actions, server components, or getServerSideProps. Never use it in client components.

React + Vite

// server/api/pets.ts
import { PawPlacerClient } from "pawplacer-sdk";

const pawplacer = new PawPlacerClient();

export async function getAvailablePetsForReact(species?: string) {
  const result = await pawplacer.pets.list({
    status: "available",
    species,
    limit: 12,
  });

  return {
    pets: result.data,
    total: result.total,
    hasMore: result.hasMore,
  };
}

// src/api/pets.ts
export async function fetchAvailablePets(species?: string) {
  const params = new URLSearchParams();
  if (species) params.set("species", species);

  const suffix = params.toString() ? `?${params.toString()}` : "";
  const response = await fetch(`/api/pets${suffix}`);
  if (!response.ok) throw new Error(`Failed to load pets: ${response.status}`);
  return response.json();
}

React apps should fetch from your own backend route. The SDK and PAWPLACER_API_KEY stay on the server.

CommonJS

const { PawPlacerClient } = require("pawplacer-sdk");

const pawplacer = new PawPlacerClient({
  cache: { enabled: true, refreshFrequencyMinutes: 180 },
});

async function getAvailablePets() {
  return pawplacer.pets.list({ status: "available", limit: 12 });
}

module.exports = { getAvailablePets, pawplacer };

Types

All types are exported directly:

Shared: CustomField, PaginatedResponse<T>, CreateOptions, ApiError, RateLimitInfo, ApiResponseMeta

Pets: Pet, PetCreateInput, PetListParams, PetSpecies, PetAgeCategory, PetSex, PetSize, PetHealthStatus, PetCompatibility, PetTemperament, PetCustomField (alias for CustomField), CreatePetOptions (alias for CreateOptions)

People: Person, PersonCreateInput, PersonListParams, PersonListResponse, PersonType, PersonStatus, PersonCustomField (alias for CustomField), PersonCustomFieldsResponse, CreatePersonOptions (alias for CreateOptions)

Adoption Fees: AdoptionFeeEntry, AdoptionFeesResponse

Contracts: ContractResponse, ContractType

Examples

• examples/basic-usage.ts: Node/TypeScript reference functions for reads, writes, idempotency keys, and errors.
• examples/next-app-router.ts: Next.js App Router route handler and server action references.
• examples/react-vite-server-reference.ts: React/Vite server API reference.
• examples/react-vite-client-reference.ts: React/Vite browser fetch helper reference.
• examples/commonjs-reference.cjs: CommonJS reference functions with module exports.

Resources

• SDK documentation
• Developer API overview
• OpenAPI spec