Getting Started

This guide takes you from an empty Go project to a successful SocialKit request. The SDK is published as github.com/tigusigalpa/socialkit-go and requires Go 1.21+. 1

Prerequisites

You need a Go module, a SocialKit access key, and a URL you are permitted to process. Create and manage access keys from the SocialKit project dashboard. Keep a key out of source control, browser code, application logs, and screenshots. SocialKit recommends sending it in the x-access-key header; this is also the SDK default. 2

Requirement	Why it is needed
Go 1.21 or later	This is the SDK’s documented compatibility baseline.
A SocialKit access key	Required for protected operations, including Credits and scraping endpoints.
A context.Context	Every SDK method accepts one, enabling timeouts and cancellation.
An authorised source URL	SocialKit operations act on the supplied social-media or direct-video URL.

Install the module

From the root of your Go module, run:

go get github.com/tigusigalpa/socialkit-go

Store the access key outside your program. For local development, an environment variable is a simple choice:

export SOCIALKIT_ACCESS_KEY="YOUR_SOCIALKIT_ACCESS_KEY"

On Windows PowerShell, set the variable for the current shell with:

$env:SOCIALKIT_ACCESS_KEY = "YOUR_SOCIALKIT_ACCESS_KEY"

Do not commit a .env file containing a real secret. The SDK protects against accidental exposure in its own error and metadata values, but it cannot protect a key your application deliberately prints or stores. 3

Make your first request

Create main.go with a YouTube transcript call. NewClient returns a ready-to-use client; by default it calls https://api.socialkit.dev, uses a 30-second HTTP timeout, and authenticates each request with x-access-key. 3

package main

import (
    "context"
    "fmt"
    "log"
    "os"

    socialkit "github.com/tigusigalpa/socialkit-go"
)

func main() {
    key := os.Getenv("SOCIALKIT_ACCESS_KEY")
    if key == "" {
        log.Fatal("SOCIALKIT_ACCESS_KEY is not set")
    }

    client := socialkit.NewClient(key)

    transcript, meta, err := client.YouTube.Transcript(context.Background(), &socialkit.FetchRequest{
        URL: "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ",
    })
    if err != nil {
        log.Fatal(err)
    }

    fmt.Println(transcript.Transcript)
    if meta.CreditsUsed != nil {
        fmt.Printf("credits used: %.0f\n", *meta.CreditsUsed)
    }
}

Run it with:

go run .

The transcript value is the typed response, meta contains HTTP, credit, and rate-limit information when available, and err is a typed SDK error when the request fails. Continue with Core Concepts for the shared request/response model. 3 4

Verify connectivity without a key

client.Status.Get(ctx) calls the public GET /status endpoint. It is useful for a basic health check because SocialKit documents /status as the sole API operation that does not require an access key. 2 5

status, _, err := client.Status.Get(context.Background())
if err != nil {
    log.Fatal(err)
}
fmt.Println(status.Overall)

Run the bundled examples

The repository includes small programs for basic usage, pagination, downloads, and error handling. They read SOCIALKIT_ACCESS_KEY rather than embedding a credential. 1

go run ./examples/basic
go run ./examples/pagination
go run ./examples/download
go run ./examples/errors

Next steps

Configure timeouts, retries, or a custom HTTP client in Client Configuration. For a complete list of operations, visit Service Reference. If you are extracting text or summaries, Transcripts and Summaries provides reusable patterns.

References