Quickstart

Zernio is one API for social publishing and customer communication: schedule posts across 16 platforms, answer DMs and comments from a unified inbox, run ads, pull analytics, and provision phone numbers for SMS, calls, and WhatsApp. This page takes you from API key to your first scheduled post — about five minutes.

Trying it out costs nothing: the first 2 connected accounts are free, no credit card required.

Base URL: https://zernio.com/api/v1

Install an SDK

npm install @zernio/node

Prefer another language? There are SDKs for Go, Ruby, Java, PHP, .NET, and Rust, each with its own setup page — and every example below also shows plain curl, which needs no install at all.

Authentication

All API requests require an API key. The SDKs read it from the ZERNIO_API_KEY environment variable by default.

Get Your API Key

1. Sign up free or log in — no credit card needed
2. Go to Settings → API Keys
3. Click Create API Key
4. Copy the key immediately - you won't be able to see it again

Set Up the Client

import Zernio from '@zernio/node';

const zernio = new Zernio(); // uses ZERNIO_API_KEY env var

Key format: sk_ prefix + 64 hex characters (67 total). Keys are stored as SHA-256 hashes - they're only shown once at creation.

Security tips: Use environment variables, create separate keys per app, and rotate periodically. You can also manage keys via the API.

Key Concepts

• Profiles - Containers that group social accounts together (think "brands" or "projects")
• Accounts - Your connected social media accounts, belonging to profiles
• Posts - Content to publish, schedulable to multiple accounts across platforms simultaneously
• Queue - Optional recurring time slots for auto-scheduling posts

IDs in this API are 24-character MongoDB-style strings in an _id field (like 66a1f0c2a4b9d3e8f1a2b3c4) — each step below returns the ID the next step needs.

Step 1: Create a Profile

Profiles group your social accounts together. For example, you might have a "Personal Brand" profile with your Twitter and LinkedIn, and a "Company" profile with your business accounts.

const { data } = await zernio.profiles.createProfile({
  body: {
    name: 'My First Profile',
    description: 'Testing the Zernio API'
  }
});

console.log('Profile created:', data.profile._id);
// → Profile created: 66a1f0c2a4b9d3e8f1a2b3c4

Save the _id value - you'll need it for the next steps.

Step 2: Connect a Social Account

Now connect a social media account to your profile. This uses OAuth, so it will redirect to the platform for authorization.

const { data } = await zernio.connect.getConnectUrl({
  path: { platform: 'twitter' },
  query: { profileId: '66a1f0c2a4b9d3e8f1a2b3c4' } // the profile _id from Step 1
});

// Redirect user to this URL to authorize
console.log('Open this URL:', data.authUrl);

Open the URL in a browser to authorize Zernio to access your Twitter account. After authorization, you'll be redirected back and the account will be connected.

Available Platforms

Replace twitter with any of these:

Step 3: Get Your Connected Accounts

After connecting, list your accounts to get the account ID:

const { data } = await zernio.accounts.listAccounts();

for (const account of data.accounts) {
  console.log(`${account.platform}: ${account._id}`);
}
// → twitter: 66b2e19d8c3f5a7e9d0b1c2d

Save the account _id - you need it to create posts.

Step 4: Schedule Your First Post

Now you can schedule a post! Here's how to schedule a tweet for tomorrow at noon:

// Tomorrow at 12:00 in the timezone below
const tomorrow = new Date();
tomorrow.setDate(tomorrow.getDate() + 1);
const scheduledFor = tomorrow.toISOString().slice(0, 10) + 'T12:00:00';

const { data } = await zernio.posts.createPost({
  body: {
    content: 'Hello world! This is my first post from the Zernio API',
    scheduledFor,
    timezone: 'America/New_York',
    platforms: [
      { platform: 'twitter', accountId: '66b2e19d8c3f5a7e9d0b1c2d' } // from Step 3
    ]
  }
});

console.log('Post scheduled:', data.post._id);

Step 5: Confirm It Worked

Fetch the post back — its status tells you exactly where it is in the pipeline:

const { data: check } = await zernio.posts.getPost({
  path: { postId: data.post._id } // the _id returned in Step 4
});

console.log(check.post.status);
// → scheduled

status moves through scheduled → publishing → published (or failed / partial if something goes wrong — see error handling). Once published, the response includes a platformPostUrl per platform: the live link to your post. You'll also see the post in your dashboard, and webhooks can push these status changes to you instead of polling.

That's the whole loop — profile, connected account, scheduled post, confirmation. Everything else is variations on this.

One Endpoint, Every Posting Mode

The same createPost call covers scheduling, publishing immediately, and drafts:

And cross-posting is just more entries in the platforms array — same content, one call, every network:

await zernio.posts.createPost({
  body: {
    content: 'Cross-posting to all my accounts, right now!',
    publishNow: true,
    platforms: [
      { platform: 'twitter', accountId: '66b2e19d8c3f5a7e9d0b1c2d' },
      { platform: 'linkedin', accountId: '66b2e19d8c3f5a7e9d0b1c2e' },
      { platform: 'bluesky', accountId: '66b2e19d8c3f5a7e9d0b1c2f' }
    ]
  }
});

The request shape is identical in every SDK and in raw JSON. Per-platform options (first comment, board IDs, video titles) are covered in the platform guides.

Beyond Posting

Publishing is the entry point, but the same API key and connected accounts open the whole engagement surface: the unified inbox, messaging channels, automations, ads, and analytics.

Reply to a DM

Read and answer Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp, and X conversations from one inbox:

await zernio.messages.sendInboxMessage({
  path: { conversationId: '66c3d2ae7b4f6c8d0e1f2a3b' }, // from List conversations
  body: {
    accountId: '66b2e19d8c3f5a7e9d0b1c2d',
    message: 'Thanks for reaching out! How can we help?'
  }
});

Find conversation IDs with List conversations.

Send an SMS

Provision a phone number, then message customers directly:

await zernio.sms.sendSms({
  body: {
    from: '+15551234567', // one of your SMS-enabled numbers
    to: '+15557654321',
    text: 'Your order has shipped!'
  }
});

Pull analytics

See how your posts perform across every connected account:

const { data } = await zernio.analytics.getAnalytics({
  query: { sortBy: 'engagement', limit: 5 }
});

Explore the rest

What's Next?

Going to production? Read up on rate limits, idempotent retries, and error handling. You can also set up a posting queue, invite team members, or manage everything from the CLI.