Quickstart

From a key to your first signed sentence and video in five steps.

1. Get a key

Contact us and tell us what you are building. We set up your organisation and send you a key. Trial keys start with sk_trial_, live keys with sk_live_. Put it in an environment variable on your server:

export SIGNA_KEY="sk_trial_…"

Keep it on your server

Anyone holding the key can use your plan. Never put it in a web page or a mobile app; call Signa from your backend and pass the result on.

2. Check it works

Ask who you are. The answer has your organisation, your monthly limits and what you have used so far.

curl https://api.usesigna.org/v1/api/me \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SIGNA_KEY"

3. Sign a sentence

curl https://api.usesigna.org/v1/sign \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SIGNA_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"text": "Mwiriwe", "from": "rw", "to": "rsl"}' \
  --output mwiriwe.sgn

The answer is the sentence in Signa's .sgn format, sent a word at a time. Save it, play it in your own player, or turn it into a video.

4. Make a video

curl "https://api.usesigna.org/v1/sign/video?shirt=3f72a0&skin=8c5a33&gender=female" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SIGNA_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/octet-stream" \
  --data-binary @mwiriwe.sgn \
  --output mwiriwe.mp4

You get an MP4 of the avatar signing the sentence, in the colours you chose. All the video options.

5. Go further