Quick start

In this guide you create an ingest key, send one event and one log line with curl, and watch them arrive on the dashboard. It takes about two minutes.

Pick your stack

The fastest path is one command in your project folder. It detects the framework, shows a diff of the few lines it adds, and sends a test event:

npx simpledatalogs init

Or follow the page for your stack:

Web	Mobile and games	Servers
Next.js · React (Vite) · Vue and Nuxt · SvelteKit · Plain HTML	React Native / Expo · iOS and macOS · Flutter · Android · Unity	Node · Laravel · Python · Go · Rails (HTTP recipe)

On WordPress or Shopify, install the WordPress plugin or the Shopify app instead.

The rest of this page does the same with curl, so you can see exactly what goes over the wire.

Before you begin

You need an account at simpledatalogs.com and a terminal with curl. The Free plan needs no card.

Early access

While sign-up is closed, accounts are by invitation: choose Ask for early access on the site.

1. Create a project and an environment

1. Sign in and choose New project. Name it after your app, for example Screenshotter.
2. Open the project and choose New environment, for example production or development.

Every environment starts with one deployment called default. You can add more later, one per build or source (see Core concepts).

2. Create an ingest key

1. Open the environment and go to the Deployments & keys tab.
2. Choose Create key, keep the default deployment, and pick a kind:
   • Public (sdl_pub_…) for apps and websites. It is write-only and safe to ship.
   • Secret (sdl_sec_…) for servers.
3. Choose Create key and copy the key.

Copy it now

Only a hash of the key is stored, so the dialog is the only time you see the full key. A new key starts working within a few seconds.

3. Send your first event

Replace sdl_pub_… with your key and run:

curl -X POST https://edge.simpledatalogs.com/v1/ingest \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer sdl_pub_…" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"event": "hello_world", "device_id": "my-laptop"}'

You should see:

{"accepted":"0199f0c4-…"}

A 202 with an accepted id means the event is durably stored. If you see {"error":"invalid_key"} instead, wait a few seconds and try again: a brand-new key takes a moment to go live.

4. Send a log line

Log lines don't need a special format. Send plain text, one entry per line:

curl -X POST https://edge.simpledatalogs.com/v1/ingest \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer sdl_pub_…" \
  -H "Content-Type: text/plain" \
  --data-binary $'2026-10-17 09:14:00 ERROR Payment failed for order 7\n2026-10-17 09:14:02 INFO Retried order 7'

Each line becomes a row with a time, a level and a message. See Text log lines for every format that is recognized.

5. Watch it arrive

Open the environment's Dashboard. The first event shows up live, with a "first event received" note. hello_world appears in the events table, my-laptop counts as one active device, and the two log lines are on the Logs tab.

Make it retry-safe

The first example is fine for a test. In a real app, give every event an event_id and a ts when it happens, so a retried request never counts twice:

curl -X POST https://edge.simpledatalogs.com/v1/ingest \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer sdl_pub_…" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "event": "signup",
    "event_id": "'"$(uuidgen)"'",
    "ts": "'"$(date -u +%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ)"'",
    "device_id": "my-laptop",
    "props": {"plan": "pro", "is_trial": true}
  }'

Send the same request twice and the dashboard still counts one signup.

Let an SDK do this

The SDKs for JavaScript, Swift, Laravel, Flutter, Android, Unity, Python and Go set event_id and ts for you, batch, keep an outbox and retry. Or paste the setup prompt from the key dialog into your coding agent.

Next steps

• Core concepts: how keys, environments and deployments fit together.
• Events and log objects: every field you can send.
• Responses: what each status code means and what your client should do.