The CritterKey ID integration API

For makers of smart feeders, doors, and enclosures: verify the pet at your device, not ours. One identity, verified on the hardware your customers already bought.

What enrollment looks like

An owner enrolls in roughly the same two minutes it takes to register a pet. The hardware step happens at your device, not in our cloud.

Owner registers their pet — takes a nose/face/iris photo at /register, biometrics are hashed locally into a CritterKey ID.

Owner pairs with your hardware — we issue a one-time signed enrollment code on the owner’s portal. They enter it on your device to bind the pet’s CritterKey ID to your hardware’s local store.

Your device can verify locally — a hash in, a boolean back. There is no raw biometric sent across the wire; there is no account look-up against our servers at feed time.

Privacy posture — what your device sees

Per query, your device receives a small, fixed-shape reply. No raw biometric ever crosses the API.

✅ What is shared

CritterKey ID hash (the same hash registered by the owner)
Species (e.g. cat, dog)
Match confidence (0.0–1.0)
Boolean: match / no-match
Owner opt-in share flag (true/false)

🚫 What is NOT shared

Raw biometric template (no nose print, no face embedding, no iris scan)
Owner name or email — unless the owner has explicitly opted in via /portal
GPS, location history, or trajectory
Medical history, vaccination, or chip number
Billing data or payment method

Run-time: how a device queries CritterKey

One call. Just a hash in, a match boolean out. Your device decides what to do with the result.

POST https://api.critterkey.com/v1/identify
Authorization: Bearer <partner_api_key>
Content-Type: application/json

{
  "candidate_hash": "f4a1...c092",
  "device_id": "feeder-A4-21"
}

// Response
{
  "match": true,
  "confidence": 0.94,
  "species": "cat",
  "share_ok": true
}

Identity — from your device’s perspective — is just the match boolean. The biometric stays where it belongs.

Try the live read flow → Read the API reference →

Talk to integrations

Building a feeder, door, or enclosure that should natively recognize CritterKey pets? Drop us a line — we’ll send onboarding docs, sandbox keys, and your integration timeline.