# Quickstart

> Create a free Crius account, get an API key and make your first Robinhood Chain API request with cURL, JavaScript or Python in under five minutes.

Source: https://crius.sh/docs/quickstart/

1. **Create an account.** Go to [dashboard.crius.sh](https://dashboard.crius.sh/signup), enter your email and the one-time code we send you. The free plan needs no card and includes 1,000,000 credits a month.

2. **Create an API key.** In the dashboard, open **API keys** and create a key. Copy the secret straight away: it is shown once, and only a hash of it is stored. Keys look like `crs_live_AbCd1234_…`.

3. **Store the key in an environment variable.** Never put it in front-end code or commit it to git.

   ```bash
   export CRIUS_API_KEY="crs_live_…"
   ```

4. **Make your first request.** Get the price of Charge AI (CHARGE), a token that launched on Pons and graduated to a Uniswap v4 pool:

   **cURL**

   ```bash
   curl "https://api.crius.sh/v1/robinhood/token/0x7b8892cea949bc60d494681d1bc3ea96071ab0b8/price" \
     -H "x-api-key: $CRIUS_API_KEY"
   ```

   **JavaScript**

   ```js
   const res = await fetch(
     "https://api.crius.sh/v1/robinhood/token/0x7b8892cea949bc60d494681d1bc3ea96071ab0b8/price",
     { headers: { "x-api-key": process.env.CRIUS_API_KEY } },
   );
   const { data, meta } = await res.json();
   console.log(`${data.symbol} = $${data.usd} (block ${meta.block})`);
   ```

   **Python**

   ```python
   import os, requests

   r = requests.get(
       "https://api.crius.sh/v1/robinhood/token/0x7b8892cea949bc60d494681d1bc3ea96071ab0b8/price",
       headers={"x-api-key": os.environ["CRIUS_API_KEY"]},
   )
   body = r.json()
   print(body["data"]["symbol"], body["data"]["usd"], "at block", body["meta"]["block"])
   ```

5. **Read the response.** Data is in `data`; `meta` tells you the block it was read at and how fresh it is.

   ```json
   {
     "data": {
       "symbol": "CHARGE",
       "token": "0x7b8892cea949bc60d494681d1bc3ea96071ab0b8",
       "usd": 0.00000576413,
       "eth": 0.0000000024199,
       "dex": "uniswap_v4",
       "liquidity_usd": 6861.07,
       "confidence": "medium",
       "thin_liquidity": false
     },
     "meta": { "chain": "robinhood", "block": 95503718, "block_age_ms": 1050, "lag_ms": 37 }
   }
   ```

   The response headers tell you your limits: `x-ratelimit-remaining`, `x-credits-cost` and `x-quota-remaining`.

## Next steps

- Browse the [API reference](https://crius.sh/docs/reference/tokens/), or try endpoints live in the [playground](https://crius.sh/docs/playground/).
- Draw a live chart with the [chart example](https://crius.sh/docs/examples/chart/).
- Stream trades and new launches with the [WebSocket stream](https://crius.sh/docs/reference/stream/).
- Learn how [credits and rate limits](https://crius.sh/docs/plans-and-limits/) work.

> **Keep keys server-side:**
> An API key in a web page can be copied by anyone. For browser use, create a key restricted to your site's origin
> (it becomes read-only) or proxy requests through your own backend. See [Authentication](https://crius.sh/docs/authentication/).