Smartsheet API Reference (2.0.0)

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Updated 2024-10-09





Introduction

The Smartsheet API enables you to programatically access and manage your organziation's Smartsheet resources. Here are some of the things you can do:

  • Read and update sheets
  • Manage folders and workspaces
  • Administer Smartsheet plans and user accounts

The API resource specification includes object schemas, method specifications, and code snippets for Folders, Sheets, Cells, and more.

IMPORTANT:

  • The Smartsheet API is restricted to users on Business and Enterprise plans
  • The Developer Agreement governs the use of the Smartsheet API and Smartsheet software development kits (SDKs)

Let's start with the essentials.

Base URL

https://api.smartsheet.com/2.0

Authentication

The API authenticates using access tokens (API keys). You can generate access tokens in the Smartsheet UI.

Each API request requires passing in an access token as the Bearer value in your authorization header. For example,

Authorization: Bearer JKlMNOpQ12RStUVwxYZAbcde3F5g6hijklM789

Request

For example, you can list your sheets by executing the following GET /sheets method (swap in your access token).

curl -X GET -H "Authorization: Bearer JKlMNOpQ12RStUVwxYZAbcde3F5g6hijklM789" \
"https://api.smartsheet.com/2.0/sheets"

Response

The JSON response should look something like this (after formatting):

{
  "pageNumber": 1,
  "pageSize": 100,
  "totalPages": 1,
  "totalCount": 2,
  "data": [
    {
      "id": 6141831453927300,
      "name": "My first sheet",
      "accessLevel": "ADMIN",
      "permalink": "https://app.smartsheet.com/b/home?lx=8enlO7GkdYSz-cHHVus33A",
      "createdAt": "2023-09-25T17:38:02Z",
      "modifiedAt": "2023-09-25T17:38:09Z"
    },
    {
      "id": 6141831453927300,
      "name": "Sheet shared to me",
      "accessLevel": "VIEWER",
      "permalink": "https://app.smartsheet.com/b/home?lx=8enlO7GkdYSz-cHHVus33A",
      "createdAt": "2017-06-27T21:17:15Z",
      "modifiedAt": "2023-04-19T17:16:05Z"
    }
  ]
}

Congratulations on executing your first Smartsheet API request!

What's next?

API Basics

Authentication and Access Tokens

The API authenticates using access tokens (API keys). An access token must accompany every request.

Generate an Access Token

You can generate access tokens in the Smartsheet UI.

  1. Go to the Smartsheet UI.
  2. Click the Account button in the lower-left corner of the Smartsheet screen, and then click Personal Settings.
  3. Click the API Access tab.
  4. Click the Generate new access token button to obtain an access token.

IMPORTANT: Store your access token in a secure location. See Access Token Best Practices.

Use Access Tokens in Requests

Pass in your access token as the Bearer value in your request's authorization header. For example,

Authorization: Bearer JKlMNOpQ12RStUVwxYZAbcde3F5g6hijklM789

The example request below, gets a listing of sheets belonging to the user associated with the access token. You can try the command by swapping in your own access token.

curl -X GET -H "Authorization: Bearer JKlMNOpQ12RStUVwxYZAbcde3F5g6hijklM789" \
"https://api.smartsheet.com/2.0/sheets"

IMPORTANT: Since the access token is being transmitted in clear text, all API calls are done over HTTPS.

As an alternative to using manually generated access tokens, you can authenticate consenting users on the fly via OAuth with Smartsheet.

See the Security section for details and security best practices.

Dates and Times

The Smartsheet API returns all dates and times in UTC and formatted for ISO-8601, YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SSZ. If you specify a date and time, you should also send that information in ISO-8601 format. If a date/time needs to be displayed to an end-user in their local time zone, you must do the conversion using the user's time zone, which you can obtain by getting the current user.

You can optionally choose to receive and send dates/times in numeric format, as milliseconds since the UNIX epoch (midnight on January 1, 1970, in UTC), using the query string parameter numericDates with a value of true. This query parameter works for any API request.

NOTE: Some SDK methods use language-specific Date objects, which require different date formats.

Filtering

You cannot create or update filters using the API; however, you can query which rows have been filtered out and you can get filter definitions.

For details, see Filters object.

Formatting

To set or read formatting programmatically, Smartsheet uses a compact format string, cell.format, which looks something like this: ",,1,1,,,,,,,,,,,,,". The position and sample values in this string are explained in the following format descriptor table:

Format Descriptor Table

Position Lookup Property Example Value Format String
0 fontFamily 0 = Arial, default "0,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,"
1 fontSize 0 = 10 pt, default ",0,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,"
2 bold 1 = on ",,1,,,,,,,,,,,,,,"
3 italic 1 = on ",,,1,,,,,,,,,,,,,"
4 underline 1 = on ",,,,1,,,,,,,,,,,,"
5 strikethrough 1 = on ",,,,,1,,,,,,,,,,,"
6 horizontalAlign 2 = center ",,,,,,2,,,,,,,,,,"
7 verticalAlign 2 = middle ",,,,,,,2,,,,,,,,,"
8 color (text) 4 = #FEEEF0 ",,,,,,,,4,,,,,,,,"
9 color (background) 8 = #E6F5FE ",,,,,,,,,8,,,,,,,"
10 color (taskbar) 9 = #F3E5FA ",,,,,,,,,,9,,,,,,"
11 currency 13 = USD ",,,,,,,,,,,13,,,,,"
12 decimalCount 3 = three decimal places ",,,,,,,,,,,,3,,,,"
13 thousandsSeparator 1 = on ",,,,,,,,,,,,,1,,,"
14 numberFormat 2 = currency ",,,,,,,,,,,,,,2,,"
15 textWrap 1 = on ",,,,,,,,,,,,,,,1,"
16 dateFormat 1 = mmmm d yyyy (December 8, 1997) ",,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,1"

NOTES:

  • Formats that have not been explicitly set are omitted in the descriptor string. For example, a cell that has been set to bold and italic, but has no other formats applied to it, has a format descriptor of ",,1,1,,,,,,,,,,,,,".
  • Use GET /serverinfo to return the FormatTables object, which tells you both the default settings and what formatting options are available.

Applying Formatting

Use the "include=format" query-string parameter on API operations that return detailed objects, such as GET /sheets/{sheetId} or GET sheets/{sheetId}/rows/{rowId}. If there is formatting other than default settings, the return includes a format property. If an object has conditional formatting, the format property returned will have a conditionalFormat value.

Setting the format of a row object or column object through the API simply sets the baseline format for new or blank cells in that row or column. It does not affect cells that already have a value.

If you want to change the formatting of cells that already have content, for instance you want to make a row bold, then you have to set the format for each cell individually.

Formulas

Formulas are processed per cell in the UI. Use the Cell object to manipulate formulas via the API.

For requests, use Update Rows to add or update the formula in a cell.

For response payloads, formulas (when present) are returned whenever the Cell object is returned, so for example, GET /sheets/(id) returns the Cell object for each cell and that object contains a formula value when the cell contains a formula.

HTTP and REST

The REST URL structure follows typical resource-oriented conventions.

To get a list of sheets, use the following:

GET https://api.smartsheet.com/2.0/sheets

This returns a list of Sheet objects, where each sheet has an id attribute.

To get details on the sheet with id 123456, use the following:

GET https://api.smartsheet.com/2.0/sheets/123456

This Id pattern is repeated throughout the API. Columns, rows, cells, comments, attachments, or any other data element have a unique Id.

If you don't want to make raw HTTP calls, Smartsheet also has several Software Development Kits (SDKs) that provide a higher level interface for popular programming languages. For more information, see SDKs and Samples.

HTTP Headers

Unless otherwise specified, all API endpoints expect request body data to be in JSON, and the response body data is returned as JSON.

The following HTTP request headers may be required, depending on the operation and endpoint being invoked:

Header Definition Example
Authorization Required for all endpoints, except for POST /token. The access token. Bearer JKlMNOpQ12RStUVwxYZAbcde3F5g6hijklM789
Content-Type Required for POST and PUT requests. Defines the structure for the response. application/json
Assume-User Optional. Allows an admin to act on behalf of, or impersonate, the user to make API calls. The email address used to identify the user must be URI-encoded. jane.doe%40smartsheet.com

HTTP Verbs

Call the API using the following standard HTTP methods:

  • GET (to retrieve an object or list multiple objects in a specific category)
  • POST (to create)
  • PUT (to modify)
  • DELETE

HTTP Status Codes

Smartsheet uses a combination of HTTP status codes and custom error codes with a descriptive message in JSON-formatted Error objects to give you a more complete picture of what has happened with your request.

HTTP
status code
Meaning To Retry or Not to Retry?
2xx Request was successful.

Example: 200 Success
--
4xx A problem with request prevented it from executing successfully. Never automatically retry the request.

If the error code indicates a problem that can be fixed, fix the problem and retry the request.
5xx The request was properly formatted, but the operation failed on Smartsheet's end. In some scenarios, requests should be automatically retried using exponential backoff.

For example, doing a GET on a non-existent sheet at https://api.smartsheet.com/2.0/sheets/123456 results in an HTTP status code of 404, indicating the resource was not found.

{
  "errorCode": 1006,
  "message": "Not Found"
}

Some errors may contain a detail attribute set to an object with additional error details that may be useful in programmatically handling the error. If so, it is noted in the specific API operation for which the error may occur.

NOTE: Smartsheet has custom error codes to help you troubleshoot issues. See Error Codes.

Limitations

While Smartsheet is improving capacity frequently, there are some hard limits that might be helpful to know:

  • When adding or updating rows, limit your request to 500 rows at a time.
  • A sheet cannot exceed a total of 500,000 cells. To determine how close you are to the 500,000 cell limit, multiply the number of columns in your sheet by the number of rows. For example, a sheet with 20,000 rows can only have 25 or fewer columns, and a sheet with 400 columns can only have 1,250 or fewer rows.
  • Any one sheet can have up to 500,000 inbound cell links. (Smartsheet Gov has an inbound cell link limit of 100,000.)
  • No cell can contain more than 4,000 characters.
  • When using a GET /reports/{reportId} call with paging, the default is 100 rows. If you need larger sets of data from your report, this operation can return a maximum of 10,000 rows per request.
  • Reports are limited to 50,000 rows.
  • When sharing emails, you can send 1000 per API call.

The following features aren't yet supported for sheets with more than 5000 rows, or more than 200 columns:

  • Bridge by Smartsheet
  • Quip connector
  • Tableau connector
  • PowerBI connector
  • Zapier connector
  • Google Docs Merge connector
  • Google Forms sync connector
  • LiveData connector
  • Calendar App

Looping

Looping is an expected action when working with the Smartsheet API. But when do you run the For Loop? Do you loop through multiple endpoint calls or is there a more efficient way?

For instance, if you're looking for multiple values on a given sheet, fetch the entire sheet. Do the searching on the return data in one single For Loop rather than calling the search endpoint multiple times with different values.

Multi-contact or Multi-picklist: Working with Complex Objects

New column types, such as MULTI_CONTACT_LIST and MULTI_PICKLIST, offer more complex ways to work with columns. Smartsheet has provided a backwards compatible way for these payloads to work with your existing integrations while also giving you a way to query for their content.

With either column type, there are two ways of receiving the response:

  • If you do nothing to your code, column types will display as TEXT_NUMBER
  • If you use the level query parameter as detailed below, column types will display as MULTI_CONTACT_LIST or MULTI_PICKLIST and return a complex object (aka a non-primitive type)

Smartsheet uses two indicators to help you discover changes in the return data for your API calls:

  • level: a query parameter that is incremented when a new feature or column type is added
  • version: each element in the Columns array is set to one of the following values:
Text Multi-contact Multi-picklist
0 1 2

You must use the level query parameter, for example level=2, to return a complex object with the new column type. Without the query parameter, the response will be backwards-compatible, that is a string. The include=objectValue query parameter is necessary to see the return as a complex value, such as actual email addresses rather than display names.

Use the highest possible level for each endpoint, as in the following table:

Endpoint category Level
Dashboards 4
Reports 3
Sheets 2

Object Details vs List Summaries

Many of the List All commands, for example, GET /sheets, return only an abbreviated object for each object returned. For full details, read a single item, such as GET /sheets/{sheetId}. In many cases, you can refine the exact object properties to be returned by using include and exclude query parameters.

The JSON representation of the objects returned from the List All REST endpoints will only include a subset of the properties documented here. However, the objects returned from the Java and C# SDKs will represent the omitted properties with NULLs.

Query Strings

Many API calls can be modified by including one or more of these common query strings:

Query Parameter Type Description More Info
accessApiLevel Number Allows COMMENTER access for inputs and return values. For backwards-compatibility, VIEWER is the default. For example, to see whether a user has COMMENTER access for a sheet, use accessApiLevel=1.
allowPartialSuccess Boolean If true, allows bulk operations to process even if one or more operations are invalid for some reason, for example, allowPartialSuccess=true. Bulk Operations
include or exclude String When applicable for a specific object, various include or exclude parameters are available, for example, include=format. Object reference or Formatting
includeAll Boolean If true, includes all results, for example, includeAll=true. Paging
level Number Use for complex objects. Working with Complex Objects
numericDates Boolean If true, allows you to input or receive dates in numeric format, for example, numericDates=true. Dates and Times
page String Specifies which page to return, for example, page=4. Paging
pageSize Number Specifies the maximum number of items to return per page, for example, pageSize=25. Paging

NOTE: Query strings are case sensitive. If you do not see the expected response, confirm that your query is formatted correctly.

Sheets/Columns/Rows/Cells

Sheets have a core hierarchy of Sheet > Column > Row > Cell. The strict hierarchy tells you how to associate the objectId with the object. For example, your return might include a Sheet object with many Row objects. Each object has an objectId. The strict hierarchy helps you map the objectId to the sheet or specific row.

Cells are a little different. You identify a cell by its location in the grid, so you need both a column Id and a row Id to pinpoint a specific cell. The following table defines these terms and points you to places in this documentation where you can find more information:

UI Element Description More Info
sheet A sheet can exist in a user's Home folder, in a folder, or in a workspace. It is comprised of columns, rows, and cells, and may optionally contain attachments or discussions. Sheet object
column A Column object defines the type of the column, but does not actually contain cells. The Column Id identifies the cells in a row. Column object, Column types
row A row is a component of a sheet or report. Each row is composed of a collection of cells, and may optionally contain attachments or discussions. Row object
cell A cell is a location within a sheet that may contain a value. A collection of cells comprises each row in a sheet. Cell object, Cell reference

Sheet Responses

Many Smartsheet API operations handle sheets, rows, columns, and cells. Each is identified by an Id and it is important to understand the relationship between these objects. Typically you loop through the columns to determine the Id of the columns you are interested in. Then you loop through the rows and contained cells to find actual values. The annotated sample response below illustrates these concepts by calling a very simple sheet called "Employee Roster".

Basic sheet with 2 rows and 2 columns

Before you begin, you should already have an access token, which you used in the exercise above. Use the same access token for this walkthrough.

Step 1: The first thing you must have is a sheetId. To find a sheetId through the UI, with the sheet open, click "Sheet Actions" in the left toolbar and select "Properties". NOTE: use List Sheets if you want to do this programmatically.

Image of the Sheet Properties window

Step 2: Copy the sheetId into the API call, GET /sheets, as below:

curl -X GET -H "Authorization: Bearer JKlMNOpQ12RStUVwxYZAbcde3F5g6hijklM789" "https://api.smartsheet.com/2.0/sheets/6141831453927300"

Step 3: The sample request and response are displayed below. NOTE: while JSON doesn't have a comment feature, this sample uses comments to help you identify the objects in the response.

{
  "id": 6141831453927300,    // Sheet Id
  "name": "My first sheet",
  "columns": [{              // Each Column object associates column Id
                             // to title and defines the
                             // column details

        "id": 2517104256673668,   // Column Id
        "index": 0,
        "title": "Name",
        "type": "TEXT_NUMBER",
        "primary": true,
        "width": 150
      },
      {
        "id": 7020703884044164,   // Next column Id
        "index": 1,
        "title": "EmployeeId",
        "type": "TEXT_NUMBER",
        "width": 150
      }
  ],
  "rows": [{                       // A Row object
         "id": 564480076736388,    // Row Id
         "rowNumber": 1,
         "expanded": true,
         "createdAt": "2017-05-12T16:52:38Z",
         "modifiedAt": "2017-05-22T20:40:14Z",
         "cells": [{  // Each row contains an array of cells,
                      // which have the actual content

                     "columnId": 2517104256673668,
                     // The column Id can be interpreted by
                     // looking at the array of column
                     // definitions above. That tells you
                     // this is the "Name" column

                     "value": "John Doe",
                     "displayValue": "John Doe"
                   },
                   {
                     "columnId": 7020703884044164,
                     "value": 12345,            // Actual cell value
                     "displayValue": "12,345"
                     // How the cell value is displayed in the UI
                   }
         ]},
       {
         "id": 5068079704106884,
         "rowNumber": 2,
         "siblingId": 564480076736388,
         "expanded": true,
         "createdAt": "2017-05-12T16:52:38Z",
         "modifiedAt": "2017-05-22T20:40:14Z",
         "cells": [{
                     "columnId": 2517104256673668,
                     "value": "Jane Roe",
                     "displayValue": "Jane Roe"
                   },
                   {
                     "columnId": 7020703884044164,
                     "value": 67890,
                     "displayValue": "67890"
                   }
         ]
       }
  ]
}

This core hierarchy of Sheet > Column > Row > Cell is essential to working with the Smartsheet API. As your user's sheets grow in complexity, the responses do too. This walkthrough has given you some navigational aid in finding the right value to plug into your API calls. Use the API Reference and the example language tabs to learn more.

Troubleshooting

Should you encounter issues with the Smartsheet API while building an integration using a particular programming language, for example C#, Java, Node.js, Python, or Ruby, keep the following troubleshooting techniques in mind.

Try executing the same API Request using a tool like cURL or Postman. By taking your code out of the equation, you can isolate troubleshooting to the raw Request / Response.

  • If you receive a similar error when you execute the Request using cURL or Postman, this suggests an issue with the Request format or contents. Once you have the Request working in cURL or Postman, update your code accordingly.
  • If you can execute the Request successfully using cURL or Postman, but not via your code, this suggests that the Request your code is sending is somehow different than what you intend. Compare the (successful) Request from cURL or Postman with the (unsuccessful) Request that your code generates. (See step #2 below.)

Examine the Request that your code is sending (including the HTTP verb, URI, headers, and Request body) and the Response that it's receiving back from Smartsheet (including the HTTP status code, headers, and response body).

  • If you've implemented Request / Response logging in your application, inspect the full trace of Request and Response in the log file. Compare the Request that your application is logging with the (successful) Request from cURL or Postman, and update your code to correct any discrepancies.
  • Alternatively, you may choose to use a tool like Fiddler or Charles HTTP Proxy to inspect the full trace of Request and Response as it goes across the wire. Compare the Request trace that your application generates with the (successful) Request from cURL or Postman, and update your code to correct any discrepancies.

Check for capitalization errors. NOTE: URL endpoints are all lower case, while object properties and query parameters are camelCase.

User Impersonation

Allows an admin to act on behalf of, or impersonate, the user to make API calls. You might do this to troubleshoot a user problem or cover for vacations and sick time. As with cURL, the email address used to identify the user must be URI-encoded.

An admin cannot impersonate another admin.

NOTE: You must manually generate a token to assume user.

cURL example

curl https://api.smartsheet.com/2.0/sheets \
-H "Authorization: Bearer ll352u9jujauoqz4gstvsae05" \
-H "Assume-User: jane.doe%40smartsheet.com" \

C# example

SmartsheetClient smartsheet = new SmartsheetBuilder()
  .SetAccessToken(accessToken)
  .SetAssumedUser("jane.doe@smartsheet.com")
  .Build();

Java example

smartsheet.setAssumedUser("jane.doe@smartsheet.com");

Node.js example

// Set options
var options = {
  assumeUser: "jane.doe@smartsheet.com"
  };

// List Sheets
smartsheet.sheets.listSheets(options)
  .then(function(sheetList) {
    console.log(sheetList);
  })
  .catch(function(error) {
    console.log(error);
  });

Python example

smartsheet_client.assume_user("jane.doe@smartsheet.com")

Ruby example

smartsheet.sheets.list(
  header_override: {:'Assume-User' => CGI::escape('jane.doe@smartsheet.com')}
)

Versioning and Changes

Smartsheet will add new functionality and bug fixes to the API over time. Make sure that your code can handle new JSON properties gracefully. Also, make sure your code does not depend on the order in which JSON objects are returned, unless it is explicitly stated in this documentation.

When there is new functionality that is not compatible with existing code, say in the case of a new concept, Smartsheet increments the level to indicate the new feature can be ignored until you are ready to implement the code to work with the new level.

See also: Multi-contact or Multi-picklist: Working with Complex Objects

Error Codes

For an explanation of the logic behind Smartsheet error codes and error handling, see the HTTP and REST portion of the Introduction.

400-Level Error Codes

400-level error codes generally indicate that there is something you should fix or add to your request before you try the request again.

HTTP status code Smartsheet errorCode Smartsheet message
401 1001 An Access Token is required.
401 1002 Your Access Token is invalid.
401 1003 Your Access Token has expired.
403 1004 You are not authorized to perform this action.
401 1005 Single Sign-On is required for this account.
404 1006 Not Found.
404 1007 Version not supported.
400 1008 Unable to parse request. The following error occurred: {0}
400 1009 A required parameter is missing from your request: {0}.
405 1010 HTTP Method not supported.
400 1011 A required header was missing or invalid: {0}
400 1012 A required object attribute is missing from your request: {0}.
403 1013 The operation you are attempting to perform is not supported by your plan.
403 1014 There are no licenses available on your account.
403 1015 The user exists in another account. The user must be removed from that account before they can be added to yours.
403 1016 The user is already a member of your account.
403 1017 The user already has a paid account. The user must cancel that account before they can be added to yours.
400 1018 The value {0} was not valid for the parameter {1}.
400 1019 Cannot transfer to the user specified. User not found.
404 1020 User not found.
403 1021 Cannot transfer to the user specified. They are not a member of your account.
403 1022 Cannot delete the user specified. They are not a member of your account.
400 1023 The sheet specified is shared at the Workspace level.
400 1024 The HTTP request body is required for this Method.
400 1025 The share already exists.
403 1026 Transferring ownership is not currently supported.
404 1027 Share not found.
400 1028 You cannot edit the share of the owner.
400 1029 The parameter in the URI does not match the object in the request body.
401 1030 You are unable to assume the user specified.
400 1031 The value {0} was not valid for the attribute {1}.
400 1032 The attribute(s) {0} are not allowed for this operation.
404 1033 The template was not found.
400 1034 Invalid Row Id.
400 1035 Deprecated.
400 1036 The columnId {0} is invalid.
400 1037 The columnId {0} is included more than once in a single row.
400 1038 Invalid Cell value. Must be numeric or a string.
403 1039 Cannot edit a locked column {0}.
400 1040 Cannot edit your own share.
400 1041 The value for {0} must be {1} characters in length or less, but was {2}.
400 1042 The value for cell in column {0}, {1}, did not conform to the strict requirements for type {2}.
404 1043 The row number you requested is blank and cannot be retrieved.
400 1044 Assume-User header is required for your Access Token.
403 1045 The resource specified is read-only.
400 1046 Cells containing system values cannot be inserted or updated through the API, columnId : {0}.
403 1047 You cannot remove yourself from the account through the API.
403 1048 The user specified has declined the invitation to join your organization. You cannot modify declined invitations.
403 1049 You cannot remove admin permissions from yourself through the API.
403 1050 You cannot edit a locked row.
400 1051 Attachments of type FILE cannot be created using JSON.
406 1052 Invalid Accept header. Media type not supported.
400 1053 Unknown Paper size: {0}.
400 1054 The new sheet requires either a fromId or columns.
400 1055 One and only one column must be primary.
400 1056 Column titles must be unique.
400 1057 Primary columns must be of type TEXT_NUMBER.
400 1058 Column type of {1} does not support symbol of type {0}.
400 1059 Column options are not allowed when a symbol is specified.
400 1060 Column options are not allowed for column type {0}.
400 1061 Max count exceeded for field {0}.
400 1062 Invalid row location.
400 1063 Invalid parentId: {0}.
400 1064 Invalid siblingId: {0}.
400 1065 The column specified cannot be deleted.
400 1066 You can only share to {0} users at a time.
401 1067 Invalid client_id
400 1068 Unsupported grant type.
400 1069 Invalid Request. The authorization_code has expired.
400 1070 Invalid Request. Required parameter is missing: {0}.
400 1071 Invalid Grant. The authorization code or refresh token provided was invalid.
400 1072 Invalid hash value. The hash provided did not match the expected value.
400 1073 The redirect_uri did not match the expected value.
400 1074 You are trying to upload a file of {0}, but the API currently only supports {1}.
400 1075 The Content-Size provided did not match the file uploaded. This may be due to network issues or because the wrong Content-Size was specified.
403 1076 The user has created sheets and must be added as a licensed user.
400 1077 Duplicate system column type: {0}.
400 1078 System column type {0} not supported for {1} {2}.
400 1079 Column type {0} is not supported for system column type {1}.
400 1080 End Dates on dependency-enabled sheets cannot be created/updated. Please update either the Duration or Start Date column.
403 1081 You cannot delete or update another user's discussions, comments, or comment attachments.
400 1082 You cannot add options to the given column {0} because it is not a PICKLIST.
400 1083 Auto number formatting cannot be added to a column {0}.
400 1084 The auto number format is invalid.
400 1085 To change this column's type you must first disable Dependencies for this sheet.
400 1086 Google was not able to verify your access.
400 1087 The column specified is used in a conditional formatting rule, so the column cannot be deleted and its type cannot be changed.
400 1088 Invalid length for concatenated auto number format. Concatenated format is {0}, with a length of {1}. Must be less than or equal to 40.
400 1089 The type specified is only used with System Columns.
400 1090 Column.type is required when changing symbol, systemColumnType or options.
400 1091 Invalid Content-Type: {0}.
403 1092 You cannot delete this row. Either it or one or more of its children are locked.
400 1093 Apple verification not available.
400 1094 Can't set password without licensed account.
400 1095 The Excel file is invalid/corrupt. This may be due to an invalid file extension, an outdated Excel format, or an invalid Content-Length.
403 1096 This Apple payment receipt has already been applied to a user's payment profile.
403 1097 A user must be a licensed sheet creator to be a resource viewer.
400 1098 To delete this column you must first disable Dependencies for this sheet.
400 1099 To delete this column you must first disable Resource Management for this sheet.
400 1100 Uploading new versions of a discussion comment attachment is not supported.
400 1101 Uploading new versions of non-FILE type attachments is not supported.
403 1102 A user must be a licensed sheet creator to be a group administrator.
400 1103 A group with the same name already exists.
403 1104 You must be a group administrator to create a group.
400 1105 The operation failed because one or more group members were not members of your account: {0}.
404 1106 Group not found.
400 1107 User specified in transferGroupsTo must be a group admin.
400 1108 transferGroupsTo must be provided because user being deleted owns one or more groups.
400 1109 Only one of cell.hyperlink or cell.linkInFromCell may be non-null.
400 1110 cell.value must be null if cell.linkInFromCell is non-null.
400 1111 Only one of cell.hyperlink.sheetId and cell.hyperlink.reportId may be non-null.
400 1112 cell.hyperlink.url must be null for sheet or report hyperlinks.
400 1113 cell.value must be a string when the cell is a hyperlink.
404 1114 Invalid sheetId or reportId: {0}.
400 1115 Row must contain either cell link updates or row/cell value updates; mixing of both update types in one API call is not supported.
400 1116 You cannot link a cell to its own sheet.
400 1117 One of the following cell.hyperlink fields must be non-null: url, sheetId, or reportId.
400 1118 You cannot set the value of a Gantt allocation column (id {0}) in a row that has child rows.
400 1120 Too many sheets to copy.
NOTE: includes a "detail" object containing "maxSheetCount" which represents the server-side limit on the number of sheets allowed in a single folder/workspace copy operation.
400 1121 transferTo must be provided because user being deleted owns one or more groups.
405 1122 Requested URL does not support this method: {0}.
400 1123 Specifying multiple row locations is not yet supported. Each row must use the same row location attribute and value (toBottom, toTop, parentId, siblingId, above).
415 1124 Invalid Content-Type header. Media type not supported.
400 1125 Each part in a multipart payload must have a name.
400 1126 Multipart payload contained duplicate part names: {0}.
400 1127 Required multipart part was missing: '{0}'
400 1128 Multipart upload size limit exceeded.
400 1129 The resource you tried to create already exists.
400 1130 One of cell.value or objectValue may be set, but not both.
400 1131 cell.{0} for column {1} was of the wrong object type. Allowed types: {2}.
400 1132 The token provided has previously been revoked.
400 1133 Column titles are not unique among input columns.
400 1134 Duplicate system column type among input columns.
400 1135 Input column index {0} is different from the first input column index {1}.
400 1136 Cannot copy or move row(s) within the same sheet.
400 1137 Input collection contains multiple instances of the same element.
403 1138 The user is not eligible for a trial organization.
403 1139 The user is an admin in another organization. Add 'allowInviteAccountAdmin=true' to the query string to invite their entire organization.
403 1140 The user must be added as a licensed user.
403 1141 Inviting users from an enterprise organization is not supported.
400 1142 Column type {0} is reserved for project sheets and may not be manually set on a column.
400 1143 To set {0}, you must first enable dependencies on the sheet.
400 1144 The user owns one or more groups and must be added as a Group Admin.
400 1145 Multipart upload request was invalid. Please check your request headers and payload.
400 1146 Unsupported operation: {0}.
400 1147 Multipart request contained an invalid part name: '{0}'
400 1148 Numeric cell values must be between {0} and {1}.
400 1149 Not configured for Gantt.
400 1150 Invalide operation for shared.
404 1151 Scope object not found.
400 1152 URL must have HTTPS.
403 1153 Webhook app revoked.
403 1154 Webhook disabled by Smartsheet.
400 1155 You cannot set the '{0}' attribute for a cell in a 'Project Settings' column of a dependency-enabled sheet.
400 1156 Invalid email.
400 1157 This address is already associated with another Smartsheet account, so it cannot be added as an alternate address for this account.
400 1158 This address has not been confirmed yet, so it can't be set as the primary email address.
400 1159 The specified email address ({0}) is an alternate email address for a user with a primary email address of {1}.
400 1160 Invalid bulk request. See detail for more information.
400 1161 Cannot set altText for a cell that does not contain an image: row {0}, column {1}.
400 1162 A formula must always start with an equal sign (=).
400 1163 If cell.image is non-null then value, objectValue, hyperlink, and linkInFromCell must all be null.
400 1164 Cannot add image to cell because this feature has been disabled by the org administrator.
400 1165 Cannot add image to cell with alt text larger than 100 characters.
400 1166 You cannot share Sights as an Editor.
400 1167 The resource you are attempting to access has expired.
400 1168 objectValue's type is not valid for virtualColumnId {0}.
400 1169 All virtual columns in a group must be of the same type.
403 1173 You must be in a Team/Enterprise account to specify a {0} value of '{1}'.
403 1174 The value for {0} is invalid because this publish option is configured to be restricted to users in this account.
403 1175 One or more publish options which you attempted to enable are disabled for this account.
400 1176 Array attribute(s) may not contain null elements: {0}.
400 1177 Arrays may not contain null elements.
400 1178 The following combination of attributes is not allowed for this operation: {0}.
400 1179 The schedule specified is invalid because endAt is earlier than the next send date.
403 1180 We are unable to process this request because the email has been associated with a different Smartsheet account.
403 1181 Only admins can edit shared filters.
400 1182 The specified sheet filter {0} does not exist for sheet {1}.
400 1183 Sheet filters must define at least one detail entry.
400 1184 Sheet {0} already has a filter named '{1}' of type {2}.
400 1185 Cannot create a child of a parent row that has no data in it.
403 1186 User's primary email address must be a validated domain.
403 1187 User's alternate address selected to be made primary must be a validated domain.
403 1188 The account status of the user specified is not active.
400 1189 Only Enterprise or Team accounts with security controls are able to change primary emails.
400 1190 Only Enterprise or Team accounts with special permission granted are able to change primary emails.
400 1191 Summary field attribute is the wrong type.
403 1192 Can't edit locked summary field.
400 1193 Duplicate summary field title.
400 1194 Invalid summary field type for options.
400 1195 Duplicate summary field index.
400 1196 Summary field type required for change.
400 1197 Summary field options not allowed for symbols.
400 1198 Unsupported symbol for summary field type.
400 1199 Maximum number summary fields exceeded.
400 1200 Duplicate summary field Id.
400 1201 Summary field image only.
400 1202 Summary field hyperlink value must be string.
400 1203 Can't link summary field to same sheet.
404 1204 Invalid sheet report dashboard Id.
400 1205 Can't set summary field alt text.
400 1206 Unsupported summary field format type.
400 1207 Attribute value is empty.
400 1208 Duplicate summary field title in request.
400 1209 Can't set attribute on column type.
400 1210 Column validation is not supported for column type '{0}'.
400 1211 Not authorized.
403 1212 You must be a sheet admin to override validation.
400 1213 Deprecated.
400 1214 Invalid notification level '{0}'.
400 1215 Notification not supported by level.
400 1216 Notification rule not found.
400 1217 Exceeds allowed max date.
400 1218 The attributes recipientColumnIds, recipients and notifyAllSharedUsers are mutually exclusive. Only one may be set, not all.
400 1218 The attributes includeAllColumnIds and includedColumnIds are mutually exclusive. Only one may be set not all.
400 1219 The attributes {0} and {1} are mutually exclusive. Only one may be set.
400 1220 Automation action type cannot be changed.
400 1221 The value {0} is not valid for the attribute action.recipientColumnIds. Only Contact List columns may be used.
400 1222 Invalid attribute for operation.
400 1223 Sort sheet with locked row.
400 1224 Invalid parameter value.
400 1225 Problem processing row header.
400 1226 Personal workspace not found.
400 1227 The query parameters '{0}' and '{1}' are mutually exclusive. Only one may be set.
400 1228 You must specify one of the following query parameters: '{0}' or '{1}'.
400 1229 The value '{0}' was not valid for the parameter '{1}'. The value must be between '{2}' and '{3}'.
400 1230 Duplicate bot type.
400 1231 Invalid bot type.
403 1232 Bot not enabled.
400 1233 Required form field missing.
400 1234 Form data empty.
400 1235 Value not supported on column.
400 1236 OAuth missing client auth.
400 1237 OAuth redundant client auth.
400 1238 OAuth invalid secret.
400 1239 Client column version mismatch.
400 1240 Multi-contact list limit.
400 1241 Invalid mulcit-contact name.
400 1242 Too many display column Ids.
400 1243 Invalid view by Id.
400 1244 Uncardable view by Id.
400 1245 Invalid display column Id.
400 1246 Displaying primary column in card view.
400 1247 Card view level below minimum.
400 1248 Invalid subtask column Id.
400 1249 Uncheckable subtask column Id.
400 1250 Card view not configured.
400 1251 Duplicate display column Id.
400 1252 Inconsistent lane values.
400 1253 Move card adjacent to self.
400 1254 Invalid view by Id for card operation.
400 1255 Attachment type '{0}' is not supported.
400 1256 Individual accounts disabled.
400 1257 Form hyperlink is not URL.
400 1258 Cannot move folder under descendant.
400 1259 Uncardable view by Id for card operation.
400 1260 Cannot delete last visible column.
400 1261 Uncardable column for editing lanes.
400 1262 Invalid card lane name.
400 1263 Duplicate card lane name.
400 1264 Column fields not allowed for editing lanes.
400 1265 Card view was never configured for lanes.
400 1266 This rule is not accessible through the API. Only single-action notifications, approval requests, or update requests qualify.
400 1267 Web content widget disabled.
400 1268 Dashboard web content widget custom domain URL disabled.
403 1269 Removing group admin who owns groups.
403 1270 Forbidden impersonate object owner.
403 1271 Forbidden impersonate user.
400 1272 Invalid impersonate header value.
400 1273 Both impersonate and assume user provided.
400 1274 Impersonate object owner not supported.
403 1275 Impersonate feature not enabled.
400 1276 Column type not supported.
400 1277 Multi-picklist invalid size.
400 1279 Proofing setting error.
400 1280 Proofing duplicate record.
400 1281 Proofing invalid file extension.
400 1282 Invalid JSON.
400 1283 Unrecognized JSON property.
400 1284 Dashboard level below minimum.
400 1286 Proofing service row move invalid.
403 1287 Publish disabled by sheet sys admin.
403 1288 Sheet disabled by admin.
400 1289 Proofing cannot disable with proofs.
400 1290 The following users cannot be added to this group: {0}.
400 1291 Refreshing mobile access tokens is not yet enabled.
400 1292 The grant_type is inconsistent with the API request type for authentication.
404 1293 Subscope contains invalid ids.
400 1294 A proof cannot be retrieved.
400 1295 Proof requests cannot be created on an empty proof.
400 1296 Uploading new versions of a proof attachment is not supported.
403 1297 Upgrade to a business plan or higher to enable proofing.
400 1298 Proof version can only be created on an original version proof id. In addition, the proof must not be marked as complete and the current version must not be empty.
400 1299 Proof version cannot be deleted.
400 1300 Error creating proof request or sending the notification.
403 1301 No permissions for column formulas.
400 1302 Cannot edit column formula cells.
400 1303 Unsupported column type for column formulas.
400 1304 Maximum number of column formulas exceeded.
400 1305 Cannot set column formula on project column.
400 1306 An attachment can only be uploaded to a current version proof. In addition, the proof must not be marked as complete.
400 1307 A PDF cannot be included in a proof with multiple files. Only JPG, JPEG, PNG, GIF, and BMP files are supported in a proof with multiple files.
400 1308 Multi-image proofing is not enabled on this sheet. Please contact the sheet owner for assistance.
400 1309 An attachment can only be deleted from a current version proof. In addition, the proof must not be marked as complete.
400 1310 Column formula syntax not supported.
404 1311 Invalid Item ID provided.
400 1312 Invalid Item type provided.
400 1313 Since 'includeMessageOnly' is set to true, 'message' must not be blank.
400 1314 Plan type cannot use column formulas.
400 1315 Proof status can only be updated on a current version proof. In addition, the proof cannot be empty.
400 1316 A discussion, comment, or comment attachment can only be created or edited on a current version proof. In addition, the proof must not be marked as complete.
403 1317 This action can't be performed right now, as this report is using capabilities that haven't been released to the public yet. You'll be able to take this action later once the capabilities are released. Sorry for the inconvenience!
400 1318 Cannot delete baseline columns.
400 1319 Cannot update values in baseline columns.
400 1320 Cannot change a baseline column type.
400 1321 Cannot put a column formula in a baseline column.
400 1322 Cannot remove column formula from baseline variance column.
400 1323 Invalid column type for baseline column.
400 1324 Unsupported baseline type for column.
400 1326 Baselines API feature not enabled for sheet.
400 1327 Proof request cannot be deleted.
400 1328 Baselines requires existing start and end date columns.
400 1329 Invalid characters in first or last name.
400 1330 You have reached the limit of {0} alternate email addresses. To add {1}, first remove an existing alternate email address that you no longer need.
403 1331 Datatables feature is not enabled.
400 1332 Images not allowed in baseline columns.
403 1334 Shared publish option is not enabled.
403 1335 Cannot deactivate the user specified. They are not a member of your account.
403 1336 You cannot deactivate yourself from the account through the API.
403 1337 You must upgrade your organization to invite this user. Pro plans are only allowed to invite other pro plan users.
400 1338 Missing file name in request.
400 1339 Missing file size in request.
400 1340 Attachment ticket is invalid, is not found or access has been disabled for this account. Create a valid attachment ticket before finalizing.
400 1341 File uploaded to s3 is invalid or is missing.
400 1342 Attachment ticket is no longer pending. Create a new attachment ticket and try again.
400 1343 User movement policy planId and planName doesn't match.
400 1344 Duplicate user movement policy for the same planId.
400 1345 Unsupported user movement policy attribute.
400 1346 planId should be a managed plan.
400 1347 User movement policy list count is more than expected managed plan count.
400 1348 Empty user movement policy list.
400 1349 Input data is out of expected length boundary.
400 1350 Missing required property.
400 1351 Data value is not supported.
400 1352 Unexpected leading/trailing space in input data.
403 1354 Cannot reactivate the user specified. They are not a member of your account.
403 1355 You cannot reactivate yourself from the account through the API.
403 1356 The operation you are attempting to perform is not supported in Smartsheet Gov.
400 1357 Container type is invalid.
403 1359 User account with a common ISP domain email cannot be deactivated. You can only remove them from the Org.
400 1360 Please confirm all existing alternate email addresses before attempting to add another email address.
403 1361 This action is restricted by an SSO Policy. Please reach out to the workspace admin for any questions.
403 1362 This action is restricted by an MFA Policy. Please reach out to the workspace admin for any questions.
403 1363 This action is restricted by this organization's Data Egress Policy. Please reach out to this organization's system admin for any questions.
429 4003 Rate limit exceeded.
410 4005 API version retired.
400 5xxx Errors in the 5xxx range represent conditions that a developer cannot reasonably prevent or handle, most typically related to account status. These error messages are localized and can be displayed to the end-user to inform them of the condition that caused the error to occur.

500-Level Error Codes

500-level error codes indicate there is some kind of permanent error.

HTTP status code Smartsheet errorCode Smartsheet message
500 1119 Failed to complete copy.
NOTE: may include a "detail" object containing "topContainerType" and "topContainerId" which represent the top-level folder or workspace that were partially copied.
500 1170 The sheet referenced by this widget is unavailable or deleted.
500 1171 The report referenced by this widget is unavailable or deleted.
500 1172 The referenced cell is unavailable or deleted.
500 1278 Proofing service error.
500 1285 Dashboard source profile field missing.
500 1325 Unable to create baseline column.
501 1333 The form service mobile API is not implemented for this environment.
501 1353 Work Insights Widget is currently not supported in Dashboard API.
501 1358 This operation has been deprecated. Smartsheet recommends to use the Deactivate User API endpoint. Contact Support for more information.
500 4000 An unexpected error has occurred. Please contact api@smartsheet.com for assistance.
503 4001 Smartsheet.com is currently offline for system maintenance. Please check back again shortly.
500 4002 Server timeout exceeded. Request has failed.
500 4004 An unexpected error has occurred. Please retry your request. If you encounter this error repeatedly, please contact api@smartsheet.com for assistance.

Or

Request failed because sheetId {0} is currently being updated by another request that uses the same access token. Please retry your request once the previous request has completed.
500 5151 The action could not be completed because the following people are outside of the approved domain sharing list:[email address]
500 5502 You must have sheet admin permission to save a notification with recipients other than yourself.

OAuth Walkthrough

Apps connect to Smartsheet using OAuth 2.0 to authenticate and authorize users. If you are building an app, this documentation will walk you through the steps you need to authenticate your users. The Smartsheet SDKs contain APIs for OAuth 2.0.

NOTE: You will need a Tenant ID for users of apps like AWS AppFabric. You can find your Tenant ID in Admin Center under Security & Controls. There is a Smartsheet Tenant ID pane.

First Steps

Before you can start using OAuth 2.0 with your app, Smartsheet needs the following information:

  1. You must register (https://developers.smartsheet.com/register) with Smartsheet to get a developer account*. The developer account gives you access to "Developer Tools," where you manage your app.
  2. In "Developer Tools," complete any required fields in your developer profile.
  3. In "Developer Tools," register your app so Smartsheet can assign it a client ID and a client secret.
  4. Review the list of access scopes. Choose which ones your app needs to access a user's Smartsheet data. The user must consent to that access. After you've worked through these steps, you'll be ready to implement the OAuth Flow.

NOTE: Your use of the Smartsheet APIs and SDKs are governed by the Developer Agreement.

*A developer account is a service account you should use when developing an integration. It counts as an additional account against your plan. A best practice is to keep this account separate from your user account.

Open Developer Tools

  1. Log in to Smartsheet with your developer account.
  2. Click the "Account" button in the lower-left corner of your Smartsheet screen, and then click "Developer Tools".
  3. Do one of the following:
    • If you need to register an app, click "Create New App".
    • If you need to manage an app, click "view/edit" for the app.

Register Your App Using Developer Tools

  1. Log in to Smartsheet with your developer account.
  2. Click the "Account" button in the upper-right corner of your Smartsheet screen, and then click "Developer Tools".
  3. In the "Create New App" form, provide the following information:
    • Name: the name the user sees to identify your app
    • Description: a brief description intended for the user
    • URL: the URL to launch your app, or the landing page if not a web app
    • Contact/support: support information for the user
    • Redirect URL: also known as a callback URL. The URL within your application that will receive the OAuth 2.0 credentials After you click "Save", Smartsheet assigns a client Id and secret to your app. Make a note of these Ids for the next steps; however, you can always look them up again in "Developer Tools".

OAuth Flow

Your app must implement a 3-legged OAuth flow to retrieve an access token it can use to access Smartsheet data on behalf of an end user. The following diagram has an overview of the OAuth flow:

Simplified graphic showing what data is passed back and forth during OAuth flow

NOTE: App registration and OAuth flow require HTTPS.

Access Scopes

To access a user's Smartsheet data, your application must explicitly ask the user for permission. You do this by using access scopes, which enable your app to communicate to the user what type of operations it is performing. Access scopes do not override existing access-level restrictions. For example, having the access scope of WRITE_SHEETS does not allow your app to update a sheet on which the user has VIEWER access level.

The access scopes are as follows:

Access Scope Description
ADMIN_SHEETS Modify sheet structure, including column definition, publish state, etc.
ADMIN_SIGHTS Modify Sights/dashboards structure.
ADMIN_USERS Add and remove users from your Smartsheet organization account; create groups and manage membership.
ADMIN_WEBHOOKS Create, delete, and update webhooks; get all webhooks; reset shared secret.
ADMIN_WORKSPACES Create and manage workspaces and folders, including sharing.
CREATE_SHEETS Create new sheets.
CREATE_SIGHTS Create new Sights/dashboards.
DELETE_SHEETS Delete sheets.
DELETE_SIGHTS Delete Sights/dashboards.
READ_CONTACTS Retrieve contacts.
READ_EVENTS Retrieve events.
READ_SHEETS Read all sheet data, including attachments, discussions, and cell data.
READ_SIGHTS Read all Sights/dashboards data.
READ_USERS Retrieve users and groups for your Smartsheet organization account.
SHARE_SHEETS Share sheets, including sending sheets as attachments.
SHARE_SIGHTS Share Sights/dashboards.
WRITE_SHEETS Insert and modify sheet data, including attachments, discussions, and cell data.

NOTE: Additional Info:

  • When you request an authorization code, you specify all of the access scopes you need for your app. Smartsheet encodes those permissions into the auth code and subsequent access token.
  • Your app must request at least one access scope, but should only request the scopes necessary.
  • Once your app attains a valid access token, it can execute a Get Current User operation, regardless of which access scopes were requested.

Request an Authorization Code

GET https://app.smartsheet.com/b/authorize

POST https://app.smartsheet.com/b/authorize

Initiates the process to get authorization from the user. Smartsheet will redirect this URL to display your app's consent page with an explanation of the data the app will need access to. This consent page is autogenerated by Smartsheet based on a combination of the information you registered for your app and the parameters you send with the request.

Value Description
client_id Required. The client Id you obtained when you registered your app.
response_type Required. Indicates whether the endpoint returns an authorization code. Must be set to "code".
scope Required. Space-delimited list of access scopes to which you are asking the user to grant access. NOTE: No access scopes are necessary if you simply need to validate that the user has a Smartsheet account.
state Optional. An arbitrary string of your choosing that is returned to your app; a successful roundtrip of this string helps ensure that your app initiated the request.

You can view code examples by clicking the corresponding tab in the rightmost pane. The cURL example shows a GET.

A correctly formatted Auth URL request looks like this: https://app.smartsheet.com/b/authorize?response_type=code&client_id=dheu3dmkd32fhxme&scope=READ_SHEETS%20WRITE_SHEETS&state=MY_STATE

NOTE: If the user has not yet logged into Smartsheet, the redirect will first take them to a login page, and then display the consent page.

At this point, the user can authorize your app to access their Smartsheet account, as in the following example:

Dialog box to allow or deny scopes

After the user clicks "Allow" or "Deny", you'll receive a response from Smartsheet outlined in the next sections.

If the User Clicks Allow

If the user clicks "Allow", Smartsheet redirects the user to the callback URL with the following parameters:

Value Description
code Authorization code required to obtain access token, such as 'sample6p9qisx6a'.
expires_in Number of milliseconds code is valid once issued; this is currently 599135 milliseconds, or approx. 10 minutes--you must obtain an access token within that time.
state The same value for state that you sent when you requested the authorization code.

At this point, you should verify the state value matches what you sent to the user when you requested the authorization code. This helps you determine that the response came from the user and not a malicious script. If the values do not match, you should reject the response.

For other error conditions, see the list of OAuth Error Types.

If the User Clicks Deny

If the user clicks "Deny", Smartsheet redirects the user to the callback URL with the following parameters:

Value Description
error "access_denied".
state The same value for state that you sent when you requested the authorization code.

Get or Refresh an Access Token

Once you’ve successfully obtained an authorization code, the next step is to exchange the code for an access token. (Remember, the authorization code expires after 599135 milliseconds.)

Access tokens expire after 604799 seconds, which is approx 7 days. Use the refresh token to obtain a new access token and a new refresh token. Once you obtain the new tokens, you must use them in place of the old ones, which are no longer valid.

To get or refresh an access token, see Refresh Access Token.

OAuth Error Types

Value Description
invalid_client The client information is invalid. Ensure your client id is correct.
invalid_grant The authorization code or refresh token is invalid or expired or the hash value does not match the app secret and/or code.
invalid_request The request parameters are invalid or missing.
invalid_scope One or more of the requested access scopes is invalid. Please check the list of access scopes.
unsupported_grant_type grant_type must equal authorization_code or refresh_token.
unsupported_response_type response_type must be set to code.

SDKs and Samples

Smartsheet software development kits (SDKs) and sample applications help you develop with C#, Java, Node.js, and Python.

The SDKs are streamlined interfaces for using Smartsheet in several languages. The sample applications demonstrate using the SDKs to access Smartsheet.

Language SDK Sample application
C# smartsheet-csharp-sdk csharp-read-write-sheet
Java smartsheet-java-sdk java-read-write-sheet
Node.js smartsheet-javascript-sdk node-read-write-sheet
Python smartsheet-python-sdk python-read-write-sheet
Ruby* smartsheet-ruby-sdk ruby-read-write-sheet

*The Ruby SDK is no longer maintained.

SKD benefits:

  • Retry with backoff to automatically recover from network errors or rate limiting
  • Request & response logging
  • Native object models for request and responses (Java and C# only)

Each SDK readme file demonstrates SDK installation and using the SDK.

You can download the sample apps and run them with SDKs. The samples can be a great starting points for your own applications.

Security

The following provides some best practices to consider when working with the Smartsheet API and any access tokens (API keys), or other sensitive information.

Application Authentication Approaches

When choosing an authentication method, it is important to consider your integration scenario. Is the integration machine-to-machine without user interaction, or do you want user consent and interaction?

  • If your scenario involes user consent and interaction, it's typically best to use OAuth with Smartsheet. Note that the Smartsheet implementation of OAuth 2.0 is a 3-legged process, which requires human intervention. See OAuth Walkthrough for details.

  • If your scnenario is strictly machine-to-machine, execute raw token requests over HTTPS. It's a straightforward, secure way to authenticate. See Authentication and Access Tokens for details.

Each scenario requires an HTTP authorization header containing an access token.

NOTE: In applications and for routine requests, it is best to use a shared account, such as ticket-processor@example.com, rather than your individual work account.

WARNING: If an unauthorized user gets a copy of this token, they will be able to access all Smartsheet data that you have access to, both to read and modify on your behalf. You should keep your tokens secure and do not share them with anyone.

Access Token Best Practices

Never commit access tokens (API keys) to accessible version control systems like GitHub or BitBucket. Instead, use one of the following recommended storage options.

  • Use an app configuration tool suitable for deploying secrets to your app, or
  • Use a config file outside of source control, or
  • Use environment variables set outside of source control.

If you have mistakenly deployed API keys to a publicly accessible location such as GitHub, then you should immediately revoke those API keys, revise your application to use a preferred method of key deployment, and then generate new keys.

Storing in a database

If you need to store API keys in a database, consider the following protections:

  • Restrict access so API keys are only readable by the owner of the object
  • Restrict read privileges to the database table
  • Make sure your database or the disk the database is on is set to encrypt data at rest

NOTE: When using any Smartsheet SDK, you can use the environment variable of SMARTSHEET_ACCESS_TOKEN. If the access token is null on input to the client builder, the SDK will automatically pick up the value of that environment variable.

Revoking and Regenerating Tokens

If you've committed code to a repository before implementing these security best practices, here are some steps to resecure your API keys.

For requests with raw tokens:

  1. Revoke the token
  2. Create a new token

For OAuth with Smartsheet: Work through the OAuth Walkthrough to regenerate client secrets, auth codes, and tokens.

Resource Access Levels

Sheet, template, and workspace objects have an accessLevel attribute that describes the current user's access level to that object. This corresponds directly to the sharing and access controls of Smartsheet that are available through the Smartsheet UI.

The accessLevel attribute has one of the following values:

Value (string) Description
ADMIN The user can edit and share the resource, and can alter the structure of the resource as well.
COMMENTER The same as VIEWER, but with the ability to leave comments and add attachments.
EDITOR The user can edit the resource, but cannot alter the structure of, delete, or share the resource.
EDITOR_SHARE The same as EDITOR, but with the ability to share the resource to other users.
OWNER The user has complete control over the resource.
VIEWER The user has read-only access to the resource.

NOTE: Smartsheet also uses access scopes. Access levels describe the actual permissions a specific user has for a specific sheet or other resource. Access scopes describe the general categories of access requested by a third-party app.

Smartsheet Gov

Smartsheet Gov has "FedRAMP Authorized" status as part of Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP). As an API developer working on a Smartsheet Gov account, you should be aware of the following differences from the standard API:

  • The base URL for each API call is smartsheetgov.com instead of smartsheet.com. This documentation uses smartsheet.com in all examples.
  • Smartsheetgov.com uses a separate token from Smartsheet.com.
  • Smartsheetgov.com has a restriction on attachment types. Only the following attachment types are allowed: BOX_COM, FILE, GOOGLE_DRIVE, LINK, or ONEDRIVE.

If you use a Smartsheet SDK, you need to modify the standard config file to point to smartsheetgov.com. There are instructions specific to each SDK on how to modify the config file at the following locations:

Smartsheet Regions Europe

Smartsheet Regions Europe is a separate data island. As an API developer working on a Smartsheet Regions Europe account, you should be aware of the following differences from the standard API:

  • The base URL for each API call is smartsheet.eu instead of smartsheet.com. This documentation uses smartsheet.com in all examples.
  • Smartsheet Regions Europe aka Smartsheet EU uses a separate token from Smartsheet.com.

If you use a Smartsheet SDK, you need to modify the standard config file to point to smartsheet.eu. There are instructions specific to each SDK on how to modify the config file at the following locations:

Work at Scale

Bulk Operations

The Smartsheet API supports a number of bulk operations that can operate on multiple objects. Unlike single-object operations, bulk operations allow you to create, update, or delete multiple objects in a single request. For example, if you want to update 10 rows within a sheet, do so using a single Update Rows request, rather than executing 10 separate requests - one for each row.

Optional Bulk Operations

Several endpoints support optional bulk POST operations which exist alongside the standard single-object POST. For these endpoints, you may pass in either a single object or an array of objects. Depending on what was passed in, the Result object returned contains either a single object or an array. An example optional bulk operation is POST /favorites: you can pass in a single Favorite object to create a single favorite, or an array of Favorite objects to create multiple favorites in a single request. Endpoints which support bulk operations are noted as such in the API reference documentation.

NOTE: Most POST operations fail when attempting to create a single object which already exists (for example, favorites, shares, group members). However, for the corresponding bulk operations, these endpoints do not return an error if one or more items in the array already exist. Existing items are simply ignored, and the Result object returned omits them.

Partial Success

In general, the default behavior for bulk operations is to fail outright if any of the objects in the request are invalid for some reason. If successful, Smartsheet creates/updates/deletes all objects in the request; if not, no objects are changed.

However, there are some operations that support partial success, which means the operation still succeeds even if one or more of the objects in the request fails for some reason (for example, an object is invalid). Here is another example: if you want to update more than one row, you send more than one row object in your request. If a row object is invalid, that row update will fail, but the other row updates will succeed. Partial success is not the default mode for an operation and you must explicitly enable it by using a query string parameter. This is noted in the documentation for operations that support partial success.

When partial success is enabled, and one or more of the objects in the request fail to be added/updated/deleted, a standard Result object is returned, but with a message of 'PARTIAL_SUCCESS' (instead of 'SUCCESS'), and a resultCode of 3. Additionally, the object contains a failedItems attribute -- an array of BulkItemFailure objects that contains an item for each object in the request that failed to be added/updated/deleted.

Paging

The Smartsheet API contains a number of index endpoints (typically denoted in the documentation with titles beginning with "Get All" or "List") which return arrays of objects. Examples include GET /users, /sheets, /sheets/{sheetId}/columns, and many others. These endpoints all support pagination, meaning you can retrieve paged subsets of results, enabling you to process potentially large result sets in smaller chunks.

Paging Query String Parameters

Index endpoints all support pagination via the following optional query string parameters:

Value Type Description
includeAll Boolean If true, include all results, that is, do not paginate. Mutually exclusive with page and pageSize (they are ignored if includeAll=true is specified).
page number Which page to return. Defaults to 1 if not specified. If you specify a value greater than the total number of pages, the last page of results is returned.
pageSize number The maximum number of items to return per page. Unless otherwise stated for a specific endpoint, defaults to 100.

NOTE: Most index endpoints default to a page size of 100 results. If you want all results at once, you must specify the includeAll=true query string parameter.

Paged Responses

Index endpoints all return paged responses via an IndexResult object, which provides paging metadata that can be used to navigate the full set of pages in the result set:

Value Type Description
data array An array of objects representing the current page of data in the result set.
pageNumber number The current page in the full result set that the data array represents. NOTE: when a page number greater than totalPages is requested, the last page is instead returned.
pageSize number The number of items in a page. Omitted if there is no limit to page size (and hence, all results are included). Unless otherwise specified, this defaults to 100 for most endpoints.
totalCount number The total number of items in the full result set.
totalPages number The total number of pages in the full result set.

Rate Limiting

Handle "Rate limit exceeded" Error

To prevent abuse and undue stress on the Smartsheet servers, Smartsheet reserves the right to enforce some limits depending on the load on our systems. This reduction is sometimes called rate limiting or throttling. Certain operations, such as attaching a file and getting cell history, are resource intensive.

The Smartsheet API implements "rate limiting" to protect the system. When API calls exceed an acceptable load, an HTTP 429 status will be returned along with the following response body:

{
  "errorCode": 4003,
  "message": "Rate limit exceeded."
}

Smartsheet recommends that you design your integration to gracefully handle this rate limit error. One way of doing that would be to have your integration sleep for a minimum of 60 seconds when this error is encountered, and then subsequently retry the request.

Alternatively, you might choose to implement exponential backoff (an error handling strategy whereby you periodically retry a failed request with progressively longer wait times between retries, until either the request succeeds or the certain number of retry attempts is reached). Note that the SDKs implement this behavior.

Avoid Executing "Rapid Fire" Updates

If the only thing your integration does is execute an Update Rows request once every second for the same sheet, that would only amount to a total of 60 requests per minute -- well within rate limiting guidelines. However, updating the same object in such rapid succession could result in save errors that negatively impact both your integration as well as user experience within the Smartsheet app. To avoid this scenario, design your integration such that API requests are never executed with rapid-fire succession against the same Smartsheet object. For maximum efficiency, consider batching up changes and submitting them in a single request using a bulk operation (for example, Update Rows or Add Columns.

Execute Requests Serially

Executing multiple API requests in parallel to update a specific Smartsheet object results in reduced performance and often results in errors due to save collisions. To avoid this scenario, design your integration such that API requests to update a specific Smartsheet object are always executed serially (that is, execute one request at time, not beginning the next request until the previous request has completed).

NOTE: Attempts to perform multiple concurrent updates to a sheet may result in error code 4004.

Use the Smartsheet SDKs

The SDKs provide default backoff and retry to accommodate rate limiting responses from the API. Note that the default maximum retry duration is typically 30 seconds. You may wish to increase this if your application is making many API calls in quick succession. For specific instructions per language, see the Readme for the respective SDK.

Additional Information

Here are some additional resources:

NOTE: Your use of the Smartsheet APIs and SDKs are governed by the Developer Agreement.

Got feedback? Share it with us in a Smartsheet Community discussion.

RESOURCES

The following sections specify Smartsheet resources, including resource objects and methods (endpoints).

Authentication

OAuth2

Security Scheme Type OAuth2
authorizationCode OAuth Flow
Authorization URL: https://app.smartsheet.com/b/authorize
Token URL: https://api.smartsheet.com/2.0/token
Scopes:
  • ADMIN_SHEETS -

    Modify sheet structure, including column definition, publish state, etc.

  • ADMIN_SIGHTS -

    Modify dashboards structure.

  • ADMIN_USERS -

    Add and remove users from your Smartsheet organization account; create groups and manage membership.

  • ADMIN_WEBHOOKS -

    Create, delete, and update webhooks; get all webhooks; reset shared secret.

  • ADMIN_WORKSPACES -

    Create and manage workspaces and folders, including sharing.

  • CREATE_SHEETS -

    Create new sheets.

  • CREATE_SIGHTS -

    Create new dashboards.

  • DELETE_SHEETS -

    Delete sheets.

  • DELETE_SIGHTS -

    Delete dashboards.

  • READ_CONTACTS -

    Retrieve contacts.

  • READ_EVENTS -

    Retrieve events.

  • READ_SHEETS -

    Read all sheet data, including attachments, discussions, and cell data.

  • READ_SIGHTS -

    Read all dashboards data.

  • READ_USERS -

    Retrieve users and groups for your Smartsheet organization account.

  • SHARE_SHEETS -

    Share sheets, including sending sheets as attachments.

  • SHARE_SIGHTS -

    Share dashboards.

  • WRITE_SHEETS -

    Insert and modify sheet data, including attachments, discussions, and cell data.

APIToken

API Token

Security Scheme Type HTTP
HTTP Authorization Scheme bearer
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