| name | navan-hello-world |
| description | Make your first Navan API call to retrieve trip and user data.
Use when verifying a new Navan integration works end-to-end after auth setup.
Trigger with "navan hello world", "navan example", "test navan api", "first navan call".
|
| allowed-tools | Read, Write, Edit, Bash(npm:*), Grep |
| version | 1.7.0 |
| license | MIT |
| author | Jeremy Longshore <jeremy@intentsolutions.io> |
| tags | ["saas","navan","travel"] |
| compatibility | Designed for Claude Code |
Navan Hello World
Overview
Execute a first API call against the Navan REST API to retrieve trip data. All examples use raw REST calls — Navan has no public SDK.
Purpose: Confirm end-to-end integration by retrieving real trip data and parsing uuid primary keys.
Prerequisites
- Completed
navan-install-auth with working OAuth 2.0 credentials
.env file with NAVAN_CLIENT_ID, NAVAN_CLIENT_SECRET, and NAVAN_BASE_URL
- Node.js 18+ (for TypeScript) or Python 3.8+ (for Python)
- At least one trip or user in your Navan organization
Instructions
Step 1: Acquire a Bearer Token
Reuse the token exchange from navan-install-auth:
import 'dotenv/config';
async function getNavanToken(): Promise<string> {
const response = await fetch(`${process.env.NAVAN_BASE_URL}/ta-auth/oauth/token`, {
method: 'POST',
headers: { 'Content-Type': 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded' },
body: new URLSearchParams({
grant_type: 'client_credentials',
client_id: process.env.NAVAN_CLIENT_ID!,
client_secret: process.env.NAVAN_CLIENT_SECRET!,
}),
});
if (!response.ok) throw new Error(`Auth failed: ${response.status}`);
const data = await response.json();
return data.access_token;
}
Step 2: Retrieve Bookings (TypeScript)
Call GET /v1/bookings to fetch booking records (paginated with page + size):
interface NavanBooking {
uuid: string;
traveler_name: string;
origin: string;
destination: string;
departure_date: string;
return_date: string;
booking_status: string;
booking_type: string;
}
async function getBookings(token: string): Promise<NavanBooking[]> {
const response = await fetch(
`${process.env.NAVAN_BASE_URL}/v1/bookings?page=0&size=50`,
{
headers: { Authorization: `Bearer ${token}` },
}
);
if (!response.ok) {
throw new Error(`GET /v1/bookings failed: ${response.status} ${response.statusText}`);
}
const { data } = await response.json();
return data ?? [];
}
token = ();
bookings = (token);
.();
bookings.(
.()
);
Step 3: Retrieve Bookings (Python)
import os
import requests
from dotenv import load_dotenv
load_dotenv()
def get_navan_token() -> str:
resp = requests.post(
f"{os.environ.get('NAVAN_BASE_URL', 'https://api.navan.com')}/ta-auth/oauth/token",
data={
"grant_type": "client_credentials",
"client_id": os.environ["NAVAN_CLIENT_ID"],
"client_secret": os.environ["NAVAN_CLIENT_SECRET"],
},
)
resp.raise_for_status()
return resp.json()["access_token"]
def get_bookings(token: str) -> list[dict]:
base_url = os.environ.get('NAVAN_BASE_URL', 'https://api.navan.com')
resp = requests.get(
f"{base_url}/v1/bookings",
params={"page": 0, "size": 50},
headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {token}"},
)
resp.raise_for_status()
return resp.json()["data"]
token = get_navan_token()
bookings = get_bookings(token)
print(f"Retrieved {len(bookings)} bookings:")
for b in bookings:
print()
Step 4: Paginate and Filter Bookings
Once the basic call works, use pagination and date filtering:
const page2 = await fetch(
`${process.env.NAVAN_BASE_URL}/v1/bookings?page=1&size=50`,
{ headers: { Authorization: `Bearer ${token}` } }
);
const filtered = await fetch(
`${process.env.NAVAN_BASE_URL}/v1/bookings?createdFrom=2026-01-01&createdTo=2026-03-31&page=0&size=50`,
{ headers: { Authorization: `Bearer ${token}` } }
);
Step 5: Understand the Response Shape
Navan API responses use uuid as the primary key for booking records. Key fields to expect:
| Field | Type | Description |
|---|
uuid | string | Unique booking identifier (primary key) |
traveler_name | string | Full name of the traveler |
booking_type | string | "flight", "hotel", or "car" |
booking_status | string | Current status of the booking |
origin / destination | string | Airport codes or city names |
Output
Successful completion produces:
- A working API call retrieving real booking data from the Navan organization
- Parsed response structure with records in
.data array and uuid primary key
- Tested pagination (
page + size) and date filtering (createdFrom / createdTo)
Error Handling
| Error | Code | Cause | Solution |
|---|
| Unauthorized | 401 | Expired or invalid OAuth token | Re-run token exchange; check credentials |
| Forbidden | 403 | Insufficient permissions or wrong tier | Verify admin role; contact Navan support |
| Not found | 404 | Invalid endpoint path | Check spelling; use exact paths from this guide |
| Rate limited | 429 | Too many requests | Wait and retry with exponential backoff |
| Server error | 500 | Navan service issue | Retry after 30s; check Navan status |
| Maintenance | 503 | Scheduled or unscheduled downtime | Wait and retry; check for maintenance windows |
Examples
Quick curl test from terminal:
TOKEN=$(curl -s -X POST https://api.navan.com/ta-auth/oauth/token \
-H "Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded" \
-d "grant_type=client_credentials&client_id=$NAVAN_CLIENT_ID&client_secret=$NAVAN_CLIENT_SECRET" \
| python3 -c "import sys,json; print(json.load(sys.stdin)['access_token'])")
curl -s "https://api.navan.com/v1/bookings?page=0&size=5" \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" | python3 -m json.tool
Resources
Next Steps
Now that your first API call works, proceed to navan-sdk-patterns to build a typed wrapper class, or see navan-local-dev-loop for a structured development environment.