Integrate Your SaaS Backend with the Refairn REST API

The Refairn API gives your backend direct, real-time control over referral attribution and commission triggering. Instead of relying on webhook routing from a payment provider, you fire events at exactly the right moment in your own application logic—after signup is confirmed, after a payment succeeds, after a subscription is cancelled. This is the most precise integration method and the recommended approach for production programs where accuracy and auditability matter.

Your API key grants write access to your Refairn business data, including commission records. Never expose it in client-side code, public repositories, or environment variables that are shipped to the browser. Store it in a server-side secrets manager or environment variable accessible only to your backend.

Setup

Generate your API key

In your Refairn business dashboard, go to Settings → Integrations. Click Generate API Key. Copy the key immediately—it is only shown once. If you lose it, revoke it and generate a new one.

Store the key securely

Add the key to your server-side environment variables. Reference it as REFAIRN_API_KEY in your code. Never hard-code the value directly in source files.

Locate your business and product IDs

Your businessId and productId are shown in Settings → Integrations alongside your API key. You will include these in every event payload you send.

Instrument your signup flow

After a new user successfully creates an account in your SaaS, call the customer-created endpoint. Pass the customer’s email, name, and the referral code from the cookie set by Refairn’s tracking link (if present).

Instrument your payment flow

After a payment is confirmed in your billing system, call the payment-succeeded endpoint. Pass the customer’s email, the payment amount, currency, and date.

Authentication

All API requests must include your API key in the Authorization header as a Bearer token.

Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY
Content-Type: application/json

Requests without a valid key return 401 Unauthorized. Requests with a key that does not match the businessId in the payload return 403 Forbidden.

Customer created event

Send this event from your signup handler immediately after a new user account is created in your SaaS. Refairn records the customer, looks up the referring agent from the referralCode (or from the tracking cookie if the code was set during the referral link click), and creates a lead record attributed to that agent.

Request

POST /api/events/customer-created

businessId

string

required

Your Refairn business ID. Found in Settings → Integrations.

productId

string

required

The ID of the specific product this customer signed up for. Found in Settings → Integrations.

customerEmail

string

required

The email address the customer used to register. This is the primary key used for attribution matching.

customerName

string

required

The customer’s full name as provided during signup.

referralCode

string

The agent’s referral code. Read this from the tracking cookie set when the customer clicked a Refairn referral link (refairn_code). Omit this field if the customer did not arrive via a referral link.

Response

success

boolean

true if the event was accepted and processed.

leadId

string

The unique ID of the lead record created in Refairn for this customer.

agentId

string

The ID of the agent the customer was attributed to. null if no attribution was found.

attribution

string

The attribution model used. Currently always first_touch.

message

string

A human-readable confirmation message.

Code examples

curl -X POST https://app.refairn.com/api/events/customer-created \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "businessId": "business_123",
    "productId": "product_123",
    "customerEmail": "jane@example.com",
    "customerName": "Jane Smith",
    "referralCode": "AGENT123"
  }'

Example response:

{
  "success": true,
  "leadId": "lead_abc123",
  "agentId": "agent_xyz456",
  "attribution": "first_touch",
  "message": "Customer recorded and attributed to agent."
}

Payment succeeded event

Send this event from your billing or payment confirmation handler every time a customer completes a payment—initial subscriptions, monthly renewals, annual renewals, and one-time charges all qualify. Refairn looks up the agent attribution for the customer’s email and queues the appropriate commission.

Request

POST /api/events/payment-succeeded

businessId

string

required

Your Refairn business ID.

productId

string

required

The ID of the product the payment is for.

customerEmail

string

required

The customer’s email address. Must match the email used when the lead was created.

amount

number

required

The payment amount as a number in the currency’s standard unit. For example, 100 for USD

100.00 or `29.99` for a

29.99 charge.

currency

string

required

ISO 4217 currency code. For example, "USD", "NGN", "GBP".

subscriptionStatus

string

required

The subscription state after this payment. One of: active, trialing, past_due, cancelled.

paymentDate

string

required

The date the payment was confirmed, in YYYY-MM-DD format.

Response

success

boolean

true if the event was accepted and a commission record was created or updated.

commissionId

string

The unique ID of the commission record created for this payment.

agentId

string

The agent who will receive the commission.

commissionAmount

number

The calculated commission amount in the same currency as the payment.

commissionStatus

string

The initial status of the commission. Always pending on creation—commissions move to approved after the hold period passes with no refund or dispute.

holdUntil

string

The date after which the commission is eligible for approval, in YYYY-MM-DD format. Based on your program’s hold period setting.

Code examples

curl -X POST https://app.refairn.com/api/events/payment-succeeded \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "businessId": "business_123",
    "productId": "product_123",
    "customerEmail": "jane@example.com",
    "amount": 100,
    "currency": "USD",
    "subscriptionStatus": "active",
    "paymentDate": "2026-06-14"
  }'

Example response:

{
  "success": true,
  "commissionId": "comm_abc123",
  "agentId": "agent_xyz456",
  "commissionAmount": 20.00,
  "commissionStatus": "pending",
  "holdUntil": "2026-06-28"
}

Error handling

Status code	Cause	What to do
`400 Bad Request`	Missing or invalid fields in your payload	Check required fields; inspect the `message` field in the response body for specifics
`401 Unauthorized`	Missing or invalid API key	Verify `Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY` header is present and the key is valid
`403 Forbidden`	API key does not match the `businessId` in the payload	Confirm the key was generated for this business account
`404 Not Found`	Unknown `businessId` or `productId`	Check Settings → Integrations for your correct IDs
`409 Conflict`	Duplicate event already processed	Safe to ignore—Refairn has already recorded this event
`5xx Server Error`	Transient server issue	Retry with exponential backoff (wait 1s, 2s, 4s between attempts)

Refairn events are idempotent for the same customerEmail + paymentDate combination on payment events, and the same customerEmail on customer-created events. Retrying a successfully processed event returns a 409 and will not create duplicates.

Testing

Use your live API key against the production endpoint during development—Refairn does not currently offer a separate sandbox environment. To avoid creating real commission records during testing, use a dedicated test product created in your dashboard with a $0.00 commission rate. Delete test customer and commission records from the Customers section of the dashboard after each test run.

Create a separate Refairn product called “Test Product” with all commission rates set to zero. Point your local development environment at that productId. Real agent commission records will not be generated, but you can still validate that events are being received and attributed correctly.

​Setup

​Authentication

​Customer created event

​Request

​Response

​Code examples

​Payment succeeded event

​Request

​Response

​Code examples

​Error handling

​Testing

Setup

Authentication

Customer created event

Request

Response

Code examples

Payment succeeded event

Request

Response

Code examples

Error handling

Testing