navan-hello-world

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;           // Primary key for all booking records
  traveler_name: string;
  origin: string;
  destination: string;
  departure_date: string;
  return_date: string;
  booking_status: string;
  booking_type: string;   // "flight", "hotel", "car"
}

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(); // records in .data array
  return data ?? [];
}

// Execute
const token = await getNavanToken();
const bookings = await getBookings(token);
console.log(`Retrieved ${bookings.length} bookings:`);
bookings.forEach((b) =>
  console.log(`  [${b.uuid}] ${b.origin} -> ${b.destination} (${b.booking_status})`)
);

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"]  # records in .data array

token = get_navan_token()
bookings = get_bookings(token)
print(f"Retrieved {len(bookings)} bookings:")
for b in bookings:
    print(f"  [{b['uuid']}] {b.get('origin')} -> {b.get('destination')}")

Step 4: Paginate and Filter Bookings

Once the basic call works, use pagination and date filtering:

// Paginate: page starts at 0, size controls page size
const page2 = await fetch(
  `${process.env.NAVAN_BASE_URL}/v1/bookings?page=1&size=50`,
  { headers: { Authorization: `Bearer ${token}` } }
);

// Filter by creation date range (incremental params)
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:

# Get token and fetch bookings in one pipeline
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

• Navan Help Center — primary documentation hub
• Booking Data Integration — booking data export guide
• Navan TMC API Docs — API integration reference
• Navan Security — compliance certifications (SOC 2, ISO 27001)

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.