Guide

Quick Start

Get your first events flowing into Orbit and your first dashboard live in under ten minutes.

Before you begin

You'll need an Orbit account and a workspace API key. Grab yours from Settings → API Keys once you're signed in.

Installation

Choose the method that matches your stack. All three send events to the same ingestion endpoint.

npm install @orbit/sdk
import { Orbit } from "@orbit/sdk";

const orbit = new Orbit("YOUR_API_KEY");
orbit.track("signup_completed", { plan: "pro" });
<script src="https://cdn.orbit.example/orbit.min.js"></script>
<script>
  Orbit.init("YOUR_API_KEY");
  Orbit.track("signup_completed", { plan: "pro" });
</script>
curl -X POST https://api.orbit.example/v1/track \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"event":"signup_completed","properties":{"plan":"pro"}}'

Send your first event

  1. Install the SDK using one of the methods above.
  2. Initialize Orbit with your workspace API key.
  3. Call orbit.track() from any user action you want to measure.
  4. Open your workspace — events typically appear within a few seconds.

Tip

Use orbit.identify() before orbit.track() to attach events to a known user instead of an anonymous session.

Events

Every action you track is an event with a name and a set of properties. Property types are inferred automatically and can be changed later from workspace settings.

orbit.track("checkout_completed", {
  amount: 89.99,
  currency: "USD",
  items: 3
});

track() parameters

Parameter Type Required Description
event string Yes Name of the event, e.g. checkout_completed.
properties object No Key-value pairs describing the event.
timestamp ISO 8601 string No Defaults to the time the SDK sends the event.
userId string No Overrides the identified user for this event only.

Authentication

Server-side calls use a secret key. Never expose a secret key in client-side code — use a public write-only key for browser and mobile SDKs instead.

Warning

Secret keys have full read/write access to your workspace. Rotate a key immediately from Settings → API Keys if it's ever committed to a public repository.

Common questions

Yes — 5,000 requests per second per workspace on paid plans, 200 per second on the free tier. Batch multiple events into a single request to stay well under either limit.
Raw events are retained for 13 months on paid plans and 30 days on the free tier. Aggregated dashboard data has no expiration.
Yes, set an explicit timestamp on each event. Backfilled events are processed asynchronously and may take up to an hour to appear in dashboards.

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