> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.polyorderbooks.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Overview

> Historical Polymarket order books, prices, and liquidity for crypto markets — served from our historical data store with no live exchange calls on read paths.

The PolyOrderbooks API gives you programmatic access to historical Polymarket **crypto** markets: discovery metadata, outcome prices, liquidity metrics, and L2 order book snapshots. Data is collected continuously into our historical store and served with consistent latency.

<Note>
  **Production base URL**

  ```
  https://api.polyorderbooks.com
  ```

  Paths in this documentation are relative to that host. Every `/v1` data route requires a valid API key.
</Note>

## Quick start

Authenticate and query the catalog and history:

```bash theme={null}
# 1. Discover markets (API key required)
curl -s -H "X-API-Key: $POLYORDERBOOKS_API_KEY" \
  "https://api.polyorderbooks.com/v1/markets?search=bitcoin&limit=5"

# 2. Order book history (Starter finest resolution: 60s)
curl -s -H "X-API-Key: $POLYORDERBOOKS_API_KEY" \
  "https://api.polyorderbooks.com/v1/markets/MARKET_SLUG/books" \
  --get \
  --data-urlencode "start_ts=2026-07-26T00:00:00Z" \
  --data-urlencode "end_ts=2026-07-26T06:00:00Z" \
  --data-urlencode "resolution=60s"
```

Use the **Try** playground on endpoint pages after adding your `X-API-Key` header.

<Card title="First time here?" icon="rocket" href="/quickstart">
  Create an account, verify your email, generate an API key, and run your first historical query.
</Card>

## What you can build

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Market discovery" icon="magnifying-glass" href="/discovery/overview">
    Search series, events, and markets with tags, status, volume, and date filters.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Price history" icon="chart-line" href="/historical/overview">
    Outcome-level prices from 1-second native capture through daily aggregates.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Liquidity analytics" icon="gauge" href="/api-reference/history/get-market-metrics-history">
    Volume, liquidity, and spread for execution-quality and microstructure research.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Order book depth" icon="layer-group" href="/api-reference/history/get-market-order-book-history">
    Historical L2 bid and ask ladders for slippage and depth analysis.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

## Coverage

Today we ingest and serve Polymarket **crypto** markets only. Other categories may be added later. See [Discovery overview](/discovery/overview) for catalog scope.

## Data model

```text theme={null}
Series  →  Events  →  Markets  →  Tokens (Yes / No / …)
```

<Steps>
  <Step title="Discover">
    Search with [`GET /v1/markets`](/api-reference/discovery/list-markets) or browse [series](/api-reference/discovery/list-series) and [events](/api-reference/discovery/list-events).
  </Step>

  <Step title="Resolve">
    Read [`GET /v1/markets/{id_or_slug}`](/api-reference/discovery/get-market-details) for outcome token identifiers and resolution state.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Query history">
    Request [prices](/api-reference/history/get-market-token-prices-history), [metrics](/api-reference/history/get-market-metrics-history), or [books](/api-reference/history/get-market-order-book-history) over your time window.
  </Step>
</Steps>

## Design principles

| Principle              | Detail                                                                                                |
| ---------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Read-local**         | Discovery and history query our data store only — not live Polymarket APIs.                           |
| **Sparse → uniform**   | Captures are stored on change; the API materializes uniform buckets via last-value carry.             |
| **Stable identifiers** | Markets accept source id, URL slug, or scoped public id (`polymarket:market:<id>`).                   |
| **Cursor pagination**  | Large result sets paginate with opaque cursors — see [Pagination](/historical/pagination).            |
| **Plan enforcement**   | Resolution floor, history window, and rate limits are enforced per API key — see [Pricing](/pricing). |

## Links

<CardGroup cols={3}>
  <Card title="Create account" icon="user-plus" href="https://polyorderbooks.com/signup">
    Free Starter plan — no credit card.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Dashboard" icon="gauge" href="https://polyorderbooks.com/dashboard">
    API keys, usage, and account settings.
  </Card>

  <Card title="OpenAPI" icon="file-code" href="https://docs.polyorderbooks.com/openapi.json">
    Machine-readable specification (hosted with these docs).
  </Card>
</CardGroup>