# Online User API?
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/online-user-api/41324
**Category:** Development
**Created:** [March 20, 2016, 5:28am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/online-user-api/41324 "2016-03-20T05:28:33Z")
**Posts on this page:** 3
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Socratic\_Phoenix](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Socratic_Phoenix)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2016, 5:28am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/online-user-api/41324/1 "2016-03-20T05:28:33Z")
So I was looking at the [api documentation](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-api-documentation/22706), and was wondering if there was a way for normal users (non-administrative), to contact the api and make postings or reply. Reason being, I wanted to create a bot that auto-posts when a certain event happens (probably a github commit), but I don’t own the forum this posting would be on… Is it possible to do what I’ve described without administrative privilege?
Thanks for any help provided,
Socratic\_Phoenix
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### Author:  [@Mittineague](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Mittineague)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2016, 5:50am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/online-user-api/41324/2 "2016-03-20T05:50:14Z")
Hi Socratic\_Phoenix welcome to the forum
As long as the Admin gives you an API key to authenticate with I don’t see why not.
You don’t need to be an Admin, you do need a valid key.
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### Author:  [@fefrei](https://meta.discourse.org/u/fefrei)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2016, 4:02pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/online-user-api/41324/3 "2016-03-20T16:02:27Z")
You can also authenticate using cookies. The normal Discourse web app uses the API itself – anything that you can do manually through the web app can be done using the API.
Of course, asking the admin for an API key is still a good idea: It makes sure they are okay with what you do, and it will exempt you from certain rate limits.