Quickstart

Make your first Protecto API call in under 5 minutes — create an account, get a token, mask sensitive data, and unmask it.

curl -X PUT https://protecto-trial.protecto.ai/api/vault/mask \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_AUTH_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "mask": [
      {
        "value": "John Doe lives at 123 Main Street. His email is john.doe@example.com"
      }
    ]
  }'

import requests

response = requests.put(
    "https://protecto-trial.protecto.ai/api/vault/mask",
    headers={
        "Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_AUTH_TOKEN",
        "Content-Type": "application/json"
    },
    json={
        "mask": [
            {"value": "John Doe lives at 123 Main Street. His email is john.doe@example.com"}
        ]
    }
)
print(response.json())

const response = await fetch(
  "https://protecto-trial.protecto.ai/api/vault/mask",
  {
    method: "PUT",
    headers: {
      Authorization: "Bearer YOUR_AUTH_TOKEN",
      "Content-Type": "application/json",
    },
    body: JSON.stringify({
      mask: [
        { value: "John Doe lives at 123 Main Street. His email is john.doe@example.com" },
      ],
    }),
  }
);
const data = await response.json();
console.log(data);

{
  "data": [
    {
      "value": "John Doe lives at 123 Main Street. His email is john.doe@example.com",
      "token_value": "<PER>005O 0BY</PER> lives at <ADDRESS>06N 00E1 00003b</ADDRESS>. His email is <EMAIL>3</EMAIL>"
    }
  ],
  "success": true,
  "error": {
    "message": ""
  }
}

curl -X PUT https://protecto-trial.protecto.ai/api/vault/unmask \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_AUTH_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "unmask": [
      {
        "token_value": "<PER>005O 0BY</PER> lives at <ADDRESS>06N 00E1 00003b</ADDRESS>. His email is <EMAIL>3</EMAIL>"
      }
    ]
  }'

response = requests.put(
    "https://protecto-trial.protecto.ai/api/vault/unmask",
    headers={
        "Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_AUTH_TOKEN",
        "Content-Type": "application/json"
    },
    json={
        "unmask": [
            {"token_value": "<PER>005O 0BY</PER> lives at <ADDRESS>06N 00E1 00003b</ADDRESS>. His email is <EMAIL>3</EMAIL>"}
        ]
    }
)
print(response.json())

const response = await fetch(
  "https://protecto-trial.protecto.ai/api/vault/unmask",
  {
    method: "PUT",
    headers: {
      Authorization: "Bearer YOUR_AUTH_TOKEN",
      "Content-Type": "application/json",
    },
    body: JSON.stringify({
      unmask: [
        {
          token_value:
            "<PER>005O 0BY</PER> lives at <ADDRESS>06N 00E1 00003b</ADDRESS>. His email is <EMAIL>3</EMAIL>",
        },
      ],
    }),
  }
);

{
  "data": [
    {
      "value": "John Doe lives at 123 Main Street. His email is john.doe@example.com",
      "token_value": "<PER>005O 0BY</PER> lives at <ADDRESS>06N 00E1 00003b</ADDRESS>. His email is <EMAIL>3</EMAIL>"
    }
  ],
  "success": true,
  "error": {
    "message": ""
  }
}

By the end of this guide, you will:

Create a Protecto account
Obtain an authentication token
Mask sensitive data using auto-detection
Unmask tokenized data

Prerequisites

Requirement	Notes
Protecto account	Free trial available
Internet access	HTTPS outbound required
HTTP client	cURL, Postman, or any language SDK

Step 1: Create an account and get your token

Visit https://portal.protecto.ai/ and create a free account. Activate your account using the email verification link.

After activating your account, log in to the Protecto portal. You will be redirected to the Dashboard.

Copy your auth token

Locate the Auth Token on the dashboard and copy it. You will need this token for every API request.

Treat this token like a password. Do not expose it in client-side code or commit it to source control.

Authentication header

Every request requires this header:

Header	Value	Required
`Authorization`	`Bearer <AUTH_TOKEN>`	Yes
`Content-Type`	`application/json`	Yes

Step 2: Make your first mask request

The Identify and Mask (Auto-Detect) mode is the recommended starting point. You send free-form text, and Protecto automatically detects and masks sensitive entities based on the active policy. No entity types or token names are required.

Trial base URL: https://protecto-trial.protecto.ai

The token_value field contains your masked text. Copy it — you'll use it in the next step.

The exact tokenized output depends on your active policy. The response structure is always consistent.

Step 3: Unmask the tokenized text

To retrieve the original value from a token, send the token_value to the Unmask API.

Trial limits

Item	Value
Trial duration	14 days
Max masked entries	1,000 values
Max value length	600 characters
Encoding	UTF-8

What's next

Mask with Token

Explicitly control the token type when you know the data type.

Identify and Mask

Deep dive into auto-detect masking and response fields.

Use Cases

See real-world integration patterns for LLMs, logs, analytics, and CRM.

Core Concepts

Understand tokenization, policies, and entity tags in depth.

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