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Authorization

Follow this guide to create a new Bitly credential that will allow Nexla to authenticate to and exchange data with your Bitly account.
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Bitly

Prerequisites​

Nexla authenticates to the Bitly v4 REST API using a Bitly API access token (also referred to as a Generic Access Token). The token is passed in the Authorization header of every request as Bearer {token} and grants the same permissions as the Bitly user who generated it.

Generate a Bitly API Access Token​

Generate a personal API access token directly from the Bitly web app. This token is the credential value that Nexla uses to authenticate every API call.

  1. Sign in to your Bitly account at bitly.com.

  2. From the left sidebar, click Settings.

  3. Under the Developer settings section of the settings menu, click API.

  4. In the Access Token section, enter your Bitly account password to verify your identity, and click Generate Token.

  5. Copy the generated token immediately and store it in a secure secret manager. Bitly displays the token value only once at generation time.

    The generated token inherits the permissions of the Bitly user who created it and can read and modify any Bitlink, campaign, channel, group, or organization that the user can access in the Bitly UI. Treat the token as a high-privilege secret.

For complete information about generating and managing access tokens, see the Bitly authentication documentation and the Bitly support article on generating an OAuth access token.

Account Plan Considerations​

The Bitly API is available on most paid Bitly plans. Specific endpoint availability and rate limits depend on your account plan — for example, branded short domains (BSDs), QR codes, and campaign features require the appropriate Bitly subscription.

Important

The Bitly API access token grants full access to your Bitly account data through the API. Store it in a secure secret manager, never commit it to source control, and rotate it immediately if you suspect it has been exposed. If a token is compromised, return to the API section under Developer settings in Bitly and generate a new token — the previous token can be invalidated from the same screen.

Create a Bitly Credential​

  • To create a new Bitly credential, after selecting the data source/destination type, click the Add Credential tile to open the Add New Credential overlay.

Credential Name & Description​

  1. Enter a name for the credential in the Credential Name field and a short, meaningful description in the Credential Description field.

    Resource descriptions are recommended but are not required. They should be used to provide information about the resource purpose, data freshness, etc. that can help the owner and other users efficiently understand and utilize the resource.

API Key Authentication​

  1. Enter your Bitly API access token in the API Key field. This is the token value generated from the API section under Developer settings in Bitly.

    Nexla automatically prepends the Bearer prefix when constructing the Authorization header, so paste only the raw token value into this field — do not include the word Bearer or any surrounding whitespace.

Save the Credential​

  1. Once all of the relevant steps in the above sections have been completed, click the Save button at the bottom of the overlay to save the configured credential. Nexla validates the token against the GET /v4/organizations endpoint before saving.

  2. The newly added credential will now appear in a tile on the Authenticate screen during data source/destination creation and can be selected for use with a new data source or destination.