Integration Overview

OpenBoxes Lift is built with an API-first philosophy. Every action you can perform in the OpenBoxes interface is backed by a REST API, making it straightforward to connect your supply chain data with the other systems your organization depends on.

Available Integrations#

Integration Description Tier Requirement
DHIS2 No built-in integration today — see the page for what is and is not possible Not available
QuickBooks No built-in integration today — contact sales if you need one Not available
SSO Providers Third-party sign-in (Google, Microsoft, GitHub) for individual users; organization SSO/SAML is not available All plans (third-party sign-in)
Custom Integrations Build your own using the REST API All tiers

Integration Philosophy#

OpenBoxes Lift follows three principles for integrations:

  1. API-first — Every data entity (products, locations, inventory, shipments) is accessible through the REST API. If you can do it in the UI, you can automate it.
  2. Webhook-driven — Signed webhooks push order, shipment, stock-adjustment and tenant-lifecycle events to your systems in near real time, so you do not have to poll for changes.
  3. Standards-based — Plain HTTPS and JSON, with pagination and signing conventions you can implement in any language, rather than proprietary protocols.

How Integrations Work#

Most integrations follow a common pattern:

  1. Authentication — Generate an API key in the OpenBoxes Lift portal under API → API Keys.
  2. Configuration — Set up the integration parameters (endpoints, data mappings, sync frequency) through the portal or configuration files.
  3. Data flow — Data moves between OpenBoxes and the external system on a schedule or in response to events.
  4. Monitoring — Track integration health and sync status through the portal dashboard.

Tier Requirements#

Some integrations require higher-tier plans due to the infrastructure they need:

  • Shared tier — REST API access, webhooks, custom integrations via API
  • Dedicated tier — All Shared features plus higher API rate limits
  • Enterprise tier — All Dedicated features; custom integration work is not part of any plan today; tell us what you need and we will say honestly whether we can help

Tip: Shared and Dedicated start with the standard 30-day free trial, so you can validate your integration against a real instance before your first charge. If you later need Dedicated-tier limits, contact our sales team about upgrading.

Requesting New Integrations#

We are actively expanding our integration catalog. If your organization needs a connection to a system not listed here:

  1. Check the community forum at community.openboxes.com — someone may have already built what you need.
  2. Submit an integration request via your support portal or email support@openboxes.cloud. Include the system name, your use case, and the data you need to exchange.
  3. Consider a custom integration — the REST API is flexible enough to support most use cases with modest development effort. See our Custom Integrations guide.

Rate Limits#

API rate limits are hourly and apply per account — all of your API keys share one quota, and the limit covers X-API-Key requests across every endpoint combined. There is no concurrent-connection limit.

Tier Requests per hour
Shared 1,000
Dedicated 25,000
Enterprise 50,000

Exceeding the limit returns a 429 Too Many Requests response. See Rate Limits for headers and back-off guidance, and the Error Reference for details.