Quickstart
Get NAT running and scanning your first API in under five minutes.
Prefer the hosted API? Skip the CLI entirely — see the API Quickstart to start scanning with a single curl request and no installation required.
Want to explore NAT without connecting a real API? Run nat demo after installation for a fully sandboxed walkthrough.
New to NAT? Run nat setup after installation for an interactive wizard that configures everything — mode, API spec, authentication, and export destination — in one step. See the Setup Wizard guide.
Run nat export list to see all 11 available exporters (including the new Sentry and Bugzilla integrations). Use nat worker launch to start a worker pool for parallel distributed execution.
Prerequisites
- A free NAT account — sign up at app.nat-testing.io (opens in a new tab)
- Python 3.10 or later
- An API to test (REST or GraphQL), or use demo mode
SaaS onboarding
Sign up
Go to app.nat-testing.io (opens in a new tab) and create your free account.
Get your API key
From the dashboard, open Settings → API Keys and generate a new key. Copy it — you'll need it in the next step.
Install the CLI
pip install nat-engineVerify the installation:
nat --versionAuthenticate
Connect the CLI to your NAT Cloud account using your API key:
nat auth --key <your-api-key>Run your first scan
Point NAT at your API's base URL:
nat scan --url https://api.example.comNAT will auto-discover endpoints and begin testing. Results stream to your terminal in real time and are also saved to your dashboard.
View the report
When the scan completes, open your dashboard at app.nat-testing.io (opens in a new tab) to see full risk scoring and remediation guidance. You can also open the local HTML report:
nat report --openTry demo mode
Demo mode runs a complete scan against a built-in example API — no credentials, no external dependencies:
nat demoSee the Demo Mode guide for a detailed walkthrough.
Self-hosted setup
Prefer to run NAT entirely on your own infrastructure? See the Self-Hosted Setup guide.
Next steps
- Setup Wizard — interactive guided setup for first-time users
- Your First Scan — in-depth walkthrough of a real scan
- Pipeline Quickstart — run the full Ingest → Scan → Export pipeline
- Dashboard Guide — exploring scan results and settings in the UI
- CLI Reference — full command reference
- CI/CD Integration — add NAT to your pipeline
Having trouble? Check the onboarding troubleshooting guide for solutions to common setup issues.