CT Scan API Integration: A Developer’s Complete Guide

The CT Scan API integration gives developers programmatic access to CT App Center’s threat intelligence engine…

CT Scan API Integration: Common Use Cases

The CT Scan API gives developers programmatic access to CT App Center’s threat intelligence engine — the same engine that cross-references 40+ global databases to return a Trust Score for any URL, domain or IP address in under 2 seconds.

This guide walks you through everything you need to integrate the CT Scan API into your application, from authentication to production-ready code examples.

Prerequisites

The CT Scan API integration supports three scan types — url, domain and ip.

Before you begin, make sure you have:

• A CT App Center account (Pro or Business plan)
• Your API key from the dashboard under Settings → API Access
• Basic familiarity with REST APIs and HTTP requests

Authentication

All API requests must include your API key in the request header:

Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY
Content-Type: application/json

Never expose your API key in client-side code. Always make API calls from your backend server.

The CT Scan API integration is designed to be simple, fast and production-ready.

Base URL

https://api.ctappcenter.com/v1

Your First API Call

The simplest call is a URL scan. Send a POST request to the /scan endpoint with the target URL:

POST https://api.ctappcenter.com/v1/scan

Request body:

json

{
  "target": "https://example.com",
  "type": "url"
}

Response:

json

{
  "target": "https://example.com",
  "type": "url",
  "trust_score": 94,
  "risk_level": "safe",
  "ssl_valid": true,
  "domain_age_days": 9125,
  "blacklisted": false,
  "threats_detected": [],
  "scan_duration_ms": 847,
  "scanned_at": "2025-03-15T10:23:41Z"
}

Trust Score Interpretation

The Trust Score ranges from 0 to 100:

Score	Risk Level	Recommended Action
80–100	Safe	Allow
40–79	Caution	Warn user
0–39	Dangerous	Block

Code Examples

JavaScript (Node.js)

javascript

const axios = require('axios');

async function scanURL(target) {
  const response = await axios.post(
    'https://api.ctappcenter.com/v1/scan',
    { target, type: 'url' },
    {
      headers: {
        'Authorization': `Bearer ${process.env.CT_API_KEY}`,
        'Content-Type': 'application/json'
      }
    }
  );
  return response.data;
}

scanURL('https://example.com').then(result => {
  console.log(`Trust Score: ${result.trust_score}`);
  console.log(`Risk Level: ${result.risk_level}`);
});

Python

python

import requests
import os

def scan_url(target):
    headers = {
        'Authorization': f'Bearer {os.environ["CT_API_KEY"]}',
        'Content-Type': 'application/json'
    }
    payload = {'target': target, 'type': 'url'}
    response = requests.post(
        'https://api.ctappcenter.com/v1/scan',
        json=payload,
        headers=headers
    )
    return response.json()

result = scan_url('https://example.com')
print(f"Trust Score: {result['trust_score']}")
print(f"Risk Level: {result['risk_level']}")

PHP

php

<?php
function scanURL($target) {
    $apiKey = getenv('CT_API_KEY');
    $payload = json_encode([
        'target' => $target,
        'type'   => 'url'
    ]);

    $ch = curl_init('https://api.ctappcenter.com/v1/scan');
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, true);
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $payload);
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, [
        'Authorization: Bearer ' . $apiKey,
        'Content-Type: application/json'
    ]);

    $response = curl_exec($ch);
    curl_close($ch);
    return json_decode($response, true);
}

$result = scanURL('https://example.com');
echo "Trust Score: " . $result['trust_score'];
echo "Risk Level: " . $result['risk_level'];
```

## Available Scan Types

The API supports three scan types:
```
url    → Full URL scan including path and parameters
domain → Domain-level scan including WHOIS and DNS
ip     → IP address reputation and geolocation check
```

Change the `type` field in your request body accordingly.

## Rate Limits

| Plan | Requests/day | Requests/minute |
|------|-------------|-----------------|
| Free | 10 | 1 |
| Pro | 1,000 | 10 |
| Business | Unlimited | 60 |

Rate limit headers are included in every response:
```
X-RateLimit-Limit: 1000
X-RateLimit-Remaining: 847
X-RateLimit-Reset: 1710500400
```

## Error Handling

The API uses standard HTTP status codes:
```
200 → Success
400 → Invalid request (check your payload)
401 → Invalid or missing API key
422 → Unprocessable target URL
429 → Rate limit exceeded
500 → Server error (retry after 30 seconds)

Always implement retry logic with exponential backoff for 429 and 500 errors.

The API follows REST standards as defined by [RFC 7231](https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc7231).

Webhooks (Business Plan)

Business plan users can configure webhooks to receive real-time notifications when a scan detects a threat:

{
“event”: “threat_detected”,
“target”: “https://malicious-site.example”,
“trust_score”: 12,
“risk_level”: “dangerous”,
“detected_at”: “2025-03-15T10:23:41Z”
}

Configure your webhook URL in the dashboard under Settings → Webhooks.

## Next Steps

• Read the full [API Reference](/docs) for all available endpoints
• Explore [CT Guard](/apps/ct-guard) for real-time browser protection
• Join the [waitlist for CT Extension](/apps/ct-extension)
• browser-native scanning coming soon

Learn more about CT Scan and its features on the [CT Scan app page] (/apps/ct-scan)

Ready to get started? [Create your free account] and access your API key in minutes.

## Best Practices for Production

When integrating the CT Scan API in a production environment, always cache scan results to avoid unnecessary API calls. We recommend caching results for 24 hours for domains with a Trust Score above 80. For scores below 40, re-scan every 6 hours to catch newly detected threats. Always log API responses for audit purposes, especially if you are using the API for security-critical decisions such as blocking transactions or restricting access.