basecamp

Basecamp

Access the Basecamp 4 API with managed OAuth authentication. Manage projects, to-dos, messages, schedules, documents, and team collaboration.

Quick Start

# List all projects
python <<'EOF'
import urllib.request, os, json
req = urllib.request.Request('https://api.maton.ai/basecamp/projects.json')
req.add_header('Authorization', f'Bearer {os.environ["MATON_API_KEY"]}')
print(json.dumps(json.load(urllib.request.urlopen(req)), indent=2))
EOF

Base URL

https://api.maton.ai/basecamp/{resource}.json

Maton proxies requests to 3.basecampapi.com/{account_id}/ and automatically injects your OAuth token and account ID.

Important: All Basecamp API URLs must end with .json.

Authentication

All requests require the Maton API key in the Authorization header:

Authorization: Bearer $MATON_API_KEY

Environment Variable: Set your API key as MATON_API_KEY:

export MATON_API_KEY="YOUR_API_KEY"

Getting Your API Key

1. Sign in or create an account at maton.ai
2. Go to maton.ai/settings
3. Copy your API key

Connection Management

Manage your Basecamp OAuth connections at https://api.maton.ai.

List Connections

python <<'EOF'
import urllib.request, os, json
req = urllib.request.Request('https://api.maton.ai/connections?app=basecamp&status=ACTIVE')
req.add_header('Authorization', f'Bearer {os.environ["MATON_API_KEY"]}')
print(json.dumps(json.load(urllib.request.urlopen(req)), indent=2))
EOF

Create Connection

python <<'EOF'
import urllib.request, os, json
data = json.dumps({'app': 'basecamp'}).encode()
req = urllib.request.Request('https://api.maton.ai/connections', data=data, method='POST')
req.add_header('Authorization', f'Bearer {os.environ["MATON_API_KEY"]}')
req.add_header('Content-Type', 'application/json')
print(json.dumps(json.load(urllib.request.urlopen(req)), indent=2))
EOF

Get Connection

python <<'EOF'
import urllib.request, os, json
req = urllib.request.Request('https://api.maton.ai/connections/{connection_id}')
req.add_header('Authorization', f'Bearer {os.environ["MATON_API_KEY"]}')
print(json.dumps(json.load(urllib.request.urlopen(req)), indent=2))
EOF

Response:

{
  "connection": {
    "connection_id": "{connection_id}",
    "status": "ACTIVE",
    "creation_time": "2026-02-08T03:12:39.815086Z",
    "last_updated_time": "2026-02-08T03:12:59.259878Z",
    "url": "https://connect.maton.ai/?session_token=...",
    "app": "basecamp",
    "metadata": {}
  }
}

Open the returned url in a browser to complete OAuth authorization.

Delete Connection

python <<'EOF'
import urllib.request, os, json
req = urllib.request.Request('https://api.maton.ai/connections/{connection_id}', method='DELETE')
req.add_header('Authorization', f'Bearer {os.environ["MATON_API_KEY"]}')
print(json.dumps(json.load(urllib.request.urlopen(req)), indent=2))
EOF

Specifying Connection

If you have multiple Basecamp connections, specify which one to use with the Maton-Connection header:

python <<'EOF'
import urllib.request, os, json
req = urllib.request.Request('https://api.maton.ai/basecamp/projects.json')
req.add_header('Authorization', f'Bearer {os.environ["MATON_API_KEY"]}')
req.add_header('Maton-Connection', '{connection_id}')
print(json.dumps(json.load(urllib.request.urlopen(req)), indent=2))
EOF

If you have multiple connections, always include this header to ensure requests go to the intended account.

Security & Permissions

• Access is scoped to projects, to-dos, messages, schedules, documents, and team collaboration within the connected Basecamp account.
• All write operations require explicit user approval. Before executing any create, update, or delete call, confirm the target resource and intended effect with the user.

API Reference

User Info

Get Current User

GET /basecamp/my/profile.json

Response:

{
  "id": 51197030,
  "name": "Chris Kim",
  "email_address": "chris@example.com",
  "admin": true,
  "owner": true,
  "time_zone": "America/Los_Angeles",
  "avatar_url": "https://..."
}

People Operations

List People

GET /basecamp/people.json

Response:

[
  {
    "id": 51197030,
    "name": "Chris Kim",
    "email_address": "chris@example.com",
    "admin": true,
    "owner": true,
    "employee": true,
    "time_zone": "America/Los_Angeles"
  }
]

Get Person

GET /basecamp/people/{person_id}.json

List Project Members

GET /basecamp/projects/{project_id}/people.json

Project Operations

List Projects

GET /basecamp/projects.json

Response:

[
  {
    "id": 46005636,
    "status": "active",
    "name": "Getting Started",
    "description": "Quickly get up to speed with everything Basecamp",
    "created_at": "2026-02-05T22:59:26.087Z",
    "url": "https://3.basecampapi.com/6153810/projects/46005636.json",
    "dock": [...]
  }
]

Get Project

GET /basecamp/projects/{project_id}.json

The project response includes a dock array with available tools (message_board, todoset, vault, chat, schedule, etc.). Each dock item has:

• id: The tool's ID
• name: Tool type (e.g., "todoset", "message_board")
• enabled: Whether the tool is active
• url: Direct URL to access the tool

Create Project

POST /basecamp/projects.json
Content-Type: application/json

{
  "name": "New Project",
  "description": "Project description"
}

Update Project

PUT /basecamp/projects/{project_id}.json
Content-Type: application/json

{
  "name": "Updated Project Name",
  "description": "Updated description"
}

Delete (Trash) Project

DELETE /basecamp/projects/{project_id}.json

To-Do Operations

Get Todoset

First, get the todoset ID from the project's dock:

GET /basecamp/buckets/{project_id}/todosets/{todoset_id}.json

List Todolists

GET /basecamp/buckets/{project_id}/todosets/{todoset_id}/todolists.json

Response:

[
  {
    "id": 9550474442,
    "title": "Basecamp essentials",
    "description": "",
    "completed": false,
    "completed_ratio": "0/5",
    "url": "https://..."
  }
]

Create Todolist

POST /basecamp/buckets/{project_id}/todosets/{todoset_id}/todolists.json
Content-Type: application/json

{
  "name": "New Todo List",
  "description": "List description"
}

Get Todolist

GET /basecamp/buckets/{project_id}/todolists/{todolist_id}.json

List Todos

GET /basecamp/buckets/{project_id}/todolists/{todolist_id}/todos.json

Response:

[
  {
    "id": 9550474446,
    "content": "Start here",
    "description": "",
    "completed": false,
    "due_on": null,
    "assignees": []
  }
]

Create Todo

POST /basecamp/buckets/{project_id}/todolists/{todolist_id}/todos.json
Content-Type: application/json

{
  "content": "New todo item",
  "description": "Todo description",
  "due_on": "2026-02-15",
  "assignee_ids": [51197030]
}

Response:

{
  "id": 9555973289,
  "content": "New todo item",
  "completed": false
}

Update Todo

PUT /basecamp/buckets/{project_id}/todos/{todo_id}.json
Content-Type: application/json

{
  "content": "Updated todo",
  "description": "Updated description"
}

Complete Todo

POST /basecamp/buckets/{project_id}/todos/{todo_id}/completion.json

Returns 204 on success.

Uncomplete Todo

DELETE /basecamp/buckets/{project_id}/todos/{todo_id}/completion.json

Message Board Operations

Get Message Board

GET /basecamp/buckets/{project_id}/message_boards/{message_board_id}.json

List Messages

GET /basecamp/buckets/{project_id}/message_boards/{message_board_id}/messages.json

Create Message

POST /basecamp/buckets/{project_id}/message_boards/{message_board_id}/messages.json
Content-Type: application/json

{
  "subject": "Message Subject",
  "content": "Message body with HTML",
  "category_id": 123
}

Get Message

GET /basecamp/buckets/{project_id}/messages/{message_id}.json

Update Message

PUT /basecamp/buckets/{project_id}/messages/{message_id}.json
Content-Type: application/json

{
  "subject": "Updated Subject",
  "content": "Updated content"
}

Schedule Operations

Get Schedule

GET /basecamp/buckets/{project_id}/schedules/{schedule_id}.json

List Schedule Entries

GET /basecamp/buckets/{project_id}/schedules/{schedule_id}/entries.json

Create Schedule Entry

POST /basecamp/buckets/{project_id}/schedules/{schedule_id}/entries.json
Content-Type: application/json

{
  "summary": "Team Meeting",
  "description": "Weekly sync",
  "starts_at": "2026-02-15T14:00:00Z",
  "ends_at": "2026-02-15T15:00:00Z",
  "all_day": false,
  "participant_ids": [51197030]
}

Update Schedule Entry

PUT /basecamp/buckets/{project_id}/schedule_entries/{entry_id}.json
Content-Type: application/json

{
  "summary": "Updated Meeting",
  "starts_at": "2026-02-15T15:00:00Z",
  "ends_at": "2026-02-15T16:00:00Z"
}

Vault (Documents & Files) Operations

Get Vault

GET /basecamp/buckets/{project_id}/vaults/{vault_id}.json

List Documents in Vault

GET /basecamp/buckets/{project_id}/vaults/{vault_id}/documents.json

Create Document

POST /basecamp/buckets/{project_id}/vaults/{vault_id}/documents.json
Content-Type: application/json

{
  "title": "Document Title",
  "content": "Document content with HTML"
}

List Uploads in Vault

GET /basecamp/buckets/{project_id}/vaults/{vault_id}/uploads.json

Campfire (Chat) Operations

List All Campfires

GET /basecamp/chats.json

Get Campfire

GET /basecamp/buckets/{project_id}/chats/{chat_id}.json

List Campfire Lines (Messages)

GET /basecamp/buckets/{project_id}/chats/{chat_id}/lines.json

Create Campfire Line

POST /basecamp/buckets/{project_id}/chats/{chat_id}/lines.json
Content-Type: application/json

{
  "content": "Hello from the API!"
}

Comments Operations

List Comments on Recording

GET /basecamp/buckets/{project_id}/recordings/{recording_id}/comments.json

Create Comment

POST /basecamp/buckets/{project_id}/recordings/{recording_id}/comments.json
Content-Type: application/json

{
  "content": "Comment text"
}

Recording Status Operations

All content items (todos, messages, documents, etc.) are "recordings" that can be archived or trashed.

Trash Recording

PUT /basecamp/buckets/{project_id}/recordings/{recording_id}/status/trashed.json

Archive Recording

PUT /basecamp/buckets/{project_id}/recordings/{recording_id}/status/archived.json

Unarchive Recording

PUT /basecamp/buckets/{project_id}/recordings/{recording_id}/status/active.json

Templates Operations

List Templates

GET /basecamp/templates.json

Create Project from Template

POST /basecamp/templates/{template_id}/project_constructions.json
Content-Type: application/json

{
  "name": "New Project from Template",
  "description": "Description"
}

Pagination

Basecamp uses Link header pagination with rel="next":

Response Headers:

Link: ; rel="next"
X-Total-Count: 150

Follow the Link header URL for the next page. When next is absent, you've reached the last page.

Important: Do not construct pagination URLs manually. Always use the URL provided in the Link header.

Key Concepts

Buckets and Projects

A "bucket" is a project's content container. The bucket ID is the same as the project ID in URLs:

/buckets/{project_id}/todosets/{todoset_id}.json

Dock

Each project has a "dock" containing available tools. Always check that a tool is enabled: true before using it:

{
  "dock": [
    {"name": "todoset", "id": 123, "enabled": true},
    {"name": "message_board", "id": 456, "enabled": false}
  ]
}

Recordings

All content items (todos, messages, documents, comments, etc.) are "recordings" with:

• status: "active", "archived", or "trashed"
• parent: navigation to container
• Unique IDs that can be used across endpoints

Code Examples

JavaScript

const response = await fetch(
  'https://api.maton.ai/basecamp/projects.json',
  {
    headers: {
      'Authorization': `Bearer ${process.env.MATON_API_KEY}`
    }
  }
);
const projects = await response.json();

Python

import os
import requests

response = requests.get(
    'https://api.maton.ai/basecamp/projects.json',
    headers={'Authorization': f'Bearer {os.environ["MATON_API_KEY"]}'}
)
projects = response.json()

Notes

• All API paths must end with .json
• Maton automatically injects the account ID
• Uses Basecamp 4 API (bc3-api)
• Timestamps are in ISO 8601 format
• HTML content uses , , , , , , , tags
• Rate limit: ~50 requests per 10 seconds per IP
• IMPORTANT: When piping curl output to jq or other commands, environment variables like $MATON_API_KEY may not expand correctly in some shell environments

Error Handling

Troubleshooting: API Key Issues

1. Check that the MATON_API_KEY environment variable is set:

echo $MATON_API_KEY

1. Verify the API key is valid by listing connections:

python <<'EOF'
import urllib.request, os, json
req = urllib.request.Request('https://api.maton.ai/connections')
req.add_header('Authorization', f'Bearer {os.environ["MATON_API_KEY"]}')
print(json.dumps(json.load(urllib.request.urlopen(req)), indent=2))
EOF

Troubleshooting: Invalid App Name

1. Ensure your URL path starts with basecamp. For example:

• Correct: https://api.maton.ai/basecamp/projects.json
• Incorrect: https://api.maton.ai/projects.json

Resources

• Basecamp 4 API Documentation
• Authentication Guide
• API Reference
• Maton Community
• Maton Support