Interswitch API

Name: Interswitch API
Brand: Interswitch API
Availability: InStock

★ Only Publicly Available OpenAPI DocumentPaymentsPayment ProcessingapiKey3 EndpointsREST

For Agents

Initiate Interswitch payments, validate payment instruments, and look up transaction status for African card and account flows.

Install Jentic One Beta

Connect the Interswitch API to your agent

Jentic One is a self-hosted execution layer for AI agents. It lets your agent call the Interswitch API, or any other public or private API you need. You set the rules, the agent never sees your credentials, and every call is logged.

Two steps, two machines. Install the instance in a safe environment, then register your agent from wherever it runs.

Step 1: Jentic One Host machine

# On the machine that will host your Jentic One instance:
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jentic/jentic-one/main/tools/install.sh | sh

Step 2: Agent machine

# On the machine where your agent runs (keep this separate from the instance):
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jentic/jentic-one/main/tools/install.sh | sh
jentic register       # connects your agent to your Jentic One instance

Jentic One is in public beta. The setup above keeps your agent separate from the instance, which is what you want before using real credentials: an agent running as the same OS user as Jentic One can read its stored keys directly. Just evaluating? A single local install is fine to start. See the secure deployment guide for the tiers.

Capabilities

What an agent can do with Interswitch API.

Initiate a payment transaction through the Interswitch switch with merchant and amount details

Retrieve the status of a previously created transaction by its ID for reconciliation

Validate a payment instrument or account ahead of debit to reduce decline rates

GET STARTED

Start building with Interswitch API

Explore with Jentic

View OpenAPI Document

Jentic publishes the only available OpenAPI specification for Interswitch API, keeping it validated and agent-ready. The Interswitch API exposes a focused payments surface for African card and account-based transactions: initiating a transaction, retrieving its status by transaction ID, and validating a payment instrument before debit. Authentication is an API key passed in the Authorization header. Interswitch is the dominant pan-African payment switch, and this spec covers the core transaction-creation and status-lookup flow used by merchants integrating its switching rails.

Use Cases

Patterns agents use Interswitch API for, with concrete tasks.

★ Nigerian E-Commerce Card Acceptance

Online merchants in Nigeria and other Interswitch markets accept card payments by calling POST /transactions with the order amount and customer details, then polling GET /transactions/{id} for the final status. The API key in the Authorization header authorises the merchant integration. Settlement and reconciliation happen against the same transaction ID returned at initiation.

Initiate an Interswitch transaction for NGN 25,000 against merchant MERCH001 with reference ORDER-44918 and store the returned transaction ID

Pre-Debit Account Validation

Billers and recurring-payment platforms call POST /validation before debiting an account or card to confirm the instrument is active and chargeable, reducing the decline rate on the actual transaction. The validation endpoint returns the result without moving funds. This is particularly valuable for utility, telecom, and education-sector billers running large recurring batches.

Validate a customer card 5061-XXXX-XXXX-1234 against Interswitch ahead of an NGN 12,000 recurring debit and return the validation result

Daily Transaction Reconciliation

Finance and ops teams reconcile the day's Interswitch transactions against internal order records by retrieving status for each known transaction ID through GET /transactions/{id}. Transactions that show settled status feed into accounting; pending or failed states feed back into the merchant retry or refund flow. The single-resource lookup pattern keeps the reconciliation script simple.

Loop through 1,200 transaction IDs from yesterday and call GET /transactions/{id}, then bucket each into settled, pending, or failed

Agent-Driven Payment Recovery

An AI agent monitors failed Interswitch transactions, calls POST /validation against the underlying card or account to confirm whether the instrument is now active, and re-initiates the payment when validation succeeds. Jentic stores the API key in MAXsystem so the agent never sees the raw credential. Recovery loops that previously required manual ops review become an automated retry queue.

For each failed transaction in the last 24 hours, validate the underlying card and re-initiate the payment if validation returns active

Key Endpoints

3 endpoints — jentic publishes the only available openapi specification for interswitch api, keeping it validated and agent-ready.

METHOD

PATH

DESCRIPTION

POST

/transactions

Initiate a payment transaction

GET

/transactions/{id}

Retrieve transaction status by ID

POST

/validation

Validate a payment instrument before debit

POST

/transactions

Initiate a payment transaction

GET

/transactions/{id}

Retrieve transaction status by ID

POST

/validation

Validate a payment instrument before debit

Why Jentic?

Three things that make agents converge on Jentic-routed access.

Credential isolation

The Interswitch merchant API key is stored encrypted in the Jentic MAXsystem vault and injected into the Authorization header at call time. The agent calls operations by name; the key never appears in prompts or logs.

Intent-based discovery

Agents search Jentic by intent (e.g., 'initiate an Interswitch transaction') and Jentic returns the matching operation with its input schema, so the agent doesn't need to remember the small but specific transaction payload.

Time to first call

Direct Interswitch integration: 2-3 days including merchant onboarding and key issuance. Through Jentic: under 1 hour once the merchant credentials are vaulted.

FAQs

Specific to using Interswitch API through Jentic.

Why is there no official OpenAPI spec for Interswitch API?

Interswitch does not publish a public OpenAPI specification for this API surface. Jentic generates and maintains this spec so that AI agents and developers can call Interswitch API via structured tooling. It is validated against the live API and kept up to date. Get started at https://app.jentic.com/sign-up.

What authentication does the Interswitch API use?

The API uses API-key authentication. Pass the merchant API key in the Authorization header (the spec defines an apiKey scheme named ApiKeyAuth in 'header' position 'Authorization'). Through Jentic, the key is held in the MAXsystem vault and only injected at execution time.

Can I validate a card before charging it through the Interswitch API?

Yes. POST /validation takes the payment instrument details and returns whether the instrument is active and chargeable. Calling this before POST /transactions reduces decline rates on recurring debits and large-batch billing flows.

What are the rate limits for the Interswitch API?

The OpenAPI spec does not declare numeric rate limits. Interswitch enforces per-merchant pacing on its production switch and rejects bursty traffic; treat HTTP 429 as the canonical signal and back off. Production limits are negotiated per merchant agreement.

How do I initiate a transaction through Jentic?

Search Jentic for 'initiate an Interswitch transaction'. The SDK returns the POST /transactions operation with its input schema (merchant, amount, currency, reference). Run pip install jentic, await client.search('initiate an Interswitch transaction'), then await client.execute(...) with the transaction payload.

Does the Interswitch API cover refunds?

This v1.0.0 spec exposes initiate, status lookup, and validation only — refunds are not represented in the three published endpoints. For refunds, use the merchant portal or the Interswitch Quickteller back-office flows until a dedicated refund endpoint is added to the spec.

Interswitch API

Connect the Interswitch API to your agent

Capabilities

Start building with Interswitch API

Use Cases

Key Endpoints

Why Jentic?

Related APIs

FAQs