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Tutorial: Sync Inventory Levels

A common integration keeps SKU.io's on-hand quantities in step with another system (a WMS, a marketplace, a spreadsheet count). The pattern is: read current state → diff against your source of truth → post adjustments for the differences. This tutorial shows each step. You'll need a token with inventory:read and inventory:write.

1. Read current stock​

Pull recent inventory movements with GET /api/v2/inventory-movements. This is a standard paginated, filterable list — narrow it to a warehouse and date window so you only fetch what changed:

curl "https://acme.sku.io/api/v2/inventory-movements?filter[warehouse_id]=1&per_page=100&sort=-created_at" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SKU_TOKEN" \
  -H "Accept: application/json"

Walk the pages via next_page_url until it's null — see Pagination. For the filter and sort keys this endpoint accepts, see Filtering & Sorting and the reference page.

2. Diff against your source of truth​

This step is yours, not an API call. For each SKU, compare SKU.io's current on-hand against the authoritative count from your other system and build a list of deltas:

WDG-001: SKU.io says 448, WMS says 450  → +2
WDG-002: SKU.io says 120, WMS says 118  → -2

Only post adjustments where the delta is non-zero. Sending a no-op adjustment just creates noise in the audit trail.

3. Post adjustments​

For each non-zero delta, create an adjustment with POST /api/inventory-adjustments. Always include a reason so the movement is auditable:

curl -X POST "https://acme.sku.io/api/inventory-adjustments" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SKU_TOKEN" \
  -H "Accept: application/json" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "warehouse_id": 1,
    "reason": "WMS reconciliation",
    "lines": [
      { "sku": "WDG-001", "quantity_change": 2 },
      { "sku": "WDG-002", "quantity_change": -2 }
    ]
  }'

Verify what posted with GET /api/v2/inventory-adjustments. The exact accepted body (per-line lot / expiry / cost fields) is on the Create Inventory Adjustment reference.

4. Make it incremental​

Re-scanning everything on a schedule works but is wasteful. Two better patterns:

  • Cursor by timestamp — remember the newest created_at you processed and filter filter[created_at] on the next run so you only pull new movements.
  • React to events — subscribe to inventory Webhooks and adjust in response to pushed changes instead of polling at all.

Where to next​