> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.services.payward.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Create Headless User > Create a new headless user in the Payward system. A headless user is a lightweight user that only requires an external reference, without any end-user profile data (email, name, phone, etc.). When retrying headless user creation, send the same `external_reference` for the same partner user. Payward uses this value to avoid creating duplicate users. Retry responses are generated from the latest available user state, not replayed from the original request. This is useful for partners who manage end-user data entirely on their side. **Note:** The availability of this endpoint depends on your licensing agreement. Only partners with the relevant licenses in their operating jurisdiction can choose not to share KYC data with Payward. If you need to create a user with full profile data for KYC verification, use the **Create User** endpoint instead. ## OpenAPI ````yaml /api-reference/openapi_v3_pws.json post /v1/users/headless openapi: 3.1.0 info: title: Payward Services API description: >- The Payward Services (PWS) public API. PWS exposes Swaps (institutional FX-style trading), Conversions (rule-driven and one-shot fiat ↔ crypto value movement), retail-style Quotes and Price Trigger Swaps, end-user Users / Verifications, Funds (deposits, withdrawals, addresses, transactions), Portfolio, Earn, Reports, Webhooks, and Ramp (hosted fiat-to-crypto on-ramp checkout). All requests must be authenticated. All monetary values are decimal strings; all timestamps are ISO 8601 UTC. List endpoints are cursor-paginated. Errors follow a uniform shape (see `*ErrorResponse` schemas). version: v1 contact: name: Payward Services API Support url: https://docs.payward.com email: api-support@payward.com servers: - url: https://api.services.payward.com description: Production security: - ApiKey: [] ApiNonce: [] ApiSign: [] tags: - name: Users description: >- Users and headless-user onboarding flows that the partner manages. - **Create User** provisions a user with full identity verification fields collected up front. - **Create Headless User** provisions a lightweight user when your licensing agreement allows you to manage KYC data outside Payward. - **Get User** retrieves the user's profile, verification status, and required actions. - **Update User** updates user profile fields and may re-trigger verification. Use the returned user `id` for calls that require the user's identifier. - name: Assets description: >- Catalog of assets available on the platform with retail-display metadata (logos, market data, descriptions). - name: Conversions description: >- Rule-driven and one-shot fiat ↔ crypto value movement, including conversion rules, deposits, and whitelisted wallets. - name: Earn description: >- Manage auto-earn preferences and retrieve allocation and reward information. - name: Funds description: >- Deposits, withdrawals, addresses, methods, and the consolidated funding-transactions ledger. - name: Portfolio description: End-user portfolio summary, history, and transaction views. - name: Price Trigger Swaps description: Limit-style orders that execute when a configured price trigger is met. - name: On-chain Swaps description: >- Wallet-funded onchain quote trading for xStock and USDC pairs. On-chain quotes settle on-chain through the Payward on-chain proxy contract. - name: Ramp description: >- Hosted fiat-to-crypto on-ramp checkout: country / fiat / payment-method / cryptocurrency-asset discovery, transaction limits and prospective quotes, and the hosted checkout URL. - name: Reports description: Settlement and reconciliation reports for the partner. - name: Swaps description: >- Direct partner-to-Payward swap quotes and executions (institutional FX-style trading). - name: Verifications description: Identity verification (KYC) submission and status for end users. - name: Webhooks description: Manage webhook subscriptions for asynchronous event delivery. paths: /v1/users/headless: post: tags: - Users summary: Create Headless User description: >- Create a new headless user in the Payward system. A headless user is a lightweight user that only requires an external reference, without any end-user profile data (email, name, phone, etc.). When retrying headless user creation, send the same `external_reference` for the same partner user. Payward uses this value to avoid creating duplicate users. Retry responses are generated from the latest available user state, not replayed from the original request. This is useful for partners who manage end-user data entirely on their side. **Note:** The availability of this endpoint depends on your licensing agreement. Only partners with the relevant licenses in their operating jurisdiction can choose not to share KYC data with Payward. If you need to create a user with full profile data for KYC verification, use the **Create User** endpoint instead. operationId: createHeadlessUser requestBody: content: application/json: schema: description: Request to create a new headless user. type: object properties: external_reference: description: >- Stable partner-supplied reference for this user. Must be unique within your partner account. Reuse the same value only for the same user, including create retries. type: string minLength: 1 maxLength: 256 required: - external_reference examples: create-headless-user: summary: Create a headless user value: external_reference: partner-user-12345 required: true responses: '201': description: Created content: application/json: schema: type: object properties: data: description: Created headless user payload. type: object properties: id: description: >- User ID of the newly created headless user, also used as its canonical identifier. allOf: - $ref: '#/components/schemas/UserId' accounts: description: Accounts associated with the created user. type: array items: description: Account associated with a user. type: object properties: id: description: Public account identifier. type: string minLength: 1 maxLength: 42 name: description: Account display name. type: string minLength: 1 maxLength: 256 required: - id - name required: - id required: - data examples: created-headless-user: summary: Created headless user and accounts value: data: id: AA45N8G4MLDYWAR7 accounts: - id: WX6VJUKWKKPBQE36 name: main - id: WC9RDEFHPSGLXRVX name: secondary headers: Request-Id: $ref: '#/components/headers/RequestId' X-RateLimit-Limit: $ref: '#/components/headers/RateLimitLimit' X-RateLimit-Remaining: $ref: '#/components/headers/RateLimitRemaining' X-RateLimit-Reset: $ref: '#/components/headers/RateLimitReset' Strict-Transport-Security: $ref: '#/components/headers/StrictTransportSecurity' X-Content-Type-Options: $ref: '#/components/headers/XContentTypeOptions' Content-Security-Policy: $ref: '#/components/headers/ContentSecurityPolicy' Cache-Control: $ref: '#/components/headers/CacheControl' '400': description: Validation error content: application/json: schema: $ref: '#/components/schemas/BadRequestError' headers: Request-Id: $ref: '#/components/headers/RequestId' X-RateLimit-Limit: $ref: '#/components/headers/RateLimitLimit' X-RateLimit-Remaining: $ref: '#/components/headers/RateLimitRemaining' X-RateLimit-Reset: $ref: '#/components/headers/RateLimitReset' Strict-Transport-Security: $ref: '#/components/headers/StrictTransportSecurity' X-Content-Type-Options: $ref: '#/components/headers/XContentTypeOptions' Content-Security-Policy: $ref: '#/components/headers/ContentSecurityPolicy' Cache-Control: $ref: '#/components/headers/CacheControl' '401': description: Authentication failed content: application/json: schema: $ref: '#/components/schemas/UnauthenticatedError' headers: Request-Id: $ref: '#/components/headers/RequestId' X-RateLimit-Limit: $ref: '#/components/headers/RateLimitLimit' X-RateLimit-Remaining: $ref: '#/components/headers/RateLimitRemaining' X-RateLimit-Reset: $ref: '#/components/headers/RateLimitReset' Strict-Transport-Security: $ref: '#/components/headers/StrictTransportSecurity' X-Content-Type-Options: $ref: '#/components/headers/XContentTypeOptions' Content-Security-Policy: $ref: '#/components/headers/ContentSecurityPolicy' Cache-Control: $ref: '#/components/headers/CacheControl' '403': description: Permission denied content: application/json: schema: $ref: '#/components/schemas/ForbiddenError' headers: Request-Id: $ref: '#/components/headers/RequestId' X-RateLimit-Limit: $ref: '#/components/headers/RateLimitLimit' X-RateLimit-Remaining: $ref: '#/components/headers/RateLimitRemaining' X-RateLimit-Reset: $ref: '#/components/headers/RateLimitReset' Strict-Transport-Security: $ref: '#/components/headers/StrictTransportSecurity' X-Content-Type-Options: $ref: '#/components/headers/XContentTypeOptions' Content-Security-Policy: $ref: '#/components/headers/ContentSecurityPolicy' Cache-Control: $ref: '#/components/headers/CacheControl' '429': description: Rate limit exceeded content: application/json: schema: $ref: '#/components/schemas/ResourceExhaustedError' headers: Request-Id: $ref: '#/components/headers/RequestId' X-RateLimit-Limit: $ref: '#/components/headers/RateLimitLimit' X-RateLimit-Remaining: $ref: '#/components/headers/RateLimitRemaining' X-RateLimit-Reset: $ref: '#/components/headers/RateLimitReset' Strict-Transport-Security: $ref: '#/components/headers/StrictTransportSecurity' X-Content-Type-Options: $ref: '#/components/headers/XContentTypeOptions' Content-Security-Policy: $ref: '#/components/headers/ContentSecurityPolicy' Cache-Control: $ref: '#/components/headers/CacheControl' Retry-After: $ref: '#/components/headers/RetryAfter' '500': description: Internal server error content: application/json: schema: $ref: '#/components/schemas/InternalError' headers: Request-Id: $ref: '#/components/headers/RequestId' X-RateLimit-Limit: $ref: '#/components/headers/RateLimitLimit' X-RateLimit-Remaining: $ref: '#/components/headers/RateLimitRemaining' X-RateLimit-Reset: $ref: '#/components/headers/RateLimitReset' Strict-Transport-Security: $ref: '#/components/headers/StrictTransportSecurity' X-Content-Type-Options: $ref: '#/components/headers/XContentTypeOptions' Content-Security-Policy: $ref: '#/components/headers/ContentSecurityPolicy' Cache-Control: $ref: '#/components/headers/CacheControl' '501': description: Operation not implemented content: application/json: schema: $ref: '#/components/schemas/UnimplementedError' headers: Request-Id: $ref: '#/components/headers/RequestId' X-RateLimit-Limit: $ref: '#/components/headers/RateLimitLimit' X-RateLimit-Remaining: $ref: '#/components/headers/RateLimitRemaining' X-RateLimit-Reset: $ref: '#/components/headers/RateLimitReset' Strict-Transport-Security: $ref: '#/components/headers/StrictTransportSecurity' X-Content-Type-Options: $ref: '#/components/headers/XContentTypeOptions' Content-Security-Policy: $ref: '#/components/headers/ContentSecurityPolicy' Cache-Control: $ref: '#/components/headers/CacheControl' '503': description: Service unavailable content: application/json: schema: $ref: '#/components/schemas/UnavailableError' headers: Request-Id: $ref: '#/components/headers/RequestId' X-RateLimit-Limit: $ref: '#/components/headers/RateLimitLimit' X-RateLimit-Remaining: $ref: '#/components/headers/RateLimitRemaining' X-RateLimit-Reset: $ref: '#/components/headers/RateLimitReset' Strict-Transport-Security: $ref: '#/components/headers/StrictTransportSecurity' X-Content-Type-Options: $ref: '#/components/headers/XContentTypeOptions' Content-Security-Policy: $ref: '#/components/headers/ContentSecurityPolicy' Cache-Control: $ref: '#/components/headers/CacheControl' '504': description: Deadline exceeded content: application/json: schema: $ref: '#/components/schemas/DeadlineExceededError' headers: Request-Id: $ref: '#/components/headers/RequestId' X-RateLimit-Limit: $ref: '#/components/headers/RateLimitLimit' X-RateLimit-Remaining: $ref: '#/components/headers/RateLimitRemaining' X-RateLimit-Reset: $ref: '#/components/headers/RateLimitReset' Strict-Transport-Security: $ref: '#/components/headers/StrictTransportSecurity' X-Content-Type-Options: $ref: '#/components/headers/XContentTypeOptions' Content-Security-Policy: $ref: '#/components/headers/ContentSecurityPolicy' Cache-Control: $ref: '#/components/headers/CacheControl' security: - ApiKey: [] ApiNonce: [] ApiSign: [] x-codeSamples: - lang: bash label: curl source: |- curl -X POST "https://api.services.payward.com/v1/users/headless" \ -H "API-Key: $PWS_API_KEY" \ -H "API-Nonce: $PWS_API_NONCE" \ -H "API-Sign: $PWS_API_SIGN" \ -H "Content-Type: application/json" \ -d '{"external_reference": "partner-user-12345"}' components: schemas: UserId: type: string description: Canonical identifier for a user in the Payward public API. minLength: 14 maxLength: 42 BadRequestError: description: Request validation failed or the request could not be processed. allOf: - $ref: '#/components/schemas/PwsValidationErrorEnvelope' - type: object required: - error properties: error: allOf: - $ref: '#/components/schemas/PwsValidationError' - type: object required: - status - code properties: status: type: integer format: int32 enum: - 400 code: type: string enum: - bad_request UnauthenticatedError: description: Authentication credentials are missing, invalid, or not accepted. allOf: - $ref: '#/components/schemas/PwsGeneralErrorEnvelope' - type: object required: - error properties: error: allOf: - $ref: '#/components/schemas/PwsGeneralError' - type: object required: - status - code properties: status: type: integer format: int32 enum: - 401 code: type: string enum: - unauthenticated ForbiddenError: description: The authenticated caller is not allowed to perform this operation. allOf: - $ref: '#/components/schemas/PwsGeneralErrorEnvelope' - type: object required: - error properties: error: allOf: - $ref: '#/components/schemas/PwsGeneralError' - type: object required: - status - code properties: status: type: integer format: int32 enum: - 403 code: type: string enum: - forbidden ResourceExhaustedError: description: The request was rate limited or a resource quota was exhausted. allOf: - $ref: '#/components/schemas/PwsGeneralErrorEnvelope' - type: object required: - error properties: error: allOf: - $ref: '#/components/schemas/PwsGeneralError' - type: object required: - status - code properties: status: type: integer format: int32 enum: - 429 code: type: string enum: - resource_exhausted InternalError: description: An unexpected server-side error occurred. allOf: - $ref: '#/components/schemas/PwsGeneralErrorEnvelope' - type: object required: - error properties: error: allOf: - $ref: '#/components/schemas/PwsGeneralError' - type: object required: - status - code properties: status: type: integer format: int32 enum: - 500 code: type: string enum: - internal UnimplementedError: description: The operation is not implemented by the upstream service. allOf: - $ref: '#/components/schemas/PwsGeneralErrorEnvelope' - type: object required: - error properties: error: allOf: - $ref: '#/components/schemas/PwsGeneralError' - type: object required: - status - code properties: status: type: integer format: int32 enum: - 501 code: type: string enum: - unimplemented UnavailableError: description: The service is temporarily unavailable. allOf: - $ref: '#/components/schemas/PwsGeneralErrorEnvelope' - type: object required: - error properties: error: allOf: - $ref: '#/components/schemas/PwsGeneralError' - type: object required: - status - code properties: status: type: integer format: int32 enum: - 503 code: type: string enum: - unavailable DeadlineExceededError: description: The upstream service did not complete the request before the deadline. allOf: - $ref: '#/components/schemas/PwsGeneralErrorEnvelope' - type: object required: - error properties: error: allOf: - $ref: '#/components/schemas/PwsGeneralError' - type: object required: - status - code properties: status: type: integer format: int32 enum: - 504 code: type: string enum: - deadline_exceeded PwsValidationErrorEnvelope: description: Error envelope for request validation failures. type: object required: - error properties: error: $ref: '#/components/schemas/PwsValidationError' PwsValidationError: description: Standard PWS API error object for request validation failures. type: object required: - type - status - instance - code properties: type: description: Machine-readable error class. type: string status: description: HTTP status code returned for this error. type: integer format: int32 instance: description: Request identifier for this specific error occurrence. type: string code: description: Stable machine-readable error code. type: string doc_url: description: Optional link to documentation for this error. type: string format: uri causes: description: Validation failures that contributed to the error. type: array items: $ref: '#/components/schemas/PwsErrorCause' PwsGeneralErrorEnvelope: description: Error envelope for operational or domain failures. type: object required: - error properties: error: $ref: '#/components/schemas/PwsGeneralError' PwsGeneralError: description: Standard PWS API error object for non-validation failures. allOf: - $ref: '#/components/schemas/PwsErrorBase' - type: object properties: causes: description: Additional error details, when present. type: array items: type: object additionalProperties: true PwsErrorCause: description: A single request validation failure. type: object required: - field - message properties: field: description: Dot-notation path to the offending request field. type: string message: description: Human-readable explanation of the failed validation rule. type: string PwsErrorBase: description: Common fields present on every PWS API error object. type: object required: - type - status - instance - code properties: type: description: Machine-readable error class. type: string status: description: HTTP status code returned for this error. type: integer format: int32 instance: description: Request identifier for this specific error occurrence. type: string code: description: Stable machine-readable error code. type: string doc_url: description: Optional link to documentation for this error. type: string format: uri headers: RequestId: description: >- Unique identifier for tracing this request across services. Include in support tickets. schema: type: string format: uuid example: 5f4d2a8e-91a4-4d6c-8a17-9b1e2c3f4a5b RateLimitLimit: description: Total requests allowed in the current window. schema: type: integer example: 1000 RateLimitRemaining: description: Requests remaining in the current window. schema: type: integer example: 955 RateLimitReset: description: Unix timestamp (seconds) when the rate-limit window resets. schema: type: integer format: int64 example: 1713182400 StrictTransportSecurity: description: >- Enforces HTTPS for the configured period. Always `max-age=63072000; includeSubDomains; preload`. schema: type: string example: max-age=63072000; includeSubDomains; preload XContentTypeOptions: description: Disables MIME sniffing. Always `nosniff`. schema: type: string enum: - nosniff example: nosniff ContentSecurityPolicy: description: >- Prevents embedding and resource loading. Always `default-src 'none'; frame-ancestors 'none'`. schema: type: string example: default-src 'none'; frame-ancestors 'none' CacheControl: description: Prevents caching of sensitive financial data. Always `no-store`. schema: type: string enum: - no-store example: no-store RetryAfter: description: Seconds the client should wait before retrying. schema: type: integer example: 30 securitySchemes: ApiKey: type: apiKey name: API-Key in: header description: Your public API key. Identifies the partner making the request. ApiNonce: type: apiKey name: API-Nonce in: header description: Monotonically increasing nonce included in the request signature. ApiSign: type: apiKey name: API-Sign in: header description: HMAC signature over the request, computed with your private key. ````