---
nav: wcp_docs
parent_url: /wcp_docs/
title: Get Started on the Workday Developer Platform
layout: subsection
---
The Workday Open Developer Platform is a comprehensive online resource for our developers, partners, and customers. Its primary purpose is to enable you to extend and integrate the core Workday platform. It’s a central hub for all the tools, documentation, and resources needed to build custom applications and integrations, thereby tailoring Workday's human capital management (HCM) and financial management functionalities to meet unique business needs.
In this activity, you’ll:
- Navigate the Workday Open Developer Platform home page.
- Chat with Developer Agent.
- Search for documentation and other resources.
- Copy an Integration App from the App Catalog.
- Find and Test API Endpoints with Workday API Explorers.
## Explore the Developer Platform Home Page
The Workday Open Developer Platform homepage is designed as a central hub for developers to access everything you need to build on the Workday platform. It features a clear, action-oriented design that highlights key capabilities and resources.
In this task, use the labeled graphic below to explore the features of the Open Developer Platform home page.
1. In the upper-left corner of the page, select the hamburger menu. This is a convenient way to quickly access all the resources on the Open Developer Platform.
2. In the Ask Developer Agent box, you can ask questions in natural language about Workday Extend concepts, app components, APIs, errors, or implementation patterns, and the agent can provide explanations, recommendations, and next steps.
3. In the top right corner, select the Manage Tenant Connections icon. This enables you to access data sources in your tenant from your apps and API Explorers without having to sign-in again.
4. Select the User menu. This is where you can view your profile, organization, and choose a light or dark theme..
5. Are you ready to jump in? You can start building agents and apps right from the Developer Platform home page.
## What Is a Workday Tenant?
A Workday tenant is your organization’s dedicated, secure instance of the Workday application and data. Think of it as your own configurable “work environment” in the Workday cloud, where your company’s HCM, payroll, time, and other processes are set up and managed.
A Workday development tenant is a non‑production Workday environment in which you can design, configure, and prototype new functionality, including custom Extend apps and integration apps. It’s where you build and refine business processes, security, integrations, and configurations before promoting them to test or production tenants.
To launch your development tenant:
1. In the upper left corner of the home page, select the hamburger menu, and under Console, select Tenants.
2. On the Tenants page, in the far right column of the tenants list, select the Launch Tenant icon of your development tenant.
3. Sign in to the tenant with your Developer Platform credentials.
✅ Expected result: You’ll see the Workday platform home page.
Development Tenant Benefits
- Standardized processes: A single source of truth for HR, payroll, and related data across the organization.
- Flexibility without customization debt: You can adapt processes and security to your needs without managing custom code.
- Lower risk for changes: Sandbox tenants let you test configuration changes and new features before moving them to production.
- Strong compliance and security posture: Centralized controls, auditing, and permissions help meet regulatory and internal policy requirements.
## Ask Developer Agent
To get answers fast, you can ask Developer Agent, an AI-powered tool that will find intelligent answers and even generate code.
1. In the Ask Developer Agent box, enter Which Workday REST API will get worker location data?
2. Press Enter. This will open the Developer Agent chat window.
3. Review the results. In this case Developer Agent will return the relevant REST API endpoints.
4. In the Developer Agent chat window, you can continue the conversation. For example, enter Give me a full request schema for the REST API endpoints and press Enter.
## Search for Answers
The Open Developer Platform provides many ways to find resources and information that will help you develop custom apps.
1. In the upper-right corner, select the hamburger menu > Documentation. You’ll see that the Open Developer Platform has two sets of documents, 1 set for Integration Apps and 1 set for Extend Apps.
2. In the Search box, enter What PMD tag is best for displaying a list? and press Enter. The returned results show all documentation related to presentation metadata (PMD) tags.
3. The search results return more than documentation. The results will show you relevant App Catalog apps, Workday APIs, and more.
## Get Help from Other Developers
The Workday Developer Forum provides a community where Workday developers can share and learn. Use the Developer Forum to ask questions and share your knowledge with your fellow developers and Workday experts.
1. From the hamburger menu, select Reference > Developer Forum.
2. Use the labeled graphic below to explore the resources available on the Workday Developer Forum.
1. Search: Got an error and want to know how to debug it? Search here and it’s likely someone has already found a solution.
2. Latest News: This is where you'll find Product Updates, Release Notes, and other late breaking news.
3. Ask a Question: If you can't find an answer, just ask. It's likely that someone has encountered the same issue. Workday product managers and engineers regularly monitor and respond to questions.
4. Tags: Select these topics to explore discussions and get answers to questions you have.
5. Categories: Forum posts are tagged by the type of help, such as Getting Started articles or specific product areas.
## Use the App Catalog to Save Time and Find Inspiration
The Workday Open Developer Platform features an App Catalog, which is a curated library of pre-built app templates and reference applications. Why write code from scratch when it’s likely someone has already created it? The App catalog is a great resource for saving time, accelerating development, and exploring possibilities.
For you, the App Catalog is an excellent starting point and a source of inspiration.
1. From the hamburger menu, select Reference > App Catalog.
2. From the left-hand filter, select Model. This will return apps with model components, such as a business object.
3. Under the Typesection, select Extend App. This will display Extend Apps that also include model components.
4. Pick an app and select View App. The Overview page for each app provides deployment and configuration instructions.
5. Select Create Copy.
6. In the Create an App window, change the name and select Copy and Go to Overview.
This will create your own copy of the app, which you can use for reference or adapt to create your own app.
## Find and Test API Endpoints with Workday API Explorers
The Workday Open Developer Platform provides 3 very useful tools for creating and testing API endpoints: REST API Explorer, SOAP API Explorer, and Graph API Explorer.
Select the hamburger menu and look under the APIs. There, you’ll find these useful tools:
- REST API Explorer: Workday REST APIs present a simple, consistent view of Workday business objects and the relationships between them. The REST API Explorer is a great way to quickly view and test the input and output of Workday REST APIs and view request URLs. You can also view the request schema, copy access tokens and query parameters, and more.
- Graph API Explorer: Using industry-standard GraphQL syntax, Graph API Explorer enables you to create and execute any query or mutation using a single API endpoint.
- SOAP API Explorer: SOAP API Explorer is a great way to learn about and test the SOAP APIs available to access and manipulate Workday data.
These API Explorer are tools that let you interact with Workday APIs. They provide a user-friendly interface for exploring and testing different API endpoints, viewing request and response data, and understanding the capabilities of the Workday API.
## What Is the Purpose of Workday APIs?
Workday APIs provide standardized, secure ways for external systems and custom apps to interact with Workday data and business processes (examples: create, read, update, or report on workers, organizations, time, payroll, and more). They enable real‑time integration so Workday can fit into a broader application ecosystem instead of operating as a silo.
Key benefits
- Integration across systems: Connect Workday with HR, payroll, finance, ATS, identity, and other tools without manual data entry.
- Data consistency and accuracy: Keep worker and organizational data synchronized, reducing errors and duplicate records.
- Process automation: Trigger business processes (like hire, transfer, or terminate) from other systems and automate end‑to‑end workflows.
- Extensibility: Allow custom applications, portals, and reports to leverage Workday data and logic while staying on the standard Workday platform.
- Security and governance: Use Workday’s security model, auditing, and controls while exposing only the data and actions that are authorized.
## Navigate REST API Explorer
Practice using the REST API Explorer:
1. From the User menu, select Sign in to Tenant, select your tenant, and sign in.
2. Select the hamburger menu > APIs > [REST API Explorer](https://developer.workday.com/rest-api-explorer/overview). This will open the Workday APIs Overview page, which provides an easy way to find APIs that match your use case.
3. In the Search APIs box, search and select Staffing (v7). This will expand all the categories of Staffing REST APIs, which enable you to get and manage staffing information, such as jobs, job families, job profiles, supervisory organizations, worker check-ins, and job changes.
4. Expand the Staffing (v7) section and select Workers to view details about the GET /workers endpoint.
5. Scroll the GET /Workers section. You’ll see that REST API Explorer provides information about the API endpoint:
- A brief description and the security domains that protect its data.
- A tool for testing a request and seeing the response.
- Request parameters
- Success and error response schema.
## Workday REST API List
Expand this panel to see a list of all Workday REST APIs.
The REST APIs are organized into three categories: Production Services, Experimental Services, and Archived Services.
Production Services are the latest production version and Experimental Services are new APIs that are coming soon, but not yet generally available.
Archive Services are older versions of APIs that you can use if a legacy system requires it.
## REST API Method and Endpoint
The API operation to submit. The endpoint description includes the security domains that require security policy configuration.
## Query-String Parameters
Enter parameters that you want to send with your REST API request.
Note: For POST, PATCH, and PUT methods, you'll see the Request Body section, which enables you to enter the JSON request body and view the request object schema.
## Try
Select TRY to test your REST API request. the JSON response will appear in the area below
## Success and Error Codes
REST API Explorer provides information about likely success and error codes that may be returned by a request. This is a great way to test and fix problems early, before you use a REST API request in your Integration or Extend app.
## Response Schema
The Response Schema provides detailed information about the JSON structure returned by the REST API endpoint, including descriptions of each field.
## Test an API Endpoint with REST API Explorer
You can use REST API Explorer to interact with Workday's REST APIs in a hands-on way. You can quickly prototype API integrations and test different scenarios before writing any code. This can save a lot of time and effort.
Let’s make a simple data request. In the Request Parameters section, you’ll see that you can use the search parameter to find a worker’s name or ID.
1. In the Staffing (v7) GET /Workers endpoint, navigate to the REQUEST Query-String Parameters section.
2. In the search field, enter mcneil and select Try. The RESPONSE will return JSON data for one worker, Logan McNeil.
1. Expand the RESPONSE area to see all the data.
2. Notice that there are two fields at the root of the worker object:
- id contains the worker’s ID.
- descriptor contains the worker’s name.
3. Look through the JSON structure and notice that the rest of the worker’s data is in nested objects and fields. You can click on the carets next to collapse or expand the data inside each object { }.
Note: By default, a simple GET request to a Workday REST API will return the values in the id and descriptor located at the root of the data set. To retrieve values in nested objects and fields, you will use a PMD script.
