> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://developer.opus.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Introduction

> Read a discovered business process — its steps, branches, and the data flowing through them

## Overview

The Business Process Discovery API gives you programmatic access to the processes mapped in Opus Discovery. A discovered process is the structured record of how work actually happens: the steps, the order and branching between them, who performs each one, the systems touched, the rules applied, and the pain points recorded along the way.

Use it to pull a process into your own tooling — reporting, audits, migration into another system, or as the input to a workflow you build elsewhere.

## Base URL

All API requests should be made to the following base URL:

```
https://operator.opus.com/api/v1/discovery/
```

## Authentication

All API endpoints require authentication with your Opus API key, sent in the `x-service-key` header.

```text theme={null}
x-service-key: <your_api_key>
```

Your key determines your identity: the acting user, your organization, and the workspaces you can reach. Reading a process additionally requires the **Discovery: Read** permission in the workspace that owns it.

A request with a missing, invalid, or expired key returns `401`. Keys are rate limited — sustained bursts return `429`.

<Note>
  Your API key is a unique, secret credential. Store it securely and never expose it in client-side code.
</Note>

## Current State or a Saved Version

A process changes as it is refined. Every read is one of two things:

* **The current state** — omit `processVersionId`. This is the live process as it stands right now.
* **A saved version** — pass `processVersionId` to read the snapshot captured when that version was saved.

Both return the same response shape, so code written against one works against the other.

## What a Process Contains

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Steps" icon="list-ol">
    Ordered units of work, each with an owner, duration, status, and the inputs, outputs, systems, rules, departments, performers and pain points recorded on it
  </Card>

  <Card title="Edges" icon="arrow-right-arrow-left">
    The connections between steps, including the branching paths
  </Card>

  <Card title="Process-level items" icon="layer-group">
    Inputs, outputs, systems and rules that apply to the process as a whole rather than a single step
  </Card>

  <Card title="Context" icon="location-dot">
    The country and industry the process belongs to
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

## Available Endpoints

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Get a Process" icon="sitemap" href="/api-reference/v1-discovery/get-process-details">
    Retrieve a discovered process with its steps, edges and tagged items
  </Card>
</CardGroup>