SeatLayer Java SDK

Official Java server SDK for the SeatLayer reserved-seating API.

Server-side only. This library authenticates with your secret key. Never ship it in an Android app or anything a ticket buyer can reach — browser and mobile surfaces get short-lived, origin-bound tokens that you mint here.

Install

<dependency>
  <groupId>io.seatlayer</groupId>
  <artifactId>seatlayer-java</artifactId>
  <version>0.4.0</version>
</dependency>

implementation 'io.seatlayer:seatlayer-java:0.4.0'

Requires Java 17 or newer. Zero runtime dependencies — the SDK uses java.net.http.HttpClient and javax.crypto.Mac from the JDK plus a small hand-written JSON codec, so it never forces a Jackson or OkHttp version on an application that already has one.

Quick start

import io.seatlayer.SeatLayer;
import java.util.Map;

SeatLayer seatlayer = new SeatLayer(System.getenv("SEATLAYER_SECRET_KEY"));

// 1. Materialize a published catalog template as a draft for this organiser.
Map<String, Object> chart = (Map<String, Object>) seatlayer.templates()
    .instantiateTemplate("your-published-template").get("meta");
seatlayer.charts().publish((String) chart.get("id"));

// 2. Create an event on it.
Map<String, Object> event =
    (Map<String, Object>) seatlayer.events().create((String) chart.get("id"), "Spring Gala").get("meta");

// 3. Sell four seats over the phone.
Map<String, Object> held = seatlayer.inventory().holdBestAvailable((String) event.get("key"), 4);
// … take payment against held.get("items"), which carry authoritative prices …
seatlayer.inventory().book((String) event.get("key"), (String) held.get("holdId"), "order-8842");

Test vs live

Keys carry their own mode. sk_test_… keys can only touch test-mode events and sk_live_… only live ones; crossing them returns 403 mode_mismatch, surfaced as SeatLayerAuthException with isModeMismatch().

SeatLayer seatlayer = new SeatLayer(System.getenv("SEATLAYER_SECRET_KEY"));
if ("production".equals(System.getenv("ENV")) && !"live".equals(seatlayer.mode())) {
    throw new IllegalStateException("Refusing to boot production against test-mode seating data.");
}

The two selling flows

Buyer picks seats in the browser. Your frontend holds them; your backend confirms the price and books. Never price from what the browser sent you — retrieveHold is authoritative.

Map<String, Object> hold = seatlayer.inventory().retrieveHold(eventKey, holdId);
// … charge the total of hold.get("items") in hold.get("currency") …
seatlayer.inventory().book(eventKey, holdId, charge.id());

Your backend picks the seats. Phone orders, box office, comps.

// Payment already taken — book outright, so nothing is stranded if a second call fails.
seatlayer.inventory().bookBestAvailable(eventKey, 2, "phone-1183");

// Or name the seats yourself.
seatlayer.inventory().boxOfficeBook(eventKey, List.of("A-1", "A-2"), "comp-14");

Private and partner sales

Channels reserve inventory for a partner, member group, presale, or other private allocation. A buyer access session is short-lived and origin-bound, so the browser receives only the allocation it is allowed to sell; your secret key remains on your server.

seatlayer.channels().create(
        eventKey, "Venue members", null, null, null, "private", null, null);

seatlayer.channels().updateAssignments(
        eventKey, List.of("A-1", "A-2"), 1L, "ch_members", null, null);

Map<String, Object> access = seatlayer.channels().createBuyerAccessSession(
        eventKey,
        false,
        "https://members.example",
        List.of("ch_members"),
        null,
        2,
        null,
        null,
        null,
        null);

Pass the returned token to the buyer SDK. Trusted backend sale overloads accept channelIds, an explicit privileged ignoreChannelRestrictions flag, and an audit reason.

Listing and pagination

list() returns one Page plus a cursor. When you want everything, listAll() pages for you and yields as you consume it — a lazy Iterable rather than a List, because the point of paginating is to not hold an unbounded result set in memory.

// One page, your own paging.
Page<Map<String, Object>> page = seatlayer.events().list(
    EventListOptions.builder().limit(50).build());
page.items();
page.nextCursor();   // Optional.empty() once exhausted

// Or let the SDK walk it.
for (Map<String, Object> event : seatlayer.events().listAll()) {
    sync(event);
}

Listing events includes live availability counts by default, which costs the server one round-trip per event. listAll() turns them off automatically — walking a whole catalogue is exactly when you don't want that — and you can control it explicitly:

seatlayer.events().list(EventListOptions.builder().limit(50).counts(false).build());

Keeping a hold alive

When an order takes longer than the checkout window — an invoice, a phone sale — extend rather than release and re-hold. Releasing first hands the seats to whoever is racing for them in between.

try {
    seatlayer.inventory().extendHold(eventKey, holdId, 10 * 60_000L);
} catch (SeatLayerConflictException e) {
    // Gone, expired, or at its renewal cap — the buyer has to re-pick.
}

Embedding the control room

Your secret key never reaches a browser. Mint a scoped token instead.

Map<String, Object> session = seatlayer.sessions().createManageSession(
    eventKey,
    "https://box-office.yourplatform.com",
    List.of("event:view", "event:block"),
    3600);

capabilities is required by this SDK even though the API defaults it. That default grants all four including event:cancel, which reverses paid bookings — not something that should arrive by forgetting an argument. Grant the smallest set the page needs.

Webhooks

Verify every delivery against the raw body. Re-serialising it changes the bytes and verification will fail.

import io.seatlayer.Webhook;
import io.seatlayer.WebhookVerificationException;

// Spring: declare the parameter as byte[], never a parsed object
@PostMapping("/webhooks/seatlayer")
public ResponseEntity<Void> handle(
        @RequestBody byte[] payload,
        @RequestHeader("X-SeatLayer-Signature") String signature) {

    Map<String, Object> event;
    try {
        event = Webhook.verify(payload, signature, System.getenv("SEATLAYER_WEBHOOK_SECRET"));
    } catch (WebhookVerificationException e) {
        return ResponseEntity.badRequest().build();
    }

    // The signed body carries `at`, but nothing enforces a freshness window, so a
    // captured delivery stays valid indefinitely. Deduplicate on occurrenceId —
    // this is your replay protection, not an optimisation.
    if (alreadyProcessed((String) event.get("occurrenceId"))) {
        return ResponseEntity.ok().build();
    }

    process(event);
    return ResponseEntity.ok().build();
}

Errors

try {
    seatlayer.inventory().holdBestAvailable(eventKey, 6);
} catch (SeatLayerConflictException e) {
    if (e.isSoldOut()) {
        return showAlternativeDates();      // a business outcome, not a bug
    }
    throw e;
} catch (SeatLayerRateLimitException e) {
    return retryAfter(e.retryAfterSeconds());
} catch (SeatLayerAuthException e) {
    if (e.isModeMismatch()) {
        throw new IllegalStateException("Test key pointed at a live event, or the reverse.");
    }
    throw e;
}

Every exception carries status(), code(), body(), and requestId() — quote the request id in support requests. All are unchecked, so they do not force throws clauses through your call stack.

Reliability

Retries and idempotency. Reads (GET/HEAD) retry connection failures, 408, 429 and 5xx with exponential backoff and full jitter; Retry-After wins when the server sends it. Five provisioning operations have the same retry behaviour with header replay: charts().create, charts().copy, templates().instantiateTemplate, events().create, and workspaces().create. They generate an Idempotency-Key when absent and reuse that key across every attempt. Overloads that accept a key let you provide a stable provisioning key instead.

All other mutations are single-attempt: holds, bookings, lifecycle changes, channel changes, show-once secret creation, and raw requests. The SDK does not generate a key for them. A supplied key on an existing typed-method overload is validated and forwarded once for compatibility, but it does not enable retries or promise replay. Reconcile bookings with their required bookingRef; never retry an unknown booking outcome as though the transport had made it safe.

SeatLayer.builder()
    .secretKey(System.getenv("SEATLAYER_SECRET_KEY"))
    .maxRetries(3)                        // total attempts
    .timeout(Duration.ofSeconds(30))      // per attempt
    .build();

Escape hatch

For surface this SDK does not wrap yet. Raw reads retain read retries; raw mutations use the same auth and error mapping but are sent once and never receive an automatically generated key:

seatlayer.request("POST", "/v1/events/ev_1/some-new-route", null, Map.of("qty", 2));

API surface

Resource	Methods
charts()	list listAll create retrieve update delete copy archive unarchive publish
templates()	instantiateTemplate
events()	list listAll create retrieve update delete updateChart close reopen archive retrieveHoldTtl updateHoldTtl listTicketReleases updateTicketReleases closeTicketRelease retrieveReport retrieveLog
channels()	list create update updateAssignments listAllocation retrieveAccessPreview retrieveReport pause unpause archive createBuyerAccessSession listBuyerAccessSessions revokeBuyerAccessSession
inventory()	hold holdBestAvailable bookBestAvailable extendHold retrieveHold release book bookLabels boxOfficeBook unbook block unblock unblockAll retrieveAvailability updateAvailability listBookings retrieveBooking
sessions()	createManageSession revokeManageSession createDesignerSession revokeDesignerSession
webhooks()	list create update delete listDeliveries
workspaces()	list create retrieve update

Full reference: docs.seatlayer.io/server-sdk

Related resources

• Server SDK guide
• Errors, retries and idempotency
• Webhook verification
• Server API reference
• OpenAPI description
• Agent-readable documentation
• SeatLayer GitHub organization

Other SeatLayer SDKs

Surface	Package
Browser (vanilla)	@seatlayer/js
React	@seatlayer/react
React Native	@seatlayer/react-native
iOS	seatlayer-ios
Android	seatlayer-android
Flutter	seatlayer
Node.js (server)	@seatlayer/server
Python (server)	seatlayer
PHP (server)	seatlayer/seatlayer-php
Java (server)	io.seatlayer:seatlayer-java
Go (server)	github.com/seatlayer/seatlayer-go
Ruby (server)	seatlayer
.NET (server)	SeatLayer

Development

mvn verify   # compile, test, and build the main/sources/javadoc jars

Publishing to Maven Central is documented in RELEASE.md. Signing lives in a release profile, so an ordinary mvn verify needs no GPG key.

License

MIT