> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.meld.io/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Create a connection > Use this endpoint to obtain a connect token, which can be used to initialize the Meld widget and start a bank linking connection. ## OpenAPI ````yaml /openapi/banklinking-20260203.json post /bank-linking/connect/start openapi: 3.1.0 info: title: BANK LINKING termsOfService: urn:tos license: name: Apache 2.0 url: https://springdoc.org version: '2026-02-03' description: '' servers: - url: https://api-sb.meld.io description: Meld API sandbox - url: https://api.meld.io description: Meld API production security: [] tags: - name: Financial Account Connect - name: Financial Account Transactions - name: Financial Accounts - name: Institutions paths: /bank-linking/connect/start: post: tags: - Connect summary: Create a connection description: >- Use this endpoint to obtain a connect token, which can be used to initialize the Meld widget and start a bank linking connection. operationId: bank-linking-connect-create requestBody: content: application/json: schema: $ref: '#/components/schemas/ConnectStartRequest_2022_11_10' example: externalCustomerId: testUser required: true responses: '201': description: Connect token was created content: '*/*': schema: $ref: '#/components/schemas/ConnectStartResponse' '400': description: 'Bad Request : check request values and format' '401': description: Invalid credentials '403': description: Unauthenticated or authenticated with insufficient access '500': description: >- Server Error. This applies to all 5xx errors, including but not limited to 500, 501, 502, 503, and 504 errors. You should treat all of these errors the same. security: - ApiKeyAuth: [] components: schemas: ConnectStartRequest_2022_11_10: type: object properties: accountPreferenceOverride: description: The account preference overrides for this connection allOf: - $ref: '#/components/schemas/BankLinkingPreference' allowRedirect: type: boolean description: >- When searching financial institutions via the Meld bank picker, filters the results based on whether or not the service provider will cause a redirect as part of account linking. When false, will only include financial institutions which will not cause a redirect. When true, all financial institutions are included regardless of whether or not they may require a redirect. Default is true. externalCustomerId: type: string default: testUser description: >- Your unique identifier for your customer. If maintaining your own customer management system this can also be used for tracking customer activity. minLength: 1 example: testUser institutionId: type: string description: Institution id to bypass the institution selection pane. institutionSearchString: type: string description: >- When searching financial institutions via the Meld bank picker, pre-populate the search string with this value optionalProducts: type: array description: >- Set of products to load from the financial institution via the service provider if supported. Can be empty as long as there is at least one required product specified. There must be at least one product specified somewhere for the connection to load some data. Financial institutions do not need to support any of these products in order to be included in the Meld bank picker search results. items: type: string enum: - BALANCES - IDENTIFIERS - INVESTMENT_HOLDINGS - INVESTMENT_TRANSACTIONS - OWNERS - TRANSACTIONS products: type: array description: >- Set of products to load from the financial institution via the service provider after the connection is completed. Can be empty as long as there is at least one optional product specified. There must be at least one product specified somewhere for the connection to load some data. When searching financial institutions via the Meld bank picker, only those which support all of the selected products will be included. When empty, financial institutions will not be filtered by supported products. ***Note:*** Each service provider handles products differently, and vary in which accounts they expose based on the inputted products. For more details, reference [Supported Products](https://docs.meld.io/docs/creating-connections#supported-products) and the relevant Provider Details pages, e.g. [Plaid](https://docs.meld.io/docs/plaid) items: type: string enum: - BALANCES - IDENTIFIERS - INVESTMENT_HOLDINGS - INVESTMENT_TRANSACTIONS - OWNERS - TRANSACTIONS redirectUrl: type: string description: >- If provided, the url to redirect to after completing the service provider's widget flow regions: type: array description: >- When searching financial institutions via the Meld bank picker, onlythose which service any of the regions provided will be included. A service region can be either an ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country code or an ISO 3166-2 subdivision code. National financial institutions which service an entire country are included for the corresponding country when only subdivision regions are provided. items: type: string uniqueItems: true required: - externalCustomerId ConnectStartResponse: type: object properties: connectToken: type: string description: Connect token needed to go through the connect flow customerId: type: string description: >- Meld will create a new customer or use the existing customer based on the external customer id provided in the request. Keep track of this customer id for use in other endpoints and webhook tracking. externalCustomerId: type: string description: External id for the customer as provided in the request id: type: string description: Connection id widgetUrl: type: string description: Widget url to go through the connect flow BankLinkingPreference: type: object properties: accountLogoUrl: type: string description: The path to the account's logo for displaying in the bank picker borderColor: type: string description: The color of the border for the bank picker borderTextColor: type: string description: >- The color of the text on the bank picker border (i.e. 'Integrations powered by Meld.io') font: type: string description: The desired font to use for the Meld picker institutionSelectionText: type: string description: The text to display at the top of bank picker routingRetry: type: boolean description: >- Whether to present the option to try to connect to the institution again with a different service provider if the last attempt failed. If a value is not set, it is assumed to be false. routingRetryBankButtonColor: type: string description: >- The color of the routing retry button to select a different institution routingRetryProviderButtonColor: type: string description: The color of the routing retry button to select a different provider selectionStyle: type: string description: The style in which the bank picker displays the institutions enum: - LIST - TILE showBorder: type: boolean description: >- Whether to show the border for the bank picker widget. If a value is not set, it is assumed to be false. securitySchemes: ApiKeyAuth: type: apiKey in: header name: Authorization x-default: BASIC ````