Create Deposit

POST /api/v1/merchant/create-deposit

Creates a deposit with specific Steam items. Used in the API-only integration flow after fetching inventory.

Request

Headers

Header	Required	Description
X-Api-Key	✅	Your merchant API key
Content-Type	✅	application/json

Body

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
merchant_tx_id	string	✅	Your unique transaction/order ID
game	string	✅	Game code: csgo, rust, dota2, tf2
partner	integer	✅	Steam trade partner ID
token	string	✅	Steam trade token
asset_ids	string[]	✅	Item IDs from the inventory response. Must not exceed max_items (see Get Inventory)
result_url	string	—	Webhook URL — overrides your merchant-level webhook URL for this deposit (must be valid URL)
success_url	string	—	Success redirect URL (must be valid URL)
fail_url	string	—	Failure redirect URL (must be valid URL)
custom_currency	string	—	Custom currency code (1–4 chars, e.g. BTC, EUR). Requires all 3 currency fields
custom_currency_multiplier	number	—	Currency multiplier (0.5–2.0)
custom_currency_rate	number	—	Currency exchange rate (≥ 0.1)
min_prices	object	—	Per-item price floor in USD, keyed by asset_id (e.g. {"38029384123": 19.50}). If an item's price at deposit time is below its floor, the deposit is rejected with item_specified_price_not_found and no trade is created. Entries ≤ 0 are ignored
from_preview	boolean	—	Credit the deposit at the prices shown by Deposit Preview. Defaults to false. Requires preview access on your account; without it the flag is ignored and the deposit runs the regular flow. See Deposit at Preview Prices

Pricing & Price Lock

The deposit amount is derived from the inventory snapshot of your most recent Get Inventory call for the same Steam account (partner + token). That snapshot is cached for 5 minutes.

• If you call create-deposit more than 5 minutes after fetching the inventory, the request fails with inventory_reload — re-fetch the inventory and retry.
• Without min_prices, the credited amount is the price cached at deposit time, not the moment you displayed it to the user.

Protect against price drift with min_prices

Pass the optional min_prices map (keyed by asset_id, in USD) to set a per-item floor. If any item's price at deposit time is below its floor, the deposit is rejected with item_specified_price_not_found and no trade is created — so you are never credited less than you displayed. Set each floor slightly below the price you showed the user (e.g. quoted minus 1–2%). Prices are USD regardless of any custom_currency fields.

Alternative: hash-name flow

Get Prices → Create Deposit by Hash Name offers the same per-item min_price protection plus a per-transaction quote snapshot (by id), so the quote cannot be overwritten by a concurrent inventory fetch.

Deposit at Preview Prices (from_preview)

Access on request

This flow is enabled per merchant account, together with Deposit Preview itself. Until we enable it for yours, from_preview is ignored: the deposit is still created, but through the regular flow described above — including its 5-minute Get Inventory snapshot rule. Ask your account manager to turn it on.

Set from_preview: true to credit the deposit at the prices Deposit Preview shows — the flow for carts built from the preview:

1. Call Deposit Preview and show the user our prices.
2. The user picks items ("the cart").
3. Call create-deposit with the picked asset_ids and from_preview: true.

The credited amount equals the current preview pricing of exactly those items — if a price has updated since the user saw it, the current price is credited. No prior Get Inventory call is required, and the 5-minute inventory_reload snapshot rule does not apply.

Rejections

Both rejections happen before anything is created: no deposit record, no webhook, and your merchant_tx_id is not consumed — simply retry with the same ID.

price_changed — the cart cannot be credited as it stands: an item can no longer be accepted, or we cannot accept the cart at these prices right now. data carries the current pricing of the same cart, in the Deposit Preview response shape, and data.rejected names every item that blocks it — re-show these prices, drop the rejected items, and retry. No extra preview call is needed:

{
  "success": false,
  "message": "price_changed",
  "data": {
    "items": [
      { "id": "38029384123", "name": "AK-47 | Redline (Field-Tested)", "price": 12.10 }
    ],
    "rejected": [
      { "id": "51819053033", "reason": "not_in_inventory" }
    ],
    "total": 1,
    "sum": 12.10,
    "game": "csgo",
    "max_items": 50
  }
}

rejected[].reason	Meaning
not_in_inventory	The asset ID is not in the user's inventory — drop it from the cart
not_quoted	We do not accept this item right now — drop it from the cart

data.items lists what we would still credit, with current prices — items in rejected are not part of it.

preview_unavailable — preview pricing is temporarily unavailable. Retry later, or fall back to the regular Get Inventory → create-deposit flow.

from_preview vs min_prices

min_prices protects a regular deposit against price drift with a floor you compute yourself. from_preview needs no floor: the cart is credited at our current preview prices.

Response

{
  "success": true,
  "message": "Deposit processing with selected items",
  "data": {
    "id": 42,
    "merchant_tx_id": "order-12345",
    "status": "active",
    "amount": 36.25,
    "bot_name": "Skinslink Bot #3",
    "bot_steam_id": 76561199012345678,
    "trade_offer_id": "6912345678",
    "trade_offer_expiry_at": "2026-02-16T12:30:00Z",
    "success_url": "https://yoursite.com/deposit/success",
    "fail_url": "https://yoursite.com/deposit/failed"
  }
}

Response Fields

Field	Type	Description
id	integer	Internal trade ID
merchant_tx_id	string	Your transaction ID (echoed back)
status	string	Trade status (active on success, failed on error)
amount	number	Total deposit amount (USD)
bot_name	string | null	Name of the Steam bot sending the offer
bot_steam_id	integer | null	Steam ID of the bot
trade_offer_id	string | null	Steam trade offer ID
trade_offer_expiry_at	string | null	ISO 8601 timestamp when the offer expires
success_url	string	Success redirect URL (only present if provided in request)
fail_url	string	Failure redirect URL (only present if provided in request)

INFO

Custom currency fields (custom_currency, custom_currency_multiplier, custom_currency_rate, custom_currency_sum) are not included in the create-deposit response. Use Deposit Status to retrieve them once the trade reaches hold or completed status.

Example

curl -X POST https://api.skinslink.com/api/v1/merchant/create-deposit \
  -H "X-Api-Key: your-api-key" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "merchant_tx_id": "order-12345",
    "game": "csgo",
    "partner": 123456789,
    "token": "AbCdEfGh",
    "asset_ids": ["38029384123", "38029384124"]
  }'

To add a per-item price floor, include min_prices in the request body:

{
  "merchant_tx_id": "order-12346",
  "game": "csgo",
  "partner": 123456789,
  "token": "AbCdEfGh",
  "asset_ids": ["38029384123", "38029384124"],
  "min_prices": {
    "38029384123": 19.50,
    "38029384124": 4.20
  }
}

After Creating a Deposit

1. Show the trade offer info to the user (bot name, offer ID)
2. User accepts the trade offer in Steam
3. Listen for webhooks or poll /merchant/deposit/status for updates

TIP

Store the trade_offer_expiry_at and remind users to accept before expiry. Expired offers are automatically canceled.

Errors

Status	Message	Cause
400	invalid request body	Malformed JSON
400	validation error	Missing or invalid fields (see data array for details). Includes inventory_reload — the inventory price snapshot expired (> 5 min since Get Inventory); re-fetch and retry
400	item_specified_price_not_found	An item's price at deposit time dropped below its min_prices floor. No trade is created; re-fetch the inventory for current prices
400	deposit exceeds the maximum of N items per deposit	asset_ids has more items than the per-deposit limit — read max_items from Get Inventory. No trade is created; split into smaller deposits
401	missing authorization header	X-Api-Key header not provided
401	invalid API key	API key not found or inactive
403	merchant account is disabled	Merchant account deactivated
403	IP not whitelisted: <ip>	Request IP not in whitelist
404	not found error	Trade or items not found
409	already exist error	Duplicate merchant_tx_id
500	internal error	Something went wrong on our side

→ For domain-specific validation codes (Steam account issues, trade eligibility), see Errors.