---
canonical_url: "https://buildwithwave.com/docs/developers/read-and-write-keys"
title: "Read and Write keys"
description: "A Read key looks up jobs, customers, photos, documents, estimates, drying logs, and Wave's catalog. A Write key also makes the changes you ask for, under your name, with member access."
group: "developers"
lane: "explanation"
status: "published"
publishedAt: 2026-10-03
updatedAt: 2026-10-09
sidebarOrder: 30
tags: ["developer", "keys", "permissions"]
relatedSlugs:
  - "account/developer-api-keys"
  - "developers/what-you-can-ask-for"
  - "developers/safety"
  - "developers/tool-reference"
sidebarLabel: "Read and Write keys"
---

Every key is Read or Write. Pick the one that matches the work: a Read key answers questions, and a Write key also saves the changes you ask for.

## Read

A Read key looks up everything your team works with in Wave:

- Jobs, by customer, street, job number, claim number, carrier, adjuster, or phone, plus the jobs in a status, still drying, with or without photos, or created in a date range.
- One job in full: status, people, claim, carrier, adjuster, referral, the newest notes, how many photos it has, and each estimate with its total.
- A job's history, newest first, with who did what, and what changed across all your jobs since you last looked.
- Customers and contacts by name, phone, or email, with their phone, email, address, and jobs.
- A job's photos and videos, the files on its Files tab, and what its PDFs say, page by page.
- Estimates, with rooms, lines, and totals, the same numbers you see in Wave.
- Drying logs, with each area, day, and reading.
- Short excerpts from the industry standards Wave holds, with their sources.
- Wave's catalog, your team, statuses, and referral sources.

A Read key also gets links to download a job's PDF or a ZIP of its photos. Downloading a PDF that holds the estimate marks the estimate final in Wave.

## Write

A Write key does every lookup a Read key does, and also:

- Creates jobs, filled in with the customer, address, phone and email, carrier, claim and policy numbers, referral source, and assignee in one request.
- Updates the job's facts, contacts, assignees, and status, and cancels or reopens a job.
- Files photos into rooms, writes captions, and adds photos through a link you open on your phone or computer.
- Adds, corrects, and removes notes.
- Creates estimates, adds rooms and lines, and changes or removes them. Wave prices catalog lines at your regional pricing. Your own lines carry the price you set.
- Records drying readings and notes, skips days, and changes the drying plan.
- Undoes the last change the key made.

Changes save when you ask, and they show in Wave under your name. Creating an estimate uses one estimate credit, the same as in Wave.

## Member access, for everyone

A key works with member access, including a key an admin creates. It handles jobs, notes, estimates, and drying logs. Billing, plans, and team roles stay with admins in Wave.

## Retries

Every write carries an `operation_id`, except a request for a photo upload link. Send the same `operation_id` again and Wave returns the first result without saving twice, so a dropped connection is safe to retry. A new action uses a new `operation_id`.

## Related

- [API keys](/docs/account/developer-api-keys): create a Read key or a Write key
- [What you can ask for](/docs/developers/what-you-can-ask-for): the requests, in plain language
- [Safety](/docs/developers/safety): keep a key private, and what the team sees
- [Tool reference](/docs/developers/tool-reference): the tools, with their HTTP requests