# Quick Start Guide
source: https://developer.mastercard.com/eligibility-api/documentation/tutorials-and-guides/guide-quickstart/index.md

This guide will walk you through the process of creating a new project and generating the keys required for the Sandbox environment.

* Create a new project
  * To begin, you should go to your dashboard. You can then create a new project by clicking on the "Create New Project" button, in the upper right portion of the screen.

![Dashboard](https://static.developer.mastercard.com/content/eligibility-api/images/Dashboard.png)

* Add the Eligibility API
  * From the dropdown list select Eligibility API.
  * Click Continue.

![Create Project](https://static.developer.mastercard.com/content/eligibility-api/images/CreateProject.png)

* Name your project
  * Enter a descriptive name for your project and click on continue button.

![Name Project](https://static.developer.mastercard.com/content/eligibility-api/images/ProjectName.png)
Note: You may also provide a team name and invite others to work on this project with you. Inviting team members allows them to view the project. You can also make any team member an administrator, which means they will be able to manage keys (add, delete, renew). Making multiple administrators on a team can come in handy to reduce single dependency.

* Sandbox OAuth credentials
  * Click download PKCS#12 keystore to download a zip file containing the .p12 file required for OAuth authentication in Sandbox.
  * Click Continue.
  * Make a note of the keystore password and key alias shown on the screen. The keystore password is used in conjunction with the .p12 file and client id for OAuth authentication.
  * Click Confirm and Continue to complete the Sandbox setup process.

![SandboxSignCreds](https://static.developer.mastercard.com/content/eligibility-api/images/SandboxSignCreds.png)
Note: Mastercard APIs use OAuth 1.0a with a request body hash as the security standard. The PKCS#12 keystore contains the private key used for signing requests. The key downloaded from our portal will have been generated inside your browser and will not be stored by Mastercard developers.

The public key matching the generated private key will be uploaded to Mastercard developers portal for signature verification purposes as part of the process. Make sure to keep this file in a secure place.

* Import Sandbox keys
  * Import the Sandbox keys (.p12) according to your specific development environment using the keystore password for Sandbox which was provided in the project creation.
  * The project screen will display the consumer key which applies to the respective environment. The consumer key is a 97-character string separated by an exclamation mark. The format is client_id!key_id.
  * The Mastercard API client id is the first 48 characters of this key () which will uniquely identify the API calling financial institution(issuer) or merchant

![Sand Box Keys](https://static.developer.mastercard.com/content/eligibility-api/images/SandboxKeys.png)

* Ready to test in Sandbox
  * You now have everything to start sending requests to Mastercard Eligibility API in Sandbox environment. It is recommended to test the full functionality of the Mastercard Eligibility APIs in Sandbox environment.

### Next steps {#next-steps}

* Once you have successfully connected to the Mastercard Eligibility API, you can test it in the Sandbox environment. or sample requests and responses, refer to the respective API in the [API Reference](https://developer.mastercard.com/eligibility-api/documentation/api-reference/index.md).
* If you need assistance making API calls to the Mastercard Eligibility services in the Sandbox environment, refer the [tutorial](https://developer.mastercard.com/eligibility-api/documentation/tutorials-and-guides/eligibility-tutorial/index.md).
* After completing your testing, you can request production access for your project. This requires approval from Mastercard's Customer Implementation Services (CIS) or product team, following the instructions in [this](https://developer.mastercard.com/eligibility-api/documentation/tutorials-and-guides/guide-production-access/index.md) guide.