This tutorial is based on the official Govee Developer API v2.0 as documented at this URL: https://govee-public.s3.amazonaws.com/developer-docs/GoveeDeveloperAPIReference.pdf

Prerequisites

What You'll Learn

What You'll Need

What You'll Build

To get started, let's fork the Govee Lights Developer API collection in the Program smart lights public workspace to our own workspace in Postman to work on it.

Fork the following collection.

Run in Postman

Enter a label for your fork and select the workspace to fork the collection:

Fork label

In the next step, we will collect the required Govee information and work in our newly forked collection.

Govee API key

You will need a Govee Developer API key to authenticate your API requests.

  1. Download and open the Govee Home mobile app
  2. Go to the account Settings, and select "Apply for API key"
  3. Fill out your name and your reason (e.g. "to demo home automation") and submit
  4. Within a few minutes, you should receive an email with your API key to the email address you entered when registering a Govee account.

Select the Postman collection that you forked to your workspace. Find the Variables tab, and paste your API key as the govee_api_key variable value.

If you are working in a public or team workspace, you may want to create a Postman environment and use "Current value" to prevent unintentional disclosure of sensitive data.

current values

Authentication

In the previous step, you entered your Govee API key as a variable. Select the collection, and find the Authorization tab. Notice that this collection is using a collection-level authorization helper, so every request within this collection can use the same authorization method. Hover over the referenced variable to see how Postman is resolving the variable value. If you're using an environment, make sure to select it as an active environment.

authorization helper

Postman has been configured to add a header containing your Govee API key to each request within this collection, unless otherwise indicated. Select the request "Get Device State", and find the Headers tab. You may need to expand the auto-generated headers to verify that Postman has indeed added the properly configured header.

auth header for request

Make an API call

Hit Send to make your first API call and to "Get Device State". Make a note of the device and model properties returned in the successful API response.

device state

Save that data as Postman variables respectively called example_mac_address and example_device in your collection or environment

mac address and model

Find a different request called "Set Color", and update the RGB values to your preference. Hit Send, and watch the color of your smart light change.

set color

Now that you made your first few calls with the Govee API, continue exploring the other endpoints in the Govee Lights Developer API collection. You can string together multiple API calls to create a custom theme or effect, or coordinate a schedule to turn on and off the lights.

What we've covered

Additional resources

To continue your journey with smart lights, here are some additional resources to check out.

Fork the collection