Initialize the Cardinal SDK
Once your project exists, your application connects to the iCure backend through the Cardinal SDK. Initializing the SDK and authenticating your end users is covered in detail in the SDK guide — How to initialize the SDK. This page doesn't repeat that walkthrough; it answers the question you hit just before it:
Where do I get the values the SDK asks for?​
When you initialize the SDK (and configure an authentication process for self-registration and login), the code needs a handful of identifiers — most importantly:
| In your SDK config | In Cockpit (label) | What it identifies |
|---|---|---|
specId | Spec ID | your External Services configuration (email/SMS/captcha gateways) |
projectId / Application ID | Project ID | your project, in reverse-domain notation (com.mycompany.myproject) |
parentOrganizationId | HCP ID | the organization that holds the data-sharing key for new users |
externalProcessId / processId | Process ID | the authentication process that sends login/registration codes |
Everything below is about finding these four values in Cockpit.
The fastest path: the "Ready to go" table​
When you finish creating a project, the final Ready to go step hands you all of these at once, laid out in two tables with a copy button on every value:
- Project configuration variables — your Spec ID, Project ID, the captcha site key(s) you enabled, and one authentication process ID per channel and user type (e.g. Email authentication process ID, Patient SMS process ID, Practitioner email process ID).
- Parent organization — its Name and HCP ID, plus its keys. A private key is generated automatically by default for the organization created during project creation; the recovery key is optional — you decide whether to generate one. If you did, it's shown here too.
You can also click Download all as *.json to export the whole set in one file — the simplest way to hand everything to your application. Some values, like the parent organization's keys, are shown only once, so grab them here.
If you've already left this step, don't worry — every value can be found again later from the dashboard, except the parent organization's private and recovery keys, which are shown only once and can't be retrieved afterwards. The rest of this page shows where to find everything else.
Finding the values again, one by one​
The values live in two different scopes, and that distinction matters:
- The Spec ID is environment-wide — one configuration shared by every project in your Environment.
- The Project ID, parent organization, and authentication processes belong to a specific Project (or, in a multi-tenant project, a specific Tenant).
Spec ID (one for the whole Environment)​
The Spec ID points at your External Services configuration (the email, SMS, and captcha gateways). That configuration sits at the Environment level, so the same Spec ID is reused by all the projects inside your Environment — you don't get a new one per project.
To find it, open the Account dropdown in the header and choose Manage environment, then go to the External services tab. See External Services.
Only administrators with Environment Access can view and edit External Services. A Project-Access admin will see an "access restricted" message and needs to ask an Environment-Access admin for the value.
Project ID — Configuration → Project overview​
Open your project and go to Configuration → Project overview. The Project ID (set up by you) is the reverse-domain identifier you chose when creating the project; it has a copy button (and an edit button if you need to change it).
Don't confuse it with Project group ID (set up by Cardinal) shown just below — that's iCure's internal group identifier, not the Application ID the SDK expects.
Authentication process ID — Configuration → Processes​
An authentication process is what sends your end users the one-time code they use to register and log in. A project usually has several — one per channel (email or SMS) and user type (patient or practitioner) — which is why the "Ready to go" table lists them with names like Patient email process ID or Practitioner SMS process ID. Each one has its own ID, and your app references whichever process matches the flow it offers.
To find an ID later, open your project's Configuration page and select the Processes tab. Every process appears as a row, and the Process ID column holds the value (with a copy button); its tooltip confirms — "Use this ID to reference the process in your application code." Copy the ID from the row whose name matches the channel and user type you need.
Multi-tenant projects: processes can be defined per tenant as well. Those live under Tenants → [your tenant] → Processes rather than the project's Configuration page.
Parent organization ID — the Users table​
The parent organization is the HCP that holds the encryption key new users share data through. To
find its ID, open the tenant's Users tab, expand the organization's row, and copy its
Healthcare party ID — that's the parentOrganizationId. (It's the same value shown as HCP ID on
the "Ready to go" step.)
These values aren't fixed — you can add your own​
The "Ready to go" table shows the values created for you during onboarding, but they're not the only ones your application can use. Within a project you can:
- Create more authentication processes (Configuration → Processes) — for a new channel, language, or user type — and use any of their Process IDs in your app.
- Create more organizations (the Users tab) and assign their IDs as the parent organization for a given registration process.
Only the Spec ID is shared and stable across the whole Environment; the project-level values are yours to extend. Pick whichever process and organization fit the flow you're building, copy their IDs, and plug them into your SDK configuration.
Where to go next​
- How to initialize the SDK — the full initialization and authentication walkthrough, now that you have the values.
- Authentication Processes (setup) — create and edit the processes whose IDs you pass to the SDK.
- Project Overview & Configuration — where the Project ID and processes live.
- External Services — the Spec ID and the gateways behind it.
- Managing Users — add your first end users (HCPs, patients, devices).
Cardinal SDK reference: Initialize the SDK and the quickstarts — the full developer walkthrough.