Zapier
Zapier connects Screenly to thousands of other tools without code.
The published actions are uploading an asset and cleaning up content Zapier created, which shapes what it is good for: “something happened over there, put it on the screens” rather than deep two-way sync.
Assets created this way carry the label created_via_zapier, which makes them easy to find and easy to clear out. That matters more than it sounds, because an automation that uploads on every trigger will fill a library quickly if nothing prunes it.
The API
Everything the dashboard does is available through the API, because the dashboard is itself an API client with no special access.
That is the route when the shape you need is specific: provisioning screens from an inventory system, syncing content from a CMS, or pulling your own content back out.
Start with an API token, then the API. The schema is at developer.screenly.io/api_v4_1.
API v3 stops responding on 1 October 2026. There is no partial shutdown and no grace mode. Anything still on v3 should move to v4.1.
Which to reach for
Zapier when a person is configuring it and the job is moving content in on an event.
The API when a system is doing it unattended, when you need more than uploading, or when the logic is yours.
The CLI sits between them: scriptable, but driven by a person or a pipeline rather than by an event.