Identify

Identify is the first workbench tool, and the only one live today. You send a rail and its code. Patchwork returns the institution, the payment rails it can be reached on, and — when you also pass an account_number on a supported rail — the resolved holder name. It is a bare REST product. You can call it with an API key and no agent. When the api_product binding ships, the same product can be wired into an agent as a patch.

Charged on an identified outcome. Promo credits cover first calls. There is no complimentary test lane.

Quickstart

curl https://api.usepatchwork.co/v1/identify \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $PATCHWORK_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"rail":"routing_number","code":"021000021"}'

const res = await fetch("https://api.usepatchwork.co/v1/identify", {
  method: "POST",
  headers: {
    Authorization: `Bearer ${process.env.PATCHWORK_API_KEY}`,
    "Content-Type": "application/json",
  },
  body: JSON.stringify({ rail: "routing_number", code: "021000021" }),
});
const { data } = await res.json();

import os, requests

r = requests.post(
    "https://api.usepatchwork.co/v1/identify",
    headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {os.environ['PATCHWORK_API_KEY']}"},
    json={"rail": "routing_number", "code": "021000021"},
)
print(r.json()["data"])

A successful institution lookup looks like this:

{
  "status": "success",
  "data": {
    "result": "identified",
    "rail": "routing_number",
    "country": "US",
    "institution": {
      "name": "JPMorgan Chase Bank",
      "type": "bank",
      "code": "021000021",
      "address": { "city": "Tampa", "country": "US" }
    },
    "reachable_rails": ["ach", "wire", "rtp"],
    "identified_at": "2026-08-02T12:00:00Z"
  }
}

Rails

Rail	`rail`	`code`	Holder name
SWIFT / BIC	`swift`	BIC	—
IBAN	`iban`	IBAN	—
ABA routing	`routing_number`	9-digit routing number	—
UK sort code	`sort_code`	Sort code	—
India IFSC	`ifsc`	IFSC	—
Nigeria NUBAN	`nuban`	Bank code	With `account_number`
Mobile money	`momo`	Provider / MSISDN	With `account_number`
Ghana bank	`gh_bank`	Bank code	With `account_number`

Holder resolution is available on nuban, momo, and gh_bank. Pass account_number (or the wallet number) on those rails.

curl https://api.usepatchwork.co/v1/identify \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $PATCHWORK_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"rail":"nuban","code":"058","account_number":"0123456789"}'

country is an optional ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 hint when the rail is ambiguous.

Results

data.result is one of identified, not_found, or unsupported. Only identified is billed. If a field is unknown we omit it — we do not send nulls. identified_at is present only on a match. The result object: The Identify Result object. The request: Identify an account.

Errors

Missing rail or code is MISSING_PARAMETER (400). An unknown rail is UNSUPPORTED_RAIL (400). Out of credits is 402. See Errors.

Get started

Workbench

Loom

Quickstart

Rails

Results

Errors

​Quickstart

​Rails

​Results

​Errors

Quickstart

Rails

Results

Errors