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The contract every Stratos desktop client speaks to a virtual airline’s crew system. If you’re running phpVMS 7, the easiest way to expose it is the open-source stratos-core-api module — drop the zip into your phpVMS install, enable it, and you’re done. If you’re running anything else — Laravel, Django, Rails, Node, .NET, Go, a bespoke crew system — implement these endpoints in whatever stack you like, point your Stratos airline configuration at the base URL, and Stratos clients will treat it identically to the reference.

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Base URL

Every endpoint in this reference is documented under /api/stratos — that’s what the phpVMS module uses and what we recommend for consistency. You’re free to mount the surface anywhere; the desktop client just uses whatever base URL is set in your Stratos airline configuration. So a VA running the reference module ends up with something like https://crew.youva.com/api/stratos, but https://api.youva.com/stratos/v1 or https://crew.youva.com/integrations/stratos works equally well.

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Authentication

Most endpoints require a Bearer token — the pilot’s API key, obtained via POST /pilot/login or your OAuth flow. 
Authorization: Bearer <api_key>
Public (no token): GET / and POST /pilot/login.

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Conventions

  • JSON, snake_case field names.
  • Distances in nautical miles, weights in pounds, flight times in decimal hours (unless suffixed _minutes).
  • Coordinates are decimal degrees (WGS84).
  • CORS is wide-open; the client preflights every method.

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The flight lifecycle

1

POST /flights/start

The pilot clicks Start Flight on a bid. The server prefiles a PIREP and returns a tracking_id.
2

POST /flights/update

Sent at the pilot’s chosen position-update interval (currently 15, 30, or 60 seconds) while the flight is active. Each update writes a flight-path point and advances the PIREP status based on the reported phase.
3

POST /flights/complete

At gate arrival, the server files the PIREP, attaches log entries and comments, and submits it for VA approval.
POST /flights/cancel discards the in-progress PIREP at any point before completion. POST /flights/unbook is unrelated — it just removes a bid the pilot no longer wants to fly.

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Minimum viable surface

To get a Stratos client booking and flying, you need:
  1. GET / — handshake.
  2. POST /pilot/login — issue the pilot an API key.
  3. GET /pilot/verify — token re-validation on app launch.
  4. GET /data/aircraft and GET /data/airports — reference data.
  5. GET /flights/bookings — the pilot’s current bids.
  6. POST /flights/start, /update, /complete — the flight lifecycle.
The rest (/pilot/statistics, /data/announcements, /flights/search, /flights/cancel, /flights/unbook) is needed for full feature parity but not for a basic round-trip.

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Reference implementation

The canonical implementation is the phpVMS 7 module — MIT-licensed, ~1000 lines of Laravel controllers. When this reference and the module disagree, the module wins; please file an issue so we can fix the docs.

phpVMS module

Drop-in reference implementation for phpVMS 7.

Install guide

Step-by-step install and configuration walkthrough.