Descartes API
REST APIs exist but are scattered across the acquisition portfolio: a central API portal, MacroPoint tracking APIs, and separate surfaces for Sellercloud, Aljex, and CustomsInfo. Access is per product, usually requiring an active license before docs and credentials are issued.
Frequently asked questions
Descartes scores F on the API Report Card. REST APIs exist but are scattered across the acquisition portfolio: a central API portal, MacroPoint tracking APIs, and separate surfaces for Sellercloud, Aljex, and CustomsInfo. Access is per product, usually requiring an active license before docs and credentials are issued.
Without a usable official API, teams fall back on manual exports, file drops, or one-off vendor integrations. The other option is an unofficial API layer like Supergood that automates the authenticated web app directly.
Descartes Systems Group (NASDAQ: DSGX, TSX: DSG) is a Waterloo, Ontario-headquartered logistics technology company that operates the Global Logistics Network (GLN), described as the world's largest connected community of supply chain and logistics participants, exchanging billions of transactions per year.
Primary vertical: Fleet / Trucking / Logistics, with deep overlap into Customs/Trade Compliance and Ecommerce Operations. A global retailer or 3PL uses Descartes to file customs entries in each country of operation, push shipment status events into its ERP/WMS/TMS, screen counterparties against denied-party lists, optimize last-mile fleet routes, exchange EDI 204/214/990/210 messages with carriers, run rate quotes and bookings across air/ocean/road, and surface real-time visibility into MacroPoint dashboards or downstream customer portals.
Very high in customs filing and trade compliance in North America (ACE/ABI/AES filing market share is among the largest in the country), in shipment visibility (MacroPoint is repeatedly named as the standard enterprise visibility platform alongside project44 and FourKites), and in EDI/B2B messaging for logistics.
Descartes runs the regulated, money-moving spine of cross-border logistics, where silent integration failures translate into real penalties and operational risk: Customs filings (US ACE/ABI/AES, EU AES, UK CDS, ICS2, AU ICS, CA CBSA) where missing or malformed messages create CBP/HMRC/equivalent penalties, shipment holds and demurrage..
Descartes was founded in 1981, went public in 1998, and has been the consolidator of logistics software through 70+ acquisitions over the last 20+ years.
Grades measure one thing: can a customer's engineering team get their own data out programmatically? We check six things (whether a real API exists, how access is gated, data coverage, auth quality, docs and developer experience, and stability) and roll them into a letter grade. Grades get re-verified, and they only move on evidence.
Yes. Supergood maintains an unofficial Descartes API and MCP server so AI agents and internal tools can read and write Descartes data. See the Descartes integration docs at supergood.ai/docs/descartes-api.