PermalinkAdding your API

Issue the following cURL request to add your first API ([Mockbin][mockbin]) to Kong:

```bash
$ curl -i -X POST \
  --url http://localhost:8001/apis/ \
  --data 'name=mockbin' \
  --data 'upstream_url=http://mockbin.com/' \
  --data 'request_host=mockbin.com'
```

**Note:** Kong handles API configuration requests on port `:8001`

<div class="alert alert-warning">
  For security reasons we suggest <a href="/0.9.x/getting-started/enabling-plugins">enabling</a> the <a href="/plugins/request-size-limiting/">Request Size Limiting</a> plugin for any API you add to Kong to prevent a DOS (Denial of Service) attack.
</div>

You should see a similar response from the initial request:

```http
HTTP/1.1 201 Created
Content-Type: application/json
Connection: keep-alive

{
  "request_host": "mockbin.com",
  "upstream_url": "http://mockbin.com/",
  "id": "2eec1cb2-7093-411a-c14e-42e67142d2c4",
  "created_at": 1428456369000,
  "name": "mockbin"
}
```

Kong is now aware of your API and ready to proxy requests.

Issue the following cURL request to verify that Kong is properly forwarding requests to your API:

```bash
$ curl -i -X GET \
  --url http://localhost:8000/ \
  --header 'Host: mockbin.com'
```

A successful response means Kong is now forwarding requests to the `upstream_url` we passed in the first step and giving us the response back. Kong knows to do this through the header defined in the above cURL request:

<ul>
  <li><strong>Host: &lt;request_host></strong></li>
</ul>

**Note:** Kong handles proxy requests on port `:8000`