RSMG Engage
RSMG Engage is a multi-tenant user-engagement platform — comments, reactions, polls, real-time streaming, moderation, and webhooks — that publishers embed into their sites. This site documents how to integrate it from your backend.
The RSMG Engage team provisions your tenant before you integrate. Once that's done, you mint credentials in the admin console and wire your backend to the API.
How integration works
RSMG Engage is a server-to-server API. Your backend calls it with an API key; for any action taken on behalf of a logged-in reader, your backend also attaches a short, signed identity assertion that vouches for that reader. RSMG Engage never holds your readers' credentials — your platform authenticates them, and you tell RSMG Engage who is acting.
┌────────────┐ signed request ┌──────────────┐
│ Reader's │ ──────────────────► │ Publisher │
│ browser │ ◄────────────────── │ backend │
└────────────┘ rendered widget └──────┬───────┘
│ X-API-Key + signed identity assertion
▼
┌──────────────┐
│ RSMG Engage │
└──────────────┘
:::warning Server-to-server only The identity-signing secret is a bearer credential. It must live on your backend and never ship inside a browser bundle, mobile app, or single-page app. Mobile/SPA clients must call your backend, which signs and forwards the request. See Identity signing. :::
Core concepts
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Tenant | One publisher brand. Each tenant has an isolated database. The RSMG Engage team provisions your tenant before you integrate. |
| Tenant slug | Your human-readable tenant id (e.g. pmke), used in your subdomain. |
| External id | Your identifier for a piece of content (an article id). RSMG Engage resolves it to an internal discussion via the *-by-external endpoints. |
| Discussion | A thread of comments scoped to one piece of content. Created lazily — it springs into existence on the first comment. |
| Tenant end-user | A reader on your site, authenticated by you. RSMG Engage only knows the external_id you vouch for. |
| Admin account | A human who operates the RSMG Engage admin console for your tenant (mints keys, moderates, configures). |
| API key | The credential your backend sends as X-API-Key. Minted in the admin console. |
What you'll do to onboard
- The RSMG Engage team provisions your tenant. Contact them to get started.
- Your admin redeems their invite and signs into the console.
- Mint an API key and an identity signing secret.
- Wire your backend to sign requests, post the first comment, and render it.
Start with the Quickstart.
Where to go next
- Quickstart — zero to a rendered comment.
- Authentication & API keys — keys, scopes, expiry.
- Identity signing — the HMAC scheme (the part to get right).
- Comments & discussions, Reactions, Real-time (SSE), Webhooks.
- API Reference — every endpoint, generated from the live OpenAPI spec.