# API Reference

Lenses offers a set of REST and WebSocket APIs to help you provision and manage the application, make use of its capabilities, and query data via SQL.

<table data-view="cards"><thead><tr><th></th><th></th><th data-hidden data-card-target data-type="content-ref"></th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td><strong>Authenticate</strong></td><td>Learn how to authenticate against Lenses APIs.</td><td><a href="api-reference/authentication-api">authentication-api</a></td></tr><tr><td><strong>Lenses API Spec</strong></td><td>Explore the Lenses API Spec.</td><td><a href="api-reference/lenses-api-spec">lenses-api-spec</a></td></tr><tr><td><strong>Websocket Spec</strong></td><td>Lenses uses websockets for SQL queries. Learn how to use Lenses Websockets.</td><td><a href="api-reference/websocket-spec">websocket-spec</a></td></tr></tbody></table>