Getting Started with PayPal Server SDK

June 5, 2026 ยท View on GitHub

Introduction

Important Notes

  • Available Features: This SDK currently contains only 5 of PayPal's API endpoints. Additional endpoints and functionality will be added in the future.

Information

The PayPal Server SDK provides integration access to the PayPal REST APIs. The API endpoints are divided into distinct controllers:

Install the Package

Install the gem from the command line:

gem install paypal-server-sdk -v 2.3.0

Or add the gem to your Gemfile and run bundle:

gem 'paypal-server-sdk', '2.3.0'

For additional gem details, see the RubyGems page for the paypal-server-sdk gem.

IRB Console Usage

You can explore the SDK interactively using IRB in two ways

1. Use IRB with Installed Gem

Open your system terminal (Command Prompt, Git Bash or macOS Terminal) and type the following command to start the irb console.

irb

Now you can load the SDK in the IRB

require 'paypal_server_sdk'
include PaypalServerSdk

2. Use IRB within SDK

Open your system terminal (Command Prompt, Git Bash or macOS Terminal) and navigate to the root folder of SDK.

cd path/to/paypal_server_sdk

Now you can start the preconfigured irb console by running the following command

ruby bin/console

Note: This automatically loads the SDK from lib/

Initialize the API Client

Note: Documentation for the client can be found here.

The following parameters are configurable for the API Client:

ParameterTypeDescription
environmentEnvironmentThe API environment.
Default: Environment.SANDBOX
connectionFaraday::ConnectionThe Faraday connection object passed by the SDK user for making requests
adapterFaraday::AdapterThe Faraday adapter object passed by the SDK user for performing http requests
timeoutFloatThe value to use for connection timeout.
Default: 60
max_retriesIntegerThe number of times to retry an endpoint call if it fails.
Default: 0
retry_intervalFloatPause in seconds between retries.
Default: 1
backoff_factorFloatThe amount to multiply each successive retry's interval amount by in order to provide backoff.
Default: 2
retry_statusesArrayA list of HTTP statuses to retry.
Default: [408, 413, 429, 500, 502, 503, 504, 521, 522, 524]
retry_methodsArrayA list of HTTP methods to retry.
Default: %i[get put]
http_callbackHttpCallBackThe Http CallBack allows defining callables for pre and post API calls.
proxy_settingsProxySettingsOptional proxy configuration to route HTTP requests through a proxy server.
logging_configurationLoggingConfigurationThe SDK logging configuration for API calls
client_credentials_auth_credentialsClientCredentialsAuthCredentialsThe credential object for OAuth 2 Client Credentials Grant

The API client can be initialized as follows:

Code-Based Client Initialization

require 'paypal_server_sdk'
include PaypalServerSdk

client = Client.new(
  client_credentials_auth_credentials: ClientCredentialsAuthCredentials.new(
    o_auth_client_id: 'OAuthClientId',
    o_auth_client_secret: 'OAuthClientSecret'
  ),
  environment: Environment::SANDBOX,
  logging_configuration: LoggingConfiguration.new(
    log_level: Logger::INFO,
    request_logging_config: RequestLoggingConfiguration.new(
      log_body: true
    ),
    response_logging_config: ResponseLoggingConfiguration.new(
      log_headers: true
    )
  )
)

Environment-Based Client Initialization

require 'paypal_server_sdk'
include PaypalServerSdk

# Create client from environment
client = Client.from_env

See the Environment-Based Client Initialization section for details.

Environments

The SDK can be configured to use a different environment for making API calls. Available environments are:

Fields

NameDescription
PRODUCTIONPayPal Live Environment
SANDBOXDefault PayPal Sandbox Environment

Authorization

This API uses the following authentication schemes.

List of APIs

SDK Infrastructure

Configuration

HTTP

Utilities