Since @Dave hasn’t picked this thread up yet, I will give it a go. Start here:
The access token is “you” and the device id is each “core”. They are paired in the cloud software after you claim your cores so that both are needed to access your cores via the cloud.
You get your access token from the web-based IDE (click the Build button the spark.io page). There is more detail at the bottom of this thread:
You can also get it via oauth–searching in the forum here will show you how.
With just the access token (“you”), you can ask, “What cores do I have?” to learn their device id’s. Or you use the web IDE (Build button) target function to discover the device id’s of your cores.
If you are using curl, don’t forget that adding parameters via -d automatically assumes your want a POST command but sometimes you still want a GET command. The -G flag to curl forces it to do a GET command even with -d parameters.
There is lots more getting started help here in forum–just look around. We all have to start somewhere!