Get started

The core loop

Everything a human does in the web app, an agent can do over the API with one organization key: get a key, list models, call them, and read usage.

1. Get a key

Keys are minted in the web app at Settings, API keys and shown once. Creating and revoking keys is a web-session action: POST /api/keys is not callable with an API key. One key then drives every step below. Export it: export EXPLABS_API_KEY=xpl_...

2. List models

GET /v1/modelsreturns the slugs your key can call: the public catalog plus your org's own custom and local models.

GET /v1/models

curl "https://api-pr-683.preview.experientiallabs.ai/v1/models" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $EXPLABS_API_KEY"

3. Call a model

Call any slug from that list exactly as you would call OpenAI. This is the same request shape as the Quickstart.

POST /v1/chat/completions

curl "https://api-pr-683.preview.experientiallabs.ai/v1/chat/completions" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $EXPLABS_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"model": "claude-opus-5", "messages": [{"role": "user", "content": "Hello"}]}'

4. Read your usage

Read your own spend and token usage with the same key. GET /api/gateway/usage/daily takes an org_id and returns a grouped rollup. An API key reads at scope=org; scope=self needs an end-user session.

GET /api/gateway/usage/daily

curl "https://api-pr-683.preview.experientiallabs.ai/api/gateway/usage/daily?org_id=$ORG_ID&scope=org&group_by=day" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $EXPLABS_API_KEY"

To see how your org resolves each alias, and which lane it rides, read GET /api/gateway/catalog?org_id=<ORG_ID>.

The same Bearer key that does inference also reaches the management surface an agent needs: catalog reads, custom-model and waterfall writes, BYOK provider connections, usage reads, and the org's key list. It cannot mint or revoke keys, change another key's limits, or reach platform-admin routes. See the API reference for the full surface.

From the terminal

Self-hosted

Self-hosters run the open-source Experiential gateway from the terminal with exp run. The hosted platform manages the catalog, keys, and usage for you in the web app, so on the hosted gateway the loop above is the whole story.