Poolside API - Poolside

Call Poolside models through an OpenAI-compatible API. This page covers access methods, available endpoints, authentication, and your first request with cURL or an OpenAI-compatible SDK.

Access methods

The API base URL depends on how you access Poolside.

Access method	Base URL
Poolside-hosted inference	`https://inference.poolside.ai/v1`
Self-managed Poolside inference	`https://<model-hostname>/v1`, or the base URL exposed by an inference gateway
OpenRouter	`https://openrouter.ai/api/v1`

Available endpoints

Poolside-hosted inference supports these endpoints:

Method	Endpoint	What it’s for
`GET`	`/v1/models`	List available models
`POST`	`/v1/chat/completions`	Generate a response from a conversation

Authentication

Get an API key

Get the API key for your access method:

Poolside-hosted inference: Sign in to Poolside Platform, open the API Keys tab, and click New key.
OpenRouter: Go to OpenRouter API keys, sign in, and create an API key.
Self-managed Poolside inference: Use the API key configured for your model endpoint or inference gateway. If API key authentication is off, you do not need a key.

Send the API key

Poolside-hosted inference and OpenRouter require an API key. Send it as a Bearer token in the Authorization header:

Authorization: Bearer <api-key>

Authentication for self-managed Poolside inference depends on how your endpoint or gateway is configured. If API key authentication is off, omit the Authorization header. API keys are secrets. Store them securely and never commit them to source control.

Make your first API call

This quickstart uses Poolside-hosted inference and the poolside/laguna-s-2.1 model ID. Prerequisites

An API key from Poolside Platform
curl, Python, or Node.js

Steps

cURL
Python
TypeScript

Set your API key

Export your API key as an environment variable. The cURL command below reads it from $POOLSIDE_API_KEY.

export POOLSIDE_API_KEY="<api-key>"

Make your first API call

Send a POST request to the Chat Completions endpoint:

curl https://inference.poolside.ai/v1/chat/completions \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $POOLSIDE_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "model": "poolside/laguna-s-2.1",
    "messages": [{ "role": "user", "content": "Explain cURL" }]
  }'

Poolside returns a JSON response containing the message:

Response example

{
  "id": "chatcmpl-abc123",
  "model": "poolside/laguna-s-2.1",
  "created": 1751993576,
  "object": "chat.completion",
  "choices": [
    {
      "index": 0,
      "message": {
        "reasoning_content": "The user is asking what cURL is. I should explain that it is a command-line tool, name the protocols it supports, and give the common uses...",
        "content": "cURL is a powerful command-line tool used for transferring data to or from a server, supporting various protocols such as HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, and more. It's widely used for testing APIs, downloading files, and automating HTTP requests. cURL allows you to specify headers, methods (GET, POST, PUT, DELETE, etc.), and data payloads, making it versatile for a range of web-related tasks.\n",
        "role": "assistant"
      },
      "finish_reason": "stop"
    }
  ],
  "usage": {
    "completion_tokens": 88,
    "prompt_tokens": 447,
    "total_tokens": 535
  }
}

Poolside-hosted inference enables thinking by default, so the response can include reasoning_content in addition to content. See OpenAI-compatible API examples to turn it off.

Set your API key

Export your API key as an environment variable.

export POOLSIDE_API_KEY="<api-key>"

Install the OpenAI SDK

pip install openai

Create your code

Create a file called quickstart.py. The code below reads your key from POOLSIDE_API_KEY:

quickstart.py

import os
from openai import OpenAI

client = OpenAI(
    api_key=os.environ["POOLSIDE_API_KEY"],
    base_url="https://inference.poolside.ai/v1",
)

completion = client.chat.completions.create(
    model="poolside/laguna-s-2.1",
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Explain cURL"}],
)

print(completion.choices[0].message.content)

Run your code

python quickstart.py

Set your API key

Export your API key as an environment variable.

export POOLSIDE_API_KEY="<api-key>"

Install the OpenAI SDK and tsx

tsx runs the TypeScript file directly.

npm install openai tsx

Create your code

Create a file called quickstart.ts. The code below reads your key from POOLSIDE_API_KEY:

quickstart.ts

import OpenAI from "openai";

const client = new OpenAI({
  apiKey: process.env.POOLSIDE_API_KEY,
  baseURL: "https://inference.poolside.ai/v1",
});

const completion = await client.chat.completions.create({
  model: "poolside/laguna-s-2.1",
  messages: [{ role: "user", content: "Explain cURL" }],
});

console.log(completion.choices[0].message.content);

Run your code

npx tsx quickstart.ts

To use OpenRouter instead, use https://openrouter.ai/api/v1 as the base URL or SDK base_url/baseURL, pass your OpenRouter API key, and replace the model ID with an OpenRouter model ID.

Use the API for CLI automation

For interactive Poolside Agent CLI access, see Log in to Poolside. For CLI automation against an OpenAI-compatible endpoint, configure POOLSIDE_STANDALONE_BASE_URL, POOLSIDE_STANDALONE_MODEL, and POOLSIDE_API_KEY. If the endpoint does not validate API keys, use any non-empty value for POOLSIDE_API_KEY, such as local-test. See Automate tasks.

Next steps

OpenAI-compatible API examples for generation controls, thinking control, streaming, and tool calling
Supported models for model guidance, context windows, and modes
Editors to use Poolside from editors and editor extensions
Desktop apps to use Poolside from desktop apps

​Access methods

​Available endpoints

​Authentication

​Get an API key

​Send the API key

​Make your first API call

​Use the API for CLI automation

​Next steps

Access methods

Available endpoints

Authentication

Get an API key

Send the API key

Make your first API call

Use the API for CLI automation

Next steps