Making Requests

This page covers the conventions and patterns you need to know when interacting with the Chainabit API: base URL, headers, response format, pagination, error handling, and idempotency.

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Base URL

All endpoints are relative to:

https://api.chainabit.com/api/v1

For example, the AI sessions endpoint resolves to {API_URL}/api/v1/ai/sessions.

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Environment Variables

Set these variables before running any example on this page:

export BASE_URL="https://api.chainabit.com/api/v1"
export TOKEN="your-access-token"

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Required Headers

Every request should include:

Header	Value	Required
Content-Type	application/json	For POST, PUT, and PATCH requests
Authorization	Bearer <accessToken>	For all authenticated endpoints

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Response Envelope

Every API response follows a consistent envelope structure:

{
  "data": { ... },
  "meta": { ... },
  "error": null
}

Field	Description
data	The requested resource or result. null when an error occurs.
meta	Additional metadata such as pagination info. null when not applicable.
error	Error details. null when the request succeeds.

For a deeper explanation of the envelope design, see Response Envelope.

Successful Response

{
  "data": {
    "id": "c9f8e7d6-5432-10fe-dcba-0987654321fe",
    "title": "Research Assistant",
    "status": "active"
  },
  "meta": null,
  "error": null
}

Error Response

{
  "data": null,
  "meta": null,
  "error": {
    "statusCode": 404,
    "message": "Chain not found",
    "code": "NOT_FOUND"
  }
}

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Pagination

List endpoints support offset-based pagination with two query parameters:

Parameter	Default	Description
limit	20	Number of items to return (max varies by endpoint).
offset	0	Number of items to skip.

Example

cURL

curl "https://api.chainabit.com/api/v1/ai/sessions?limit=10&offset=20" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN"

JavaScript

const response = await fetch(
  `${BASE_URL}/ai/sessions?limit=10&offset=20`,
  {
    headers: { Authorization: `Bearer ${TOKEN}` },
  }
);
const { data, meta } = await response.json();

Python

import requests

response = requests.get(
    f"{BASE_URL}/ai/sessions",
    params={"limit": 10, "offset": 20},
    headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {TOKEN}"},
)
result = response.json()
data, meta = result["data"], result["meta"]

Postman

Open AI → GET List Sessions
Add query params: limit=10, offset=20

Response

{
  "data": [
    { "id": "...", "title": "Developer Pipeline" },
    { "id": "...", "title": "Research Assistant" }
  ],
  "meta": {
    "total": 42,
    "limit": 10,
    "offset": 20
  },
  "error": null
}

Use meta.total to calculate the number of pages or determine whether more items exist. For full pagination details, see Pagination.

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Error Handling

Always check the error field in the response. Common HTTP status codes:

Status	Meaning
400	Bad request -- invalid or missing parameters.
401	Unauthorized -- missing or expired token.
403	Forbidden -- insufficient permissions or captcha failure.
404	Not found -- the resource does not exist.
409	Conflict -- duplicate resource or idempotency key collision.
422	Unprocessable entity -- validation error.
429	Too many requests -- rate limit exceeded.
500	Internal server error.

Rate Limiting

When you exceed the rate limit, the API returns 429 Too Many Requests with a Retry-After header indicating how many seconds to wait:

{
  "data": null,
  "meta": null,
  "error": {
    "statusCode": 429,
    "message": "Rate limit exceeded. Try again in 30 seconds.",
    "code": "RATE_LIMITED"
  }
}

Best practice: implement exponential backoff and respect the Retry-After header. For rate limit tiers and quotas, see Rate Limiting.

For the full error code reference, see Errors.

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Idempotency

Some mutating endpoints (such as creating transactions or logging events) accept an Idempotency-Key header. Sending the same idempotency key for the same endpoint returns the original response without creating a duplicate resource.

cURL

curl -X POST https://api.chainabit.com/api/v1/ai/sessions \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Idempotency-Key: 550e8400-e29b-41d4-a716-446655440000" \
  -d '{"title": "Pipeline session"}'

JavaScript

const response = await fetch(`${BASE_URL}/ai/sessions`, {
  method: 'POST',
  headers: {
    Authorization: `Bearer ${TOKEN}`,
    'Content-Type': 'application/json',
    'Idempotency-Key': crypto.randomUUID(),
  },
  body: JSON.stringify({ title: 'Pipeline session' }),
});
const { data } = await response.json();

Python

import requests
import uuid

response = requests.post(
    f"{BASE_URL}/ai/sessions",
    headers={
        "Authorization": f"Bearer {TOKEN}",
        "Idempotency-Key": str(uuid.uuid4()),
    },
    json={"title": "Pipeline session"},
)
data = response.json()["data"]

Postman

Open AI → POST Create Session
Set Idempotency-Key header to {{$randomUUID}}

Guidelines:

• Use a UUID v4 as the idempotency key.
• Keys are scoped to your account and the specific endpoint.
• Keys expire after 24 hours. After that, the same key can be reused.
• If the original request is still being processed, a subsequent request with the same key returns 409 Conflict.

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Full Request-Response Example

Here is a complete example that creates an AI session, handles potential errors, and demonstrates proper header usage:

curl -s -w "\nHTTP_STATUS:%{http_code}" \
  -X POST https://api.chainabit.com/api/v1/ai/sessions \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Idempotency-Key: $IDEMPOTENCY_KEY" \
  -d '{
    "title": "Research Assistant"
  }'

Success -- 201 Created

{
  "data": {
    "id": "sess_01HQ3K5N2P4R7T9V1X3Z5A7C9E",
    "title": "Research Assistant",
    "status": "active",
    "createdAt": "2026-05-04T20:00:00.000Z"
  },
  "meta": null,
  "error": null
}

Validation error -- 422 Unprocessable Entity

{
  "data": null,
  "meta": null,
  "error": {
    "statusCode": 422,
    "message": "Validation failed",
    "code": "VALIDATION_ERROR",
    "details": [
      {
        "field": "title",
        "message": "title must be a string and is required"
      }
    ]
  }
}

Token expired -- 401 Unauthorized

{
  "data": null,
  "meta": null,
  "error": {
    "statusCode": 401,
    "message": "Unauthorized",
    "code": "UNAUTHORIZED"
  }
}

When you receive a 401, refresh your token (see Authentication) and retry the request.

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Next Steps

• Browse the full API Reference for detailed endpoint documentation.
• Learn about Authentication for token management.
• Review Errors for the complete error code catalog.