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OverviewQuickstartSetup promptsThe core loopAuthenticationOverviewModelsThe waterfallAdding modelsAnthropic APIErrorsIntegrate the gatewayCost APIAccount APICoding agentsCredits & billingTelemetryAPI reference

Get started

  • Overview
  • Quickstart
  • Setup prompts
  • The core loop
  • Authentication

Guides

  • Overview
  • Models
  • The waterfall
  • Adding models
  • Anthropic API
  • Errors

Integrations

  • Integrate the gateway
  • Cost API
  • Account API
  • Coding agents

Billing & usage

  • Credits & billing
  • Telemetry

Reference

  • API reference
NextQuickstart

Get started

Overview

Experiential Labs is an OpenAI-compatible model gateway: one base URL in front of every model: hosted providers, your own provider keys, our platform-funded credits, and self-hosted or custom models. Point an OpenAI client at it and change nothing else.

The base-url swap

Everything starts here. Keep your existing OpenAI integration and point it at https://api-pr-1660.preview.experientiallabs.ai/v1 with an Experiential Labs key. The gateway speaks the OpenAI wire protocol for both Chat Completions and the Responses API, streaming included, so the only lines that change are the base URL and the key.

POST /v1/chat/completions
curl "https://api-pr-1660.preview.experientiallabs.ai/v1/chat/completions" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $EXPLABS_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"model": "qwen3.8-27b", "messages": [{"role": "user", "content": "Hello"}]}'

Ready to run it end to end? The Quickstart takes you from signing in to a streamed response in under a minute.

How it works

A request names a model by its slug (for example claude-opus-5). The gateway resolves that slug through a per-model provider waterfall, an ordered list of ways to reach the model, trying each rung and failing over on capacity or transport errors until one succeeds. You get the first good response; the routing is invisible.

Experiential Cloud is a curated collection of models, hosted and optimized by Experiential Labs. Call those slugs with your Experiential Labs key.

Every model is paid for through one of two lanes, with no markup either way:

  • Pass-through (BYOK): your own provider key. The provider bills you directly; we add nothing.
  • Platform-funded: our credits, priced from the public catalog. Each call draws down your balance.
Everything the web app can do, an agent can do over the API: list and browse models, call them, connect provider keys, add custom models, edit waterfalls, and read usage, all with the same org API key.

What's in these docs

  • QuickstartSign in, copy your key, and make your first call in under a minute.
  • Setup promptsCopy-paste prompts that make your coding agent do the setup for you.
  • The core loopGet a key, check credits, list models, call them, read usage.
  • AuthenticationThe xpl_ key: how it looks, the Bearer header, and what one key can and cannot do.
  • OverviewPick your goal: a coding agent, your product, or just checking it out.
  • ModelsThe catalog, provider waterfalls, BYOK keys, and local models.
  • The waterfallHow a model's provider routes are ordered, fall back, cache, and get added.
  • Adding modelsBring your own provider key, or register your own local model.
  • Anthropic APICall the gateway with the Anthropic Messages API and the Anthropic SDKs.
  • ErrorsEvery error code, what it means, and how to recover.
  • Integrate the gatewayPaste-able prompts to switch from your current provider or integrate from scratch, then the /api/v1 surface: one base URL, the 1:1 serving relay, what to expect.
  • Cost APIRead what every request cost — inline on the response, per request by id, the credit balance, and the settled usage export for a billing sync.
  • Account APIAuthenticate and provision keys programmatically: the inference-vs-provisioning key split, inspecting a key, and the key-management family.
  • Coding agentsRoute Claude Code, Conductor, Codex, OpenCode, Hermes Agent, Pi, Cline, VS Code Copilot, Cursor, and other agents through the gateway.
  • Credits & billingPlatform credits, BYOK pass-through, spend limits, alerts, and auto-recharge.
  • TelemetryRead usage and spend over the API, and bring your own traces in as telemetry.
  • API referenceThe OpenAI-compatible inference API and the management API.

Agents and tools should read /llms.txt, the complete machine-readable reference.