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Quickstart

Celeris provides celeris-1, a diffusion language model for short, structured responses, through an OpenAI-compatible API. Existing OpenAI clients can connect by using the Celeris base URL and API key.

1. Create an account​

Sign up at the Customer Console with Google or an email address and password (email signups get a verification code).

2. Activate your workspace​

A workspace must be activated before it can serve requests. In the Console, open the account menu in the bottom-left, select Settings → Billing, and add a payment method. This requests activation, at no charge, and is usually immediate; if it is not, the Console tells you and we email you once the workspace is activated. Then add credit.

3. Reveal your API key​

Activating the workspace gives you a private API key named Default. In the Console, open API keys and reveal it. Store the full ck_ value in a secret manager and keep it out of source control:

export CELERIS_API_KEY="ck_..."

You can create additional private keys, or reveal, rotate, and revoke your existing keys from the Console. See Authentication.

4. Make your first request​

The API base URL includes the model's name (see Models):

https://inference.celeris.ai/celeris-1/v1
curl https://inference.celeris.ai/celeris-1/v1/chat/completions \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $CELERIS_API_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{
"model": "celeris-1",
"messages": [
{"role": "user", "content": "What is the capital of France? Reply with one word."}
],
"max_tokens": 256,
"temperature": 0
}'
Synced language tabs

Selecting a language updates the examples on other pages.

celeris-1 accepts any positive max_tokens. Prompt tokens plus max_tokens must be at most 131,072, so the accepted input limit is 131,072 - max_tokens.

5. Read the response​

Responses use the standard OpenAI chat-completion shape. The quickstart returns one complete JSON response; OpenAI-compatible token streaming is also supported (Making requests):

{
"id": "chatcmpl-9f2e41c0",
"object": "chat.completion",
"created": 1751673600,
"model": "celeris-1",
"choices": [
{
"index": 0,
"message": {"role": "assistant", "content": "Paris"},
"finish_reason": "stop"
}
],
"usage": {
"prompt_tokens": 27,
"completion_tokens": 2,
"total_tokens": 29,
"prompt_tokens_details": {"cached_tokens": 0}
}
}

prompt_tokens_details.cached_tokens reports how much of the prompt used the cached input token rate. It is part of prompt_tokens, not an additional token count.

Every successful response includes a Server-Timing header with server-side latency durations. Error responses may omit usage and Server-Timing; see Errors.

Next steps​

  • Authentication: key lifecycle, rotation, and handling.
  • Models: what celeris-1 is good at, and its limits.
  • Prompt engineering: how to prompt a diffusion LLM for reliable structured output.
  • Agentic workloads: request patterns the model excels at, such as classify, extract, judge, and rewrite.
  • Rate limits: what's limited and how to back off cleanly.
  • Pricing: token rates and prepaid credits.
  • Going to production: the production-readiness checklist.
  • Use the Playground in the Console to test prompts without writing client code.