Driving Chroma Desk from code

Everything the web app does is available over HTTP. The base URL is https://api.skillsafe.ai/v1/app-api, every request carries Authorization: Bearer <token>, and every response is the same envelope.

The `task` field comes first

This app has five lanes behind one endpoint. Every run body must carry a task field naming the lane - it is what the system prompt routes on. Send the wrong one and you get a valid package of the wrong kind; omit it and the model picks the closest lane and tells you which it chose.

One more shape trap: the run body is the input object. Do not wrap it in an {"input": ...} envelope - that returns 200 while hiding task from the model, which is the most confusing way this API can fail.

task Lane Fields Sections returned

plan Decide what the chain carries material, constraints Summary, Chain, Schemes, Reasoning, Next Step

check What every step actually carries sheet, symptom Summary, Verdict, Findings, Corrected Chain, Next Step

resolution What the colour resolution really is sheet, shows Summary, The Grids, What It Costs, The Options, Next Step

budget What each scheme costs in bytes sheet, storage Summary, The Sizes, Same Cost Different Grid, The Options, Next Step

deliver Decide what actually changes sheet, fixed Summary, As Written, Change A Step, Rebuild The Chain, Next Step

task	Lane	Fields	Sections returned
`plan`	Decide what the chain carries	`material, constraints`	Summary, Chain, Schemes, Reasoning, Next Step
`check`	What every step actually carries	`sheet, symptom`	Summary, Verdict, Findings, Corrected Chain, Next Step
`resolution`	What the colour resolution really is	`sheet, shows`	Summary, The Grids, What It Costs, The Options, Next Step
`budget`	What each scheme costs in bytes	`sheet, storage`	Summary, The Sizes, Same Cost Different Grid, The Options, Next Step
`deliver`	Decide what actually changes	`sheet, fixed`	Summary, As Written, Change A Step, Rebuild The Chain, Next Step

Only task and the lane's own required fields are mandatory: sheet on check, resolution, budget and deliver; material on plan. Every field is a string - there are no number fields on this app. The sheet is two blocks, CHAIN and STEPS, and the grammar is in llms.txt.

A step row is id | scheme | raster | description. The raster is optional per step and defaults to the chain's - give it only where a step also changes size, because that changes the chroma raster too.

A scheme may be a name or three numbers. 4:2:0, nv12 and dv all work, and so does anything of the form J:a:b with b <= a <= J - because the notation is the definition rather than a lookup. In it, J is the width of a notional region, a is how many chroma samples the top row gets, and b is the number that change in the bottom row - zero meaning the bottom row has none of its own.

raster is required and has no default. Subsampling is a ratio and a ratio of nothing is nothing: 4:2:0 says the chroma plane is half the width and half the height of the luma one, and what that comes to in samples depends entirely on how big the luma plane is. depth is optional (8, 10, 12 or 16, defaulting to 8) and multiplies every byte figure. content is optional and turns on the judgement about whether the material survives; without it the arithmetic runs and the judgement does not.

Add $model to any body to choose the model for that run: gpt-5.6-luna, gpt-5.6-terra (the default) or gpt-5.6-sol. Luna caps output at 4,096 tokens and will fail the check and budget lanes rather than shorten them - a findings table, a corrected chain and a size table with a row per step is several thousand characters before the reasoning starts.

The response envelope

Success and failure have the same outer shape, so one check covers both.

{
  "ok": true,
  "data": {
    "...": "the result"
  }
}

{
  "ok": false,
  "error": {
    "code": "VALIDATION_ERROR",
    "message": "seconds should be number, got string",
    "details": {}
  }
}

HTTP error.code What it means

400 VALIDATION_ERROR The body was not a JSON object, or a declared field had the wrong type. A number field sent as a string is the usual cause.

401 UNAUTHORIZED No token, or a token that has expired or been revoked. Mint a new one.

402 INSUFFICIENT_CREDITS The balance is below the run's minimum. Call /estimate first and compare hold_credits against /me.

404 NOT_FOUND Wrong path, or a job id that does not belong to this token.

409 CONFLICT An Idempotency-Key replay whose body differs from the original request.

429 RATE_LIMITED Too many requests. Back off; do not tight-loop.

503 UPSTREAM_UNAVAILABLE The model provider is unavailable. Retry with backoff.

HTTP	error.code	What it means
`400`	`VALIDATION_ERROR`	The body was not a JSON object, or a declared field had the wrong type. A number field sent as a string is the usual cause.
`401`	`UNAUTHORIZED`	No token, or a token that has expired or been revoked. Mint a new one.
`402`	`INSUFFICIENT_CREDITS`	The balance is below the run's minimum. Call /estimate first and compare hold_credits against /me.
`404`	`NOT_FOUND`	Wrong path, or a job id that does not belong to this token.
`409`	`CONFLICT`	An Idempotency-Key replay whose body differs from the original request.
`429`	`RATE_LIMITED`	Too many requests. Back off; do not tight-loop.
`503`	`UPSTREAM_UNAVAILABLE`	The model provider is unavailable. Retry with backoff.

1. Get a token

Open /tokens.html in a browser and copy the token this app already holds - no developer console needed. A guest token is minted automatically and is enough for /me and /estimate; writing a package is metered and needs a personal token, which comes from signing in on that page.

Keep it in an environment variable rather than in source:

export SKILLSAFE_TOKEN="YOUR_TOKEN"

2. Check the session and the balance

GET /me is free. It returns only three fields: subject_type, subject_id and credits. Signed-in means subject_type == "user" - there is no username or email to test.

curl -sS -X GET "https://api.skillsafe.ai/v1/app-api/me" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SKILLSAFE_TOKEN"

import json, urllib.request

TOKEN = "YOUR_TOKEN"   # from /tokens.html
BASE  = "https://api.skillsafe.ai/v1/app-api"

def call(method, path, payload=None, headers=None):
    data = json.dumps(payload).encode() if payload is not None else None
    req = urllib.request.Request(BASE + path, data=data, method=method)
    req.add_header("Authorization", "Bearer " + TOKEN)
    req.add_header("Content-Type", "application/json")
    req.add_header("Accept", "application/json")
    # A plain urllib request with no User-Agent is refused with 403.
    req.add_header("User-Agent", "chroma-desk-client/1.0")
    for k, v in (headers or {}).items():
        req.add_header(k, v)
    with urllib.request.urlopen(req) as r:
        return json.loads(r.read())

out = call("GET", "/me")
print(json.dumps(out["data"], indent=2))

const TOKEN = "YOUR_TOKEN";   // from /tokens.html
const BASE  = "https://api.skillsafe.ai/v1/app-api";

async function call(method, path, payload) {
  const res = await fetch(BASE + path, {
    method,
    headers: {
      "Authorization": `Bearer ${TOKEN}`,
      "Content-Type": "application/json"
    },
    body: payload === undefined ? undefined : JSON.stringify(payload)
  });
  const json = await res.json();
  if (!res.ok || !json.ok) throw new Error(json.error?.message || res.statusText);
  return json.data;
}

const data = await call("GET", "/me");
console.log(data);

package main

import (
	"bytes"
	"fmt"
	"io"
	"net/http"
)

const base = "https://api.skillsafe.ai/v1/app-api"
const token = "YOUR_TOKEN" // from /tokens.html

func main() {
	req, _ := http.NewRequest("GET", base+"/me", nil)
	req.Header.Set("Authorization", "Bearer "+token)
	req.Header.Set("Content-Type", "application/json")
	res, err := http.DefaultClient.Do(req)
	if err != nil {
		panic(err)
	}
	defer res.Body.Close()
	out, _ := io.ReadAll(res.Body)
	fmt.Println(string(out))
}

import java.net.URI;
import java.net.http.*;

public class Main {
    static final String BASE  = "https://api.skillsafe.ai/v1/app-api";
    static final String TOKEN = "YOUR_TOKEN"; // from /tokens.html

    public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
        HttpRequest req = HttpRequest.newBuilder()
            .uri(URI.create(BASE + "/me"))
            .header("Authorization", "Bearer " + TOKEN)
            .header("Content-Type", "application/json")
            .method("GET", HttpRequest.BodyPublishers.noBody())
            .build();
        HttpResponse<String> res = HttpClient.newHttpClient()
            .send(req, HttpResponse.BodyHandlers.ofString());
        System.out.println(res.body());
    }
}

require 'net/http'
require 'json'
require 'uri'

BASE  = "https://api.skillsafe.ai/v1/app-api"
TOKEN = "YOUR_TOKEN" # from /tokens.html

uri = URI("#{BASE}/me")
req = Net::HTTP::Get.new(uri)
req["Authorization"] = "Bearer #{TOKEN}"
req["Content-Type"] = "application/json"
res = Net::HTTP.start(uri.hostname, uri.port, use_ssl: true) { |h| h.request(req) }
puts JSON.pretty_generate(JSON.parse(res.body)["data"])

<?php
$base  = "https://api.skillsafe.ai/v1/app-api";
$token = "YOUR_TOKEN"; // from /tokens.html

$opts = ["http" => [
    "method"  => "GET",
    "header"  => "Authorization: Bearer $token\r\nContent-Type: application/json\r\n",
]];
$res  = file_get_contents($base . "/me", false, stream_context_create($opts));
$json = json_decode($res, true);
print_r($json["data"]);

using System.Net.Http;
using System.Text;

const string Base  = "https://api.skillsafe.ai/v1/app-api";
const string Token = "YOUR_TOKEN"; // from /tokens.html

var http = new HttpClient();
http.DefaultRequestHeaders.Add("Authorization", $"Bearer {Token}");

var res = await http.SendAsync(new HttpRequestMessage(new HttpMethod("GET"), Base + "/me")
{
    Content = null
});
Console.WriteLine(await res.Content.ReadAsStringAsync());

3. Price the run before making it

POST /estimate costs nothing, creates no job, and returns the worst-case cost. Compare hold_credits against the balance from step 2 before you submit: a 402 after the fact is avoidable. hold_credits is a reservation priced at the full output cap - the actual charge is usually far lower.

It also echoes model, model_alias and markup_bps, which is the authoritative check that a run is bound to the model you think it is. Estimate each lane separately: their prompts and caps differ, so their holds do.

curl -sS -X POST "https://api.skillsafe.ai/v1/app-api/estimate" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SKILLSAFE_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
  "task": "check",
  "sheet": "<a CHAIN block and a STEPS block - the grammar is in /llms.txt>",
  "symptom": "the red UI text has a green fringe on one side",
  "rules": "<the working rules for this lane, sent by the app>"
}'

import json, urllib.request

TOKEN = "YOUR_TOKEN"   # from /tokens.html
BASE  = "https://api.skillsafe.ai/v1/app-api"

def call(method, path, payload=None, headers=None):
    data = json.dumps(payload).encode() if payload is not None else None
    req = urllib.request.Request(BASE + path, data=data, method=method)
    req.add_header("Authorization", "Bearer " + TOKEN)
    req.add_header("Content-Type", "application/json")
    req.add_header("Accept", "application/json")
    # A plain urllib request with no User-Agent is refused with 403.
    req.add_header("User-Agent", "chroma-desk-client/1.0")
    for k, v in (headers or {}).items():
        req.add_header(k, v)
    with urllib.request.urlopen(req) as r:
        return json.loads(r.read())

payload = {
  "task": "check",
  "sheet": "<a CHAIN block and a STEPS block - the grammar is in /llms.txt>",
  "symptom": "the red UI text has a green fringe on one side",
  "rules": "<the working rules for this lane, sent by the app>"
}
out = call("POST", "/estimate", payload)
print(out["data"]["hold_credits"], out["data"]["model"])

const TOKEN = "YOUR_TOKEN";   // from /tokens.html
const BASE  = "https://api.skillsafe.ai/v1/app-api";

async function call(method, path, payload) {
  const res = await fetch(BASE + path, {
    method,
    headers: {
      "Authorization": `Bearer ${TOKEN}`,
      "Content-Type": "application/json"
    },
    body: payload === undefined ? undefined : JSON.stringify(payload)
  });
  const json = await res.json();
  if (!res.ok || !json.ok) throw new Error(json.error?.message || res.statusText);
  return json.data;
}

const payload = {
  "task": "check",
  "sheet": "<a CHAIN block and a STEPS block - the grammar is in /llms.txt>",
  "symptom": "the red UI text has a green fringe on one side",
  "rules": "<the working rules for this lane, sent by the app>"
};
const data = await call("POST", "/estimate", payload);
console.log(data.hold_credits, data.model, data.model_alias);

package main

import (
	"bytes"
	"fmt"
	"io"
	"net/http"
)

const base = "https://api.skillsafe.ai/v1/app-api"
const token = "YOUR_TOKEN" // from /tokens.html

func main() {
	payload := []byte(`{
  "task": "check",
  "sheet": "<a CHAIN block and a STEPS block - the grammar is in /llms.txt>",
  "symptom": "the red UI text has a green fringe on one side",
  "rules": "<the working rules for this lane, sent by the app>"
}`)
	req, _ := http.NewRequest("POST", base+"/estimate", bytes.NewReader(payload))
	req.Header.Set("Authorization", "Bearer "+token)
	req.Header.Set("Content-Type", "application/json")
	res, err := http.DefaultClient.Do(req)
	if err != nil {
		panic(err)
	}
	defer res.Body.Close()
	out, _ := io.ReadAll(res.Body)
	fmt.Println(string(out))
}

import java.net.URI;
import java.net.http.*;

public class Main {
    static final String BASE  = "https://api.skillsafe.ai/v1/app-api";
    static final String TOKEN = "YOUR_TOKEN"; // from /tokens.html

    public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
        String payload = """
{
  "task": "check",
  "sheet": "<a CHAIN block and a STEPS block - the grammar is in /llms.txt>",
  "symptom": "the red UI text has a green fringe on one side",
  "rules": "<the working rules for this lane, sent by the app>"
}
""";
        HttpRequest req = HttpRequest.newBuilder()
            .uri(URI.create(BASE + "/estimate"))
            .header("Authorization", "Bearer " + TOKEN)
            .header("Content-Type", "application/json")
            .method("POST", HttpRequest.BodyPublishers.ofString(payload))
            .build();
        HttpResponse<String> res = HttpClient.newHttpClient()
            .send(req, HttpResponse.BodyHandlers.ofString());
        System.out.println(res.body());
    }
}

require 'net/http'
require 'json'
require 'uri'

BASE  = "https://api.skillsafe.ai/v1/app-api"
TOKEN = "YOUR_TOKEN" # from /tokens.html

payload = {
  "task": "check",
  "sheet": "<a CHAIN block and a STEPS block - the grammar is in /llms.txt>",
  "symptom": "the red UI text has a green fringe on one side",
  "rules": "<the working rules for this lane, sent by the app>"
}

uri = URI("#{BASE}/estimate")
req = Net::HTTP::Post.new(uri)
req["Authorization"] = "Bearer #{TOKEN}"
req["Content-Type"] = "application/json"
req.body = JSON.dump(payload)
res = Net::HTTP.start(uri.hostname, uri.port, use_ssl: true) { |h| h.request(req) }
puts JSON.pretty_generate(JSON.parse(res.body)["data"])

<?php
$base  = "https://api.skillsafe.ai/v1/app-api";
$token = "YOUR_TOKEN"; // from /tokens.html

$payload = json_encode([
  "task" => "check",
  "sheet" => "<a CHAIN block and a STEPS block - the grammar is in /llms.txt>",
  "symptom" => "the red UI text has a green fringe on one side",
  "rules" => "<the working rules for this lane, sent by the app>"
]);

$opts = ["http" => [
    "method"  => "POST",
    "header"  => "Authorization: Bearer $token\r\nContent-Type: application/json\r\n",
    "content" => $payload,
]];
$res  = file_get_contents($base . "/estimate", false, stream_context_create($opts));
$json = json_decode($res, true);
print_r($json["data"]);

using System.Net.Http;
using System.Text;

const string Base  = "https://api.skillsafe.ai/v1/app-api";
const string Token = "YOUR_TOKEN"; // from /tokens.html

var http = new HttpClient();
http.DefaultRequestHeaders.Add("Authorization", $"Bearer {Token}");

var payload = """
{
  "task": "check",
  "sheet": "<a CHAIN block and a STEPS block - the grammar is in /llms.txt>",
  "symptom": "the red UI text has a green fringe on one side",
  "rules": "<the working rules for this lane, sent by the app>"
}
""";
var content = new StringContent(payload, Encoding.UTF8, "application/json");
var res = await http.SendAsync(new HttpRequestMessage(new HttpMethod("POST"), Base + "/estimate")
{
    Content = content
});
Console.WriteLine(await res.Content.ReadAsStringAsync());

4. Write a package

POST /run submits the job. Always send an Idempotency-Key: a network blip that replays the same request must not bill twice. A replay with the same key returns the stored result and is not charged again; a replay with the same key but a different body is a 409.

The response carries output.output (the Markdown package), charged_credits and truncated. If truncated is true the balance sat between min_credits and hold_credits and the output was cut short - render what arrived and say so rather than presenting it as complete.

curl -sS -X POST "https://api.skillsafe.ai/v1/app-api/run" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SKILLSAFE_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
  "task": "check",
  "sheet": "<a CHAIN block and a STEPS block - the grammar is in /llms.txt>",
  "symptom": "the red UI text has a green fringe on one side",
  "rules": "<the working rules for this lane, sent by the app>"
}'

import json, urllib.request

TOKEN = "YOUR_TOKEN"   # from /tokens.html
BASE  = "https://api.skillsafe.ai/v1/app-api"

def call(method, path, payload=None, headers=None):
    data = json.dumps(payload).encode() if payload is not None else None
    req = urllib.request.Request(BASE + path, data=data, method=method)
    req.add_header("Authorization", "Bearer " + TOKEN)
    req.add_header("Content-Type", "application/json")
    req.add_header("Accept", "application/json")
    # A plain urllib request with no User-Agent is refused with 403.
    req.add_header("User-Agent", "chroma-desk-client/1.0")
    for k, v in (headers or {}).items():
        req.add_header(k, v)
    with urllib.request.urlopen(req) as r:
        return json.loads(r.read())

payload = {
  "task": "check",
  "sheet": "<a CHAIN block and a STEPS block - the grammar is in /llms.txt>",
  "symptom": "the red UI text has a green fringe on one side",
  "rules": "<the working rules for this lane, sent by the app>"
}
out = call("POST", "/run", payload)
print(out["data"]["output"]["output"])

const TOKEN = "YOUR_TOKEN";   // from /tokens.html
const BASE  = "https://api.skillsafe.ai/v1/app-api";

async function call(method, path, payload) {
  const res = await fetch(BASE + path, {
    method,
    headers: {
      "Authorization": `Bearer ${TOKEN}`,
      "Content-Type": "application/json"
    },
    body: payload === undefined ? undefined : JSON.stringify(payload)
  });
  const json = await res.json();
  if (!res.ok || !json.ok) throw new Error(json.error?.message || res.statusText);
  return json.data;
}

const payload = {
  "task": "check",
  "sheet": "<a CHAIN block and a STEPS block - the grammar is in /llms.txt>",
  "symptom": "the red UI text has a green fringe on one side",
  "rules": "<the working rules for this lane, sent by the app>"
};
const data = await call("POST", "/run", payload);
console.log(data.output.output);

package main

import (
	"bytes"
	"fmt"
	"io"
	"net/http"
)

const base = "https://api.skillsafe.ai/v1/app-api"
const token = "YOUR_TOKEN" // from /tokens.html

func main() {
	payload := []byte(`{
  "task": "check",
  "sheet": "<a CHAIN block and a STEPS block - the grammar is in /llms.txt>",
  "symptom": "the red UI text has a green fringe on one side",
  "rules": "<the working rules for this lane, sent by the app>"
}`)
	req, _ := http.NewRequest("POST", base+"/run", bytes.NewReader(payload))
	req.Header.Set("Authorization", "Bearer "+token)
	req.Header.Set("Content-Type", "application/json")
	res, err := http.DefaultClient.Do(req)
	if err != nil {
		panic(err)
	}
	defer res.Body.Close()
	out, _ := io.ReadAll(res.Body)
	fmt.Println(string(out))
}

import java.net.URI;
import java.net.http.*;

public class Main {
    static final String BASE  = "https://api.skillsafe.ai/v1/app-api";
    static final String TOKEN = "YOUR_TOKEN"; // from /tokens.html

    public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
        String payload = """
{
  "task": "check",
  "sheet": "<a CHAIN block and a STEPS block - the grammar is in /llms.txt>",
  "symptom": "the red UI text has a green fringe on one side",
  "rules": "<the working rules for this lane, sent by the app>"
}
""";
        HttpRequest req = HttpRequest.newBuilder()
            .uri(URI.create(BASE + "/run"))
            .header("Authorization", "Bearer " + TOKEN)
            .header("Content-Type", "application/json")
            .method("POST", HttpRequest.BodyPublishers.ofString(payload))
            .build();
        HttpResponse<String> res = HttpClient.newHttpClient()
            .send(req, HttpResponse.BodyHandlers.ofString());
        System.out.println(res.body());
    }
}

require 'net/http'
require 'json'
require 'uri'

BASE  = "https://api.skillsafe.ai/v1/app-api"
TOKEN = "YOUR_TOKEN" # from /tokens.html

payload = {
  "task": "check",
  "sheet": "<a CHAIN block and a STEPS block - the grammar is in /llms.txt>",
  "symptom": "the red UI text has a green fringe on one side",
  "rules": "<the working rules for this lane, sent by the app>"
}

uri = URI("#{BASE}/run")
req = Net::HTTP::Post.new(uri)
req["Authorization"] = "Bearer #{TOKEN}"
req["Content-Type"] = "application/json"
req.body = JSON.dump(payload)
res = Net::HTTP.start(uri.hostname, uri.port, use_ssl: true) { |h| h.request(req) }
puts JSON.pretty_generate(JSON.parse(res.body)["data"])

<?php
$base  = "https://api.skillsafe.ai/v1/app-api";
$token = "YOUR_TOKEN"; // from /tokens.html

$payload = json_encode([
  "task" => "check",
  "sheet" => "<a CHAIN block and a STEPS block - the grammar is in /llms.txt>",
  "symptom" => "the red UI text has a green fringe on one side",
  "rules" => "<the working rules for this lane, sent by the app>"
]);

$opts = ["http" => [
    "method"  => "POST",
    "header"  => "Authorization: Bearer $token\r\nContent-Type: application/json\r\n",
    "content" => $payload,
]];
$res  = file_get_contents($base . "/run", false, stream_context_create($opts));
$json = json_decode($res, true);
print_r($json["data"]);

using System.Net.Http;
using System.Text;

const string Base  = "https://api.skillsafe.ai/v1/app-api";
const string Token = "YOUR_TOKEN"; // from /tokens.html

var http = new HttpClient();
http.DefaultRequestHeaders.Add("Authorization", $"Bearer {Token}");

var payload = """
{
  "task": "check",
  "sheet": "<a CHAIN block and a STEPS block - the grammar is in /llms.txt>",
  "symptom": "the red UI text has a green fringe on one side",
  "rules": "<the working rules for this lane, sent by the app>"
}
""";
var content = new StringContent(payload, Encoding.UTF8, "application/json");
var res = await http.SendAsync(new HttpRequestMessage(new HttpMethod("POST"), Base + "/run")
{
    Content = content
});
Console.WriteLine(await res.Content.ReadAsStringAsync());

5. Stream a run

POST /run-stream is the same call with a text/event-stream response. Worth knowing before you build on it: from a server or from cURL you get event: delta frames carrying the output token by token; from a browser you get event: tick heartbeats and then one event: done with the whole output. Handle both, and treat ticks as liveness rather than progress.

Frame types are job (the job id), delta ({"text": "..."}), tick ({"t": seconds}), done, and error. An idempotent replay returns plain JSON with no stream at all, so check the content type before you start reading frames.

curl -sS -N -X POST "https://api.skillsafe.ai/v1/app-api/run-stream" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SKILLSAFE_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Accept: text/event-stream" \
  -H "Idempotency-Key: cbd-$(date +%s)" \
  -d '{
  "task": "check",
  "sheet": "<a CHAIN block and a STEPS block - the grammar is in /llms.txt>",
  "symptom": "the red UI text has a green fringe on one side",
  "rules": "<the working rules for this lane, sent by the app>"
}'

import json, urllib.request

TOKEN = "YOUR_TOKEN"
BASE  = "https://api.skillsafe.ai/v1/app-api"

payload = {
  "task": "check",
  "sheet": "<a CHAIN block and a STEPS block - the grammar is in /llms.txt>",
  "symptom": "the red UI text has a green fringe on one side",
  "rules": "<the working rules for this lane, sent by the app>"
}

req = urllib.request.Request(BASE + "/run-stream", data=json.dumps(payload).encode(), method="POST")
req.add_header("Authorization", "Bearer " + TOKEN)
req.add_header("Content-Type", "application/json")
req.add_header("Accept", "text/event-stream")
req.add_header("Idempotency-Key", "cbd-demo-1")
req.add_header("User-Agent", "chroma-desk-client/1.0")

event, data = "message", ""
with urllib.request.urlopen(req) as r:
    for raw in r:
        line = raw.decode().rstrip("\n")
        if line.startswith("event:"):
            event = line[6:].strip()
        elif line.startswith("data:"):
            data += line[5:].strip()
        elif line == "":
            if data:
                frame = json.loads(data)
                if event == "delta":
                    print(frame.get("text", ""), end="")
                elif event == "done":
                    print("\n--- charged:", frame.get("charged_credits"))
            event, data = "message", ""

const TOKEN = "YOUR_TOKEN";
const BASE  = "https://api.skillsafe.ai/v1/app-api";

const payload = {
  "task": "check",
  "sheet": "<a CHAIN block and a STEPS block - the grammar is in /llms.txt>",
  "symptom": "the red UI text has a green fringe on one side",
  "rules": "<the working rules for this lane, sent by the app>"
};

const res = await fetch(BASE + "/run-stream", {
  method: "POST",
  headers: {
    "Authorization": `Bearer ${TOKEN}`,
    "Content-Type": "application/json",
    "Idempotency-Key": "cbd-demo-1"
  },
  body: JSON.stringify(payload)
});

// An idempotent replay comes back as plain JSON with no stream at all.
if (!(res.headers.get("content-type") || "").includes("text/event-stream")) {
  const json = await res.json();
  console.log(json.data.output.output);
} else {
  const reader = res.body.getReader();
  const dec = new TextDecoder();
  let buf = "";
  for (;;) {
    const { done, value } = await reader.read();
    if (done) break;
    buf += dec.decode(value, { stream: true });
    let i;
    while ((i = buf.indexOf("\n\n")) >= 0) {
      const frame = buf.slice(0, i);
      buf = buf.slice(i + 2);
      let name = "message", data = "";
      for (const line of frame.split("\n")) {
        if (line.startsWith("event:")) name = line.slice(6).trim();
        else if (line.startsWith("data:")) data += line.slice(5).trim();
      }
      if (!data) continue;
      const p = JSON.parse(data);
      if (name === "delta") process.stdout.write(p.text || "");
      if (name === "tick") console.error("still writing:", p.t + "s");
      if (name === "done") console.log("\ncharged:", p.charged_credits);
    }
  }
}

package main

import (
	"bytes"
	"fmt"
	"io"
	"net/http"
)

const base = "https://api.skillsafe.ai/v1/app-api"
const token = "YOUR_TOKEN" // from /tokens.html

func main() {
	payload := []byte(`{
  "task": "check",
  "sheet": "<a CHAIN block and a STEPS block - the grammar is in /llms.txt>",
  "symptom": "the red UI text has a green fringe on one side",
  "rules": "<the working rules for this lane, sent by the app>"
}`)
	req, _ := http.NewRequest("POST", base+"/run-stream", bytes.NewReader(payload))
	req.Header.Set("Authorization", "Bearer "+token)
	req.Header.Set("Content-Type", "application/json")
	res, err := http.DefaultClient.Do(req)
	if err != nil {
		panic(err)
	}
	defer res.Body.Close()
	out, _ := io.ReadAll(res.Body)
	fmt.Println(string(out))
}

import java.net.URI;
import java.net.http.*;

public class Main {
    static final String BASE  = "https://api.skillsafe.ai/v1/app-api";
    static final String TOKEN = "YOUR_TOKEN"; // from /tokens.html

    public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
        String payload = """
{
  "task": "check",
  "sheet": "<a CHAIN block and a STEPS block - the grammar is in /llms.txt>",
  "symptom": "the red UI text has a green fringe on one side",
  "rules": "<the working rules for this lane, sent by the app>"
}
""";
        HttpRequest req = HttpRequest.newBuilder()
            .uri(URI.create(BASE + "/run-stream"))
            .header("Authorization", "Bearer " + TOKEN)
            .header("Content-Type", "application/json")
            .method("POST", HttpRequest.BodyPublishers.ofString(payload))
            .build();
        HttpResponse<String> res = HttpClient.newHttpClient()
            .send(req, HttpResponse.BodyHandlers.ofString());
        System.out.println(res.body());
    }
}

require 'net/http'
require 'json'
require 'uri'

BASE  = "https://api.skillsafe.ai/v1/app-api"
TOKEN = "YOUR_TOKEN" # from /tokens.html

payload = {
  "task": "check",
  "sheet": "<a CHAIN block and a STEPS block - the grammar is in /llms.txt>",
  "symptom": "the red UI text has a green fringe on one side",
  "rules": "<the working rules for this lane, sent by the app>"
}

uri = URI("#{BASE}/run-stream")
req = Net::HTTP::Post.new(uri)
req["Authorization"] = "Bearer #{TOKEN}"
req["Content-Type"] = "application/json"
req.body = JSON.dump(payload)
res = Net::HTTP.start(uri.hostname, uri.port, use_ssl: true) { |h| h.request(req) }
puts JSON.pretty_generate(JSON.parse(res.body)["data"])

<?php
$base  = "https://api.skillsafe.ai/v1/app-api";
$token = "YOUR_TOKEN"; // from /tokens.html

$payload = json_encode([
  "task" => "check",
  "sheet" => "<a CHAIN block and a STEPS block - the grammar is in /llms.txt>",
  "symptom" => "the red UI text has a green fringe on one side",
  "rules" => "<the working rules for this lane, sent by the app>"
]);

$opts = ["http" => [
    "method"  => "POST",
    "header"  => "Authorization: Bearer $token\r\nContent-Type: application/json\r\n",
    "content" => $payload,
]];
$res  = file_get_contents($base . "/run-stream", false, stream_context_create($opts));
$json = json_decode($res, true);
print_r($json["data"]);

using System.Net.Http;
using System.Text;

const string Base  = "https://api.skillsafe.ai/v1/app-api";
const string Token = "YOUR_TOKEN"; // from /tokens.html

var http = new HttpClient();
http.DefaultRequestHeaders.Add("Authorization", $"Bearer {Token}");

var payload = """
{
  "task": "check",
  "sheet": "<a CHAIN block and a STEPS block - the grammar is in /llms.txt>",
  "symptom": "the red UI text has a green fringe on one side",
  "rules": "<the working rules for this lane, sent by the app>"
}
""";
var content = new StringContent(payload, Encoding.UTF8, "application/json");
var res = await http.SendAsync(new HttpRequestMessage(new HttpMethod("POST"), Base + "/run-stream")
{
    Content = content
});
Console.WriteLine(await res.Content.ReadAsStringAsync());

6. Read the result

output.output is Markdown in the envelope this app's system prompt guarantees: every section is a level-two heading spelled exactly as listed in the lane table above, in that order; tables are GitHub pipe tables with the declared columns; prompts are in fenced blocks opened with three backticks and the word text; checklists are - [x] lines.

So parsing is a split on /^## / - but do it fence-aware, because a prompt block can legitimately contain a line starting with ##. Count the sections you got against the ones the lane declares: a short list means the run was truncated, not that the contract changed.

def sections(md):
    out, name, buf, fence = {}, None, [], False
    for line in md.split("\n"):
        if line.lstrip().startswith("```"):
            fence = not fence
        if not fence and line.startswith("## "):
            if name:
                out[name] = "\n".join(buf).strip()
            name, buf = line[3:].strip(), []
            continue
        if name:
            buf.append(line)
    if name:
        out[name] = "\n".join(buf).strip()
    return out

The artifact most callers want is the fenced json block inside ## Beats File or ## Repaired File - that is the file the assembly runs from, and it is valid JSON on its own. The text blocks under ## Poster Prompt and ## Motion Prompt are what you paste into an image or video model.

Rate limits and good manners

/estimate and /me are free. Call them as much as you like, within reason.
A 429 means back off with a delay, not retry immediately.
Send an Idempotency-Key on every /run. Derive it from a hash of the body plus an attempt counter, so a retry of the same request reuses the key and a deliberate re-run gets a new one.
The engine in the web app is client-side only and has no endpoint. What it computes is published in full in llms.txt - the horizontal divisor is J/a, the vertical one is 2 when b is zero and 1 otherwise, and samples per pixel is 1 + (a+b)/J - so you can compute every figure this app produces in your own pipeline without it. It is a sampling-grid model and not an encoder: it says what a scheme can carry and nothing about what a given encoder's rate control actually did with it, so a 4:2:2 stream at a low bitrate can hold less real colour detail than a 4:2:0 one at a high bitrate. The per-step chroma rasters, the fractions, the sample counts and the step comparisons are sent with every run, as prescan, and the system prompt requires answering them.