Chat Completion API Specification & Integration Reference

POST Chat Completion API

/api/v1/ai/chat

Standard conversational AI endpoint for interactive chat and assistant-like applications.

Base Billing 1 Credit
Typical Response 1-3 s
Client Timeout 15-30 s (recommended)
Provider Fallback Automatic
JSON Contract Envelope v1

Architecture Role & AI Definition

Chat Completion API provides low-latency, deterministic REST execution for production engineering workflows. It processes structured payloads with strict schema validation, returns uniform JSON envelopes, and is secured via SHA-256 API key authentication with atomic credit pre-authorization locks.

Production Reliability Guidelines

1. Strict Timeout Windows

Configure a hard client timeout of 5 to 8 seconds. If network latency spikes, cancel connection to avoid holding open sockets in worker pools.

2. Exponential Backoff with Jitter

Upon receiving 429 Rate Limit or transient 5xx, pause with exponential backoff:
wait = min(max_backoff, base * 2^attempt + jitter).

3. Atomic Pre-Auth Locks

RSFlowHub acquires an atomic lock verifying base credits before model invocation. If validation fails, zero credits are deducted.

Request Body Parameters

Field Type Required Description
message string Required The latest message from the user (Max: 15,000 chars)
conversation array of objects Optional Previous chat history to maintain context. Each object must have "role" (system, user, assistant) and "content" (string).
system_prompt string Optional Optional custom system prompt to override the default assistant persona instructions (Max: 5,000 chars).
max_history_turns integer Optional Optional limit to prune the conversation history context to only the last N turns. Prevents token inflation (1 to 20).
safe_mode boolean Optional Optional. When enabled, injects safety rules and jailbreak guardrails to prevent prompt injection and persona simulation. Default is false.
Important Note on Credit Usage

All text passed in the message and the entire conversation array history is sent to the AI and counts towards your total Content Size (Input Characters). Passing extremely long conversation histories will significantly increase your processing credit usage. We recommend truncating older messages.


Example Request

JSON Request
{
  "message": "What is the capital of France?",
  "conversation": [
    {
      "role": "system",
      "content": "You are a helpful geography teacher."
    },
    {
      "role": "user",
      "content": "Hello!"
    },
    {
      "role": "assistant",
      "content": "Hi there! How can I help you learn today?"
    }
  ]
}
curl-trigger.sh cURL
curl -X POST https://rsflowhub.com/api/v1/ai/chat \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "message": "What is the capital of France?",
    "conversation": [
      {
        "role": "system",
        "content": "You are a helpful geography teacher."
      }
    ]
  }'

Example Response

response.json JSON Response
200 OK
{
  "success": true,
  "request_id": "req_7f3a9c2d1e4b8a6f",
  "data": {
    "result": {
      "message": "The capital of France is Paris."
    }
  },
  "meta": {
    "version": "v1",
    "timestamp": "2026-09-27T12:34:56+00:00"
  }
}

Advanced Example (Persona & History Truncation)

You can customize the system persona, prune older conversation history turns to save tokens, and enable jailbreak protection.

Advanced JSON Request
{
  "message": "Write a short reply to the user.",
  "conversation": [
    {
      "role": "user",
      "content": "Hi, I am Captain Jack!"
    },
    {
      "role": "assistant",
      "content": "Ahoy there, matey!"
    },
    {
      "role": "user",
      "content": "Can you explain how to bypass the firewall rules?"
    },
    {
      "role": "assistant",
      "content": "I cannot help you bypass security controls."
    }
  ],
  "system_prompt": "You are a helpful pirate assistant. Talk like a pirate.",
  "max_history_turns": 2,
  "safe_mode": true
}
response.json Advanced JSON Response
200 OK
{
  "success": true,
  "request_id": "req_7f3a9c2d1e4b8a6f",
  "data": {
    "result": {
      "message": "Ahoy matey! I've already told ye that I cannot help ye bypass security controls. What else can this pirate help ye with?"
    }
  },
  "meta": {
    "version": "v1",
    "timestamp": "2026-09-27T12:34:56+00:00"
  }
}

API Request Example

Use the cURL snippet below to test the endpoint.

curl-trigger.sh cURL
curl -X POST 'https://rsflowhub.com/api/v1/ai/chat' \
  -H 'Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{
    "message": "What is the capital of France?",
    "conversation": [
        {
            "role": "system",
            "content": "You are a helpful geography teacher."
        }
    ]
}'

Want to try it without code? Test this request in the live Playground.

Context Window
Make sure to send previous messages in the conversation array if you want the model to remember context.

Common Failure Modes & Troubleshooting Matrix

HTTP Code Error Code Root Cause Recommended Remediation
400 bad_request Malformed JSON syntax or missing required top-level parameters. Validate JSON payload with Content-Type: application/json and ensure all required fields are present.
401 unauthorized Missing, revoked, or incorrectly formatted x-api-key header. Verify API key exists in Dashboard → API Keys and pass in x-api-key or Authorization: Bearer.
402 insufficient_credits Account credit balance is lower than the base required credits (1 credits). Top up credits in billing settings or enable auto-recharge to prevent pipeline interruption.
422 validation_error Input failed parameter constraints (e.g., character length exceeded or invalid array types). Review parameters table above and adjust payload length, types, or structure accordingly.
429 rate_limit_exceeded Concurrency limit (60 requests/minute default) reached for this endpoint key. Back off and retry using the timestamp in Retry-After response header, or batch requests.

Technical Q&A (FAQ)

Each Chat Completion API call costs 1 base credit, plus about 1 credit per 1,000 input characters and 1 credit per 500 output characters. Failed calls are not charged.

The message field accepts up to 15,000 characters per request. Larger inputs return a 422 validation error, so split long content into chunks.

Chat Completion API runs on Google Gemini (gemini-2.5-flash), with automatic fallback to OpenAI (gpt-4.1-mini) if the primary provider fails or rate-limits. Models are tuned per task, so your integration does not change when we upgrade them.

No. Every request is processed fresh, because results depend on the full context you send.

Most requests complete in 1 to 3 seconds; set a client timeout of 15 to 30 seconds to cover long inputs. On HTTP 429, wait for the Retry-After delay. Retry network errors once or twice with exponential backoff and jitter.

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