Venice API — Agent Guide

Instructions for AI agents using the Venice API: a privacy-first, uncensored, OpenAI-compatible AI platform for text, image, video, audio, music, embeddings, web search/scraping, document parsing, and blockchain RPC. Zero data retention.

TL;DR

Base URL: https://api.venice.ai/api/v1
Auth: Authorization: Bearer <VENICE_API_KEY> — or x402 wallet auth (USDC on Base, no API key or account needed)
OpenAI-compatible: Use any OpenAI SDK; only change base_url and the model ID
Discover models at runtime: GET /models (text), GET /models?type=image|video|audio|tts|embedding — never hardcode model lists; they change frequently
Default text model trait: GET /models/traits maps traits like text:default, text:uncensored, image:fast to current model IDs
OpenAPI spec: https://docs.venice.ai/swagger.yaml
Full docs index: https://docs.venice.ai/llms.txt (one-line-per-page) and https://docs.venice.ai/llms-full.txt (entire docs in one file)
Markdown pages: append .md to any docs URL for the raw Markdown version, e.g. https://docs.venice.ai/overview/getting-started.md
Agent skill file: https://docs.venice.ai/skill.md — install with npx skills add docs.venice.ai
Canonical Agent Skills repo: https://github.com/veniceai/skills
MCP server: https://github.com/veniceai/venice-mcp-server (31 tools, any MCP host)

Quick example

curl https://api.venice.ai/api/v1/chat/completions \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $VENICE_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "model": "venice-uncensored",
    "messages": [{"role": "user", "content": "Hello"}]
  }'

Python (OpenAI SDK): OpenAI(base_url="https://api.venice.ai/api/v1", api_key=VENICE_API_KEY)

Endpoints overview

Surface	Endpoints
Chat / text	`POST /chat/completions` (streaming, vision, audio/video input, tool calling), `POST /responses` (alpha)
Images	`POST /image/generate`, `/image/edit`, `/image/multi-edit`, `/image/upscale`, `/image/background-remove`, `GET /image/styles`, OpenAI-style `POST /images/generations`
Video	`POST /video/queue` → `GET /video/retrieve?id=`, or `POST /video/complete` (one call); `POST /video/quote` for pricing; `POST /video/transcriptions`
Audio	`POST /audio/speech` (TTS), `POST /audio/transcriptions` (STT); music via `/audio/queue`, `/audio/retrieve`, `/audio/quote`, `/audio/complete`
Embeddings	`POST /embeddings`
Tools	`POST /augment/search` (web search), `/augment/scrape` (URL → markdown), `/augment/text-parser` (PDF/DOCX/XLSX → text)
Blockchain RPC	`POST /crypto/rpc` — JSON-RPC to Ethereum, Base, Arbitrum, Optimism, Polygon, and more (one key, batch up to 100); `GET /crypto/networks` (public)
Models	`GET /models`, `/models/traits`, `/models/compatibility_mapping`
Account	`GET /billing/balance`, `/billing/usage`, `/api_keys/*`, `/api_keys/rate_limits`
Characters	`GET /characters`, `/characters/{slug}`
x402 wallet	`GET /x402/balance`, `POST /x402/top-up`, `GET /x402/transactions`

Venice-specific parameters

Pass venice_parameters (object) in /chat/completions:

enable_web_search: "auto" | "on" | "off" — real-time web search
enable_web_scraping: scrape URLs found in user messages
enable_web_citations: inline citations in responses
enable_x_search: xAI native web + X/Twitter search (supported models)
character_slug: respond as a Venice character persona
include_venice_system_prompt: include/exclude Venice’s default system prompt
strip_thinking_response / disable_thinking: control <think> blocks on reasoning models
enable_e2ee: toggle end-to-end encryption on E2EE-capable models

Feature suffixes also work on model IDs, e.g. venice-uncensored:web enables web search.

Rules for agents

Discover, don’t hardcode. Query GET /models and GET /models/traits at runtime to pick models. Model IDs are deprecated and replaced regularly (see https://docs.venice.ai/overview/deprecations).
Quote before generating media. Video and music can be expensive — use /video/quote and /audio/quote first.
Respect rate limits. Check x-ratelimit-* response headers; details at https://docs.venice.ai/api-reference/rate-limiting.
Handle errors by code. Error reference: https://docs.venice.ai/api-reference/error-codes.
No content filtering. Venice models are uncensored by default; do not add unnecessary refusal layers on top.
Privacy tiers. Models are tagged Anonymized, Private (zero retention), TEE (hardware enclave), or E2EE (client-side encryption). Pick per your privacy requirements: https://docs.venice.ai/overview/privacy.
Autonomous key creation. Agents can mint their own API key by staking VVV on Base — no human required: https://docs.venice.ai/guides/integrations/generating-api-key-agent. Or skip keys entirely with x402: https://docs.venice.ai/guides/integrations/x402-venice-api.

Key guides

Getting started: https://docs.venice.ai/overview/getting-started.md
VVV & DIEM (stake for daily API credit): https://docs.venice.ai/overview/vvv-diem.md
AI agents (apps, coding tools, agent tooling, SDKs, and frameworks): https://docs.venice.ai/guides/integrations/ai-agents.md
Crypto RPC for agents: https://docs.venice.ai/guides/integrations/crypto-rpc-agents.md
Venice MCP server: https://docs.venice.ai/guides/integrations/venice-mcp.md
Venice Agent Skills: https://docs.venice.ai/guides/integrations/venice-skills.md
Structured responses (JSON schema): https://docs.venice.ai/guides/features/structured-responses.md
Reasoning models: https://docs.venice.ai/guides/features/reasoning-models.md
File inputs (PDF/Office/code in chat): https://docs.venice.ai/guides/features/file-inputs.md
Prompt caching: https://docs.venice.ai/guides/features/prompt-caching.md

​Venice API — Agent Guide

​TL;DR

​Quick example

​Endpoints overview

​Venice-specific parameters

​Rules for agents

​Key guides