Getting started
The Rendley API drives the same AI video editor over plain HTTP. From your backend you can describe a video and let the agent build it, or create projects, upload media, run AI tools (transcription, image generation, video generation, translation), and render a finished MP4 yourself. No browser, no MCP client, no human in the loop.
Base URL
Every endpoint is served over HTTPS and versioned under /v1:
https://api.rendley.com/v1
Authenticate
Send your API key as a bearer token on every request. Create a key in Rendley under Settings, then API Keys. See Authentication for details.
curl https://api.rendley.com/v1/users/me \
-H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" const res = await fetch("https://api.rendley.com/v1/users/me", {
headers: { Authorization: "Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" },
});
const { data } = await res.json(); import requests
res = requests.get(
"https://api.rendley.com/v1/users/me",
headers={"Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"},
)
data = res.json()["data"] The /templates endpoints are public; everything else requires a key.
Response envelope
All responses share one envelope. Successful calls populate data; failures populate error. meta carries pagination and other side information where relevant.
{
"data": { },
"error": { "code": "", "message": "" },
"meta": { }
}
A first call to GET /users/me returns your profile, credit balance, subscription, and usage:
{
"data": {
"id": "usr_...",
"name": "Ada Lovelace",
"email": "ada@example.com",
"credits": { "balance": 1200 },
"subscription": { "plan_name": "Pro", "status": "active" },
"usage": { "storage_used": 5242880000, "transcription_seconds": 480 }
}
}
Make a video
There are two ways to produce a video over the API:
- Generate it from a prompt. Describe the video and the agent builds it in a project. See Generate from a prompt.
- Build it yourself. Start from a template or assemble a timeline, then render. See Render a video.
Either way, rendering is asynchronous: you start an export, get a job_id, and poll it until the file is ready. See Jobs and polling.
The building blocks behind both:
- Projects hold the timeline. See Projects.
- Media comes from your uploads or from stock.
- AI tools transcribe, generate, upscale, and translate, as async jobs. See AI tools.
- Exports render a project to a file. See Rendering & exports.
Credits and errors
AI operations and exports cost credits. Every billable endpoint has a matching .../cost endpoint that returns the credit price for a given request without running it. If your balance is too low, the API returns 402 Payment Required. See Jobs and polling for the full status-code list.
Full reference
These pages are task-focused guides. The complete, field-by-field reference is the interactive Swagger document at api.rendley.com/swagger.