Get Started

Quickstart

Make your first request in under five minutes. Meridian Blue is a drop-in replacement for the OpenAI API — any SDK that speaks OpenAI works without modification.

1. Install an OpenAI SDK

You don't need a Meridian Blue-specific SDK. The official OpenAI SDKs work as-is.

Bash 
npm install openai
# or
pip install openai

2. Get an API key

Sign in to https://app.meridianblue.ai, open the API Keys page, and create a key. Every key starts with the prefix kp_live_. Store it in an environment variable — never commit it to source control.

Bash 
export MERIDIAN_API_KEY=kp_live_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

New accounts start on the free tier with a daily quota of free-tier-eligible model requests. Top up to enable paid models — see the dashboard's Billing page.

3a. Make your first request — JavaScript

JavaScript 
import OpenAI from 'openai';

const client = new OpenAI({
  baseURL: 'https://api.meridianblue.ai/v1',
  apiKey: process.env.MERIDIAN_API_KEY,
});

const response = await client.chat.completions.create({
  model: 'gpt-4o',
  messages: [
    { role: 'user', content: 'Hello, Meridian!' }
  ],
});

console.log(response.choices[0].message.content);

3b. Python

Python 
from openai import OpenAI
import os

client = OpenAI(
    base_url="https://api.meridianblue.ai/v1",
    api_key=os.environ["MERIDIAN_API_KEY"],
)

response = client.chat.completions.create(
    model="claude-sonnet-4-5-20241022",
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Hello"}],
)

print(response.choices[0].message.content)

3c. cURL

Bash 
curl https://api.meridianblue.ai/v1/chat/completions \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $MERIDIAN_API_KEY" \
  -d '{
    "model": "gpt-4o",
    "messages": [{"role": "user", "content": "Hello"}]
  }'

4. Add a fallback chain

Pass models (an ordered array) instead of model. Meridian Blue tries each in order and stops at the first 200. If they all fail, you get a single 502 with the full attempt history.

Python 
response = client.chat.completions.create(
    model="gpt-4o",            # required for SDK type checks; ignored when models[] is set
    messages=[...],
    extra_body={
        "models": [
            "gpt-4o",
            "claude-sonnet-4-5-20241022",
            "llama-3.3-70b-versatile",
        ],
    },
)

See Fallback chains for the full walk semantics and Chat completions for every supported field.

Base URL

Surface URL
API https://api.meridianblue.ai/v1
Dashboard https://app.meridianblue.ai
Health probe https://api.meridianblue.ai/health
Prometheus metrics https://api.meridianblue.ai/metrics
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