curl / HTTPie

Basic chat completion

curl https://northerninference.ca/v1/chat/completions \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $NI_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "model": "anthropic/claude-haiku-4.5",
    "messages": [{"role": "user", "content": "hi"}],
    "max_tokens": 20
  }'

Pin a privacy tier

curl https://northerninference.ca/v1/chat/completions \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $NI_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "model": "anthropic/claude-sonnet-4.5",
    "messages": [{"role": "user", "content": "Which jurisdiction am I in?"}],
    "max_tokens": 80,
    "privacy_tier": "managed_canadian_cloud"
  }'

Alternative: use the X-Privacy-Tier header instead of putting the field in the body. Either works. Body field wins if both are given.

Read the custody chain from response headers

curl -sS -D /tmp/headers https://northerninference.ca/v1/chat/completions \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $NI_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"model":"anthropic/claude-haiku-4.5","messages":[{"role":"user","content":"hi"}],"max_tokens":5}' \
  > /dev/null

grep -i '^x-ni-' /tmp/headers

You'll see something like:

x-ni-request-id: 8f2e3b7d9a1c4f08
x-ni-resolved-tier: managed_canadian_cloud
x-ni-resolved-provider: Bedrock
x-ni-resolved-region: ca-central-1
x-ni-resolved-jurisdiction: CA
x-ni-custody-path: NI-CA -> Bedrock-CA
x-ni-credential-source: platform
x-ni-resolved-litellm-model: bedrock/global.anthropic.claude-haiku-4-5-20251015-v1:0

Streaming

curl -sS https://northerninference.ca/v1/chat/completions \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $NI_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "model": "anthropic/claude-haiku-4.5",
    "messages": [{"role": "user", "content": "count to five"}],
    "max_tokens": 30,
    "stream": true,
    "stream_options": {"include_usage": true}
  }'

Full custody pull after the call

curl https://northerninference.ca/api/usage/custody/8f2e3b7d9a1c4f08 \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $NI_API_KEY"

Disable fallbacks

curl https://northerninference.ca/v1/chat/completions \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $NI_API_KEY" \
  -d '{
    "model": "anthropic/claude-sonnet-4.5",
    "messages": [{"role":"user","content":"hi"}],
    "max_tokens": 10,
    "allow_fallbacks": false
  }' \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json"

Enable PII substitution

curl https://northerninference.ca/v1/chat/completions \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $NI_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "model": "anthropic/claude-haiku-4.5",
    "messages": [{"role": "user", "content": "My name is Jane Doe, email jane@example.com"}],
    "max_tokens": 30,
    "pii_substitution": true
  }'

Entities (name, email, phone, SSN, credit card, IP, location) are replaced with deterministic Faker-generated substitutes before leaving NI infrastructure, and the originals are restored in the response before it reaches you. The pii_audit_log table records what was substituted; admins see it under portal → Admin → PII Audit.

Model catalog (unauthenticated)

curl https://northerninference.ca/api/billing/models | jq '.models[].model_id'