Quickstart - Layer

This walks you through the typical generation flow end-to-end: authenticate, pick a model, estimate cost, generate, and retrieve results.

1. Get your API token

Log in to app.layer.ai
Go to Settings > Personal Access Tokens
Click Create Token, name it, and copy the value

Export it for the examples below:

export LAYER_TOKEN="your-pat-token"
export WORKSPACE_ID="your-workspace-id"

2. Pick a model

List models and choose one that fits your use case:

curl https://api.app.layer.ai/api/v1/workspaces/$WORKSPACE_ID/models \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $LAYER_TOKEN"

Note the id of the model you want to use.

3. Estimate cost

Check how many Creative Units the generation will consume:

curl -X POST https://api.app.layer.ai/api/v1/workspaces/$WORKSPACE_ID/inferences/estimate \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $LAYER_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "model_id": "MODEL_ID",
    "parameters": {
      "prompt": "A medieval castle on a hilltop at sunset, game concept art",
      "width": 1024,
      "height": 1024
    }
  }'

4. Generate

curl -X POST https://api.app.layer.ai/api/v1/workspaces/$WORKSPACE_ID/inferences \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $LAYER_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "model_id": "MODEL_ID",
    "parameters": {
      "prompt": "A medieval castle on a hilltop at sunset, game concept art",
      "width": 1024,
      "height": 1024
    }
  }'

This returns immediately with an inference_id and status: "IN_PROGRESS".

5. Poll for results

curl https://api.app.layer.ai/api/v1/workspaces/$WORKSPACE_ID/inferences/INFERENCE_ID \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $LAYER_TOKEN"

When status is COMPLETED, the response includes URLs to your generated assets.

Next steps

Browse the API reference for full endpoint details and parameter documentation
Upload reference images to guide generation with your own art style
Use workflows to run multi-step pipelines

​1. Get your API token

​2. Pick a model

​3. Estimate cost

​4. Generate

​5. Poll for results

​Next steps