FAQ
Frequently asked questions about Tangle Router.
Search guides and API reference.
What is Tangle Router?
Tangle Router provides an OpenAI-compatible API for direct providers, caller-owned provider credentials (BYOK), and independent operators. Discover current model IDs and capabilities in /v1/models.
How is it different from OpenAI or Anthropic directly?
Router lets you choose eligible providers and operators through one API. Funding, BYOK credentials, requested capabilities and compliance constraints determine which lanes can serve a request. Provider availability and pricing are shown in the live catalog.
Is it OpenAI SDK compatible?
Yes. You can use the standard OpenAI Python/TypeScript SDK by just changing the base URL to router.tangle.tools/v1 and using your Tangle API key.
What are operators?
Operators are independent infrastructure providers who deploy Tangle Blueprints to serve model inference. They stake collateral, set their own pricing, and earn rewards for providing reliable compute.
How does pricing work?
Read current pricing from /v1/models and /pricing. Platform owns accounts, prepaid balances, subscriptions and team budgets. Router-funded requests require paid access and metered funds; eligible BYOK requests use your provider credential. Response price and usage metadata report the charge for the served request.
What are Shielded Credits?
Shielded Credits enable anonymous payments on the network. Your usage cannot be linked to your identity on-chain, providing privacy for sensitive workloads.
Can I run my own operator?
Yes! Check out the Become an Operator page and the Operator Guide in the docs. You can deploy a Blueprint using vLLM, Modal, or build a custom one.
Why was my payment refused?
Check the credential, account funding and key spending cap in Platform. The setup guide explains payment-required and invalid-key responses.