# curl

The simplest way to talk to the gateway. If something works in `curl`
but not in your SDK, the SDK is the thing to debug.

## A non-streaming completion

```bash
curl https://lowrouter.ai/api/v1/chat/completions \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $LOWROUTER_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "model": "lowrouter/auto",
    "messages": [
      {"role": "user", "content": "In one sentence, what is a vector database?"}
    ]
  }'
```

The response shape is documented in
[chat completions](../api-reference/chat-completions).

## A streaming completion

Use `-N` to disable curl's output buffering, and set `"stream": true`
in the body:

```bash
curl -N https://lowrouter.ai/api/v1/chat/completions \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $LOWROUTER_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "model": "lowrouter/auto",
    "stream": true,
    "messages": [{"role": "user", "content": "Count to 5 slowly"}]
  }'
```

The response is a Server-Sent Events stream; the format is in
[streaming](../api-reference/streaming).

## Listing models

```bash
curl https://lowrouter.ai/api/v1/models \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $LOWROUTER_API_KEY"
```

Returns the routable models with their per-token prices and basic
metadata. Cache the result locally — it does not change between
requests within a single user session.

## Pinning a provider and region

Override `lowrouter/auto` by sending an explicit model string and a
`route` block:

```bash
curl https://lowrouter.ai/api/v1/chat/completions \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $LOWROUTER_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "model": "openai/gpt-4o-mini",
    "messages": [{"role": "user", "content": "Hello"}],
    "route": {"region": "eu-west", "provider": "openai"}
  }'
```

If no provider in the requested region is available the request
returns 503 rather than falling back silently. See
[routing](../models/routing) for the full set of route options.

## Looking up a generation later

Every response carries a `lowrouter.generation_id`. Pass it to:

```bash
curl https://lowrouter.ai/api/v1/generation/$GENERATION_ID \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $LOWROUTER_API_KEY"
```

You get the same record the dashboard shows, including the eco
numbers and the routing trace.