exo/docs/api.md

EXO API – Technical Reference

This document describes the REST API exposed by the EXO service, as implemented in:

src/exo/master/api.py

The API is used to manage model instances in the cluster, inspect cluster state, and perform inference using an OpenAI-compatible interface.

Base URL example:

http://localhost:52415

1. General / Meta Endpoints

Get Master Node ID

GET /node_id

Returns the identifier of the current master node.

Response (example):

{
  "node_id": "node-1234"
}

Get Cluster State

GET /state

Returns the current state of the cluster, including nodes and active instances.

Response: JSON object describing topology, nodes, and instances.

Get Events

GET /events

Returns the list of internal events recorded by the master (mainly for debugging and observability).

Response: Array of event objects.

2. Model Instance Management

Create Instance

POST /instance

Creates a new model instance in the cluster.

Request body (example):

{
  "instance": {
    "model_id": "llama-3.2-1b",
    "placement": { }
  }
}

Response: JSON description of the created instance.

Delete Instance

DELETE /instance/{instance_id}

Deletes an existing instance by ID.

Path parameters:

• instance_id: string, ID of the instance to delete

Response: Status / confirmation JSON.

Get Instance

GET /instance/{instance_id}

Returns details of a specific instance.

Path parameters:

• instance_id: string

Response: JSON description of the instance.

Preview Placements

GET /instance/previews?model_id=...

Returns possible placement previews for a given model.

Query parameters:

• model_id: string, required

Response: Array of placement preview objects.

Compute Placement

GET /instance/placement

Computes a placement for a potential instance without creating it.

Query parameters (typical):

• model_id: string
• sharding: string or config
• instance_meta: JSON-encoded metadata
• min_nodes: integer

Response: JSON object describing the proposed placement / instance configuration.

Place Instance (Dry Operation)

POST /place_instance

Performs a placement operation for an instance (planning step), without necessarily creating it.

Request body: JSON describing the instance to be placed.

Response: Placement result.

3. Models

List Models

GET /models GET /v1/models (alias)

Returns the list of available models and their metadata.

Response: Array of model descriptors.

4. Inference / Chat Completions

OpenAI-Compatible Chat Completions

POST /v1/chat/completions

Executes a chat completion request using an OpenAI-compatible schema. Supports streaming and non-streaming modes.

Request body (example):

{
  "model": "llama-3.2-1b",
  "messages": [
    { "role": "system", "content": "You are a helpful assistant." },
    { "role": "user", "content": "Hello" }
  ],
  "stream": false
}

Response: OpenAI-compatible chat completion response.

Benchmarked Chat Completions

POST /bench/chat/completions

Same as /v1/chat/completions, but also returns performance and generation statistics.

Request body: Same schema as /v1/chat/completions.

Response: Chat completion plus benchmarking metrics.

5. Image Generation & Editing

Image Generation

POST /v1/images/generations

Executes an image generation request using an OpenAI-compatible schema with additional advanced_params.

Request body (example):

{
  "prompt": "a robot playing chess",
  "model": "flux-dev",
  "stream": false,
}

Advanced Parameters (advanced_params):

Parameter	Type	Constraints	Description
seed	int	>= 0	Random seed for reproducible generation
num_inference_steps	int	1-100	Number of denoising steps
guidance	float	1.0-20.0	Classifier-free guidance scale
negative_prompt	string	-	Text describing what to avoid in the image

Response: OpenAI-compatible image generation response.

Benchmarked Image Generation

POST /bench/images/generations

Same as /v1/images/generations, but also returns generation statistics.

Request body: Same schema as /v1/images/generations.

Response: Image generation plus benchmarking metrics.

Image Editing

POST /v1/images/edits

Executes an image editing request using an OpenAI-compatible schema with additional advanced_params (same as /v1/images/generations).

Response: Same format as /v1/images/generations.

Benchmarked Image Editing

POST /bench/images/edits

Same as /v1/images/edits, but also returns generation statistics.

Request: Same schema as /v1/images/edits.

Response: Same format as /bench/images/generations, including generation_stats.

6. Complete Endpoint Summary

GET     /node_id
GET     /state
GET     /events

POST    /instance
GET     /instance/{instance_id}
DELETE  /instance/{instance_id}

GET     /instance/previews
GET     /instance/placement
POST    /place_instance

GET     /models
GET     /v1/models

POST    /v1/chat/completions
POST    /bench/chat/completions

POST    /v1/images/generations
POST    /bench/images/generations
POST    /v1/images/edits
POST    /bench/images/edits

7. Notes

• The /v1/chat/completions endpoint is compatible with the OpenAI Chat API format, so existing OpenAI clients can be pointed to EXO by changing the base URL.
• The /v1/images/generations and /v1/images/edits endpoints are compatible with the OpenAI Images API format.
• The instance placement endpoints allow you to plan and preview cluster allocations before actually creating instances.
• The /events and /state endpoints are primarily intended for operational visibility and debugging.