Quickstart: build and call your first Knouds workflow

This guide walks you through creating a Knouds account, building a simple image-generation pipeline on the canvas, and calling it via the REST API. By the end you’ll have a working endpoint you can integrate into any application.

New accounts require admin approval before you can run workflows. After signing up and verifying your email, your account enters a pending state. You’ll receive an email when your account is approved and ready to use.

Go to knouds.ai and create an account. You can sign up with your email address or with Google.After signing up, check your inbox for a verification email and click the confirmation link. Once your email is verified, your account will be reviewed for approval. You’ll get a follow-up email when you’re approved and can start building.

Build your first workflow

Once approved, open the canvas from your dashboard and create a new workflow. Give it a descriptive name — the name becomes part of your API endpoint URL and cannot be changed later.Add three nodes to the canvas:

Request Input node — this defines the inputs your API accepts. Add a text field named prompt.
Image Generator node — this runs the image model. Connect the prompt output from the Request Input node to the prompt input on the Image Generator.
Response Output node — this collects the result and returns it in the API response. Connect the image output from the Image Generator to the Response Output node.

Your canvas should show a left-to-right flow: Request Input → Image Generator → Response Output. Click Run to test the workflow on the canvas before deploying.

Deploy the workflow

Save your workflow using the toolbar. Knouds automatically makes the workflow available at:

POST https://knouds.ai/api/workflows/YOUR-WORKFLOW-SLUG/run

The slug is derived from the name you gave the workflow at creation time. You can find the exact slug in the workflow’s URL when it’s open in the editor.

Generate an API key

Open the Developer Dashboard (or Settings → API Keys, which redirects). Click Create Key, pick the Workflow Deploy preset, and copy the plaintext value — it’s shown only once.Your tier determines what capabilities you can grant on a key:

Free — no external API access (canvas only). Upgrade to Pro to create usable keys.
Pro — workflow:run, workflow:read, workflow:write, workflow:<slug>:run, webhook:receive. 100 req/min.
Business / Enterprise — adds model:run, model:<id>:run, agent:invoke. 1,000 req/min (unlimited on Enterprise).

The Workflow Deploy preset grants workflow:run + workflow:read — exactly what the next step needs.

Call your workflow via the API

Use curl to run your workflow. Replace YOUR-SLUG with your workflow’s slug and YOUR_API_KEY with the key you just copied:

curl -X POST https://knouds.ai/api/workflows/YOUR-SLUG/run \
  -H "x-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"inputs": {"prompt": "a serene mountain landscape"}}'

A successful response looks like this:

{
  "success": true,
  "result": {
    "images": [
      { "url": "https://..." }
    ]
  },
  "cost": 0.003,
  "ms": 4210
}

result contains the model output, including any media URLs
cost is the number of credits deducted from your balance for this run
ms is the total execution time in milliseconds

Next steps

Read the authentication guide to understand capabilities and rate limits in detail.
Explore node types to see what else you can add to your pipelines.
Check the API reference for all available endpoints, request shapes, and error codes.

​Next steps

Next steps