# Using the API

## Start an image generation job

1. Generate an API key on [dreamlook.ai/api-keys](https://dreamlook.ai/api-keys). Treat this key like a password: keep it safe, and don't expose it publicly!
2. Export your API key as the environment variable `DREAMLOOK_API_KEY` :

```sh
export DREAMLOOK_API_KEY="dl-YOURKEYHERE"
```

3. Go to <https://dreamlook.ai/image-gen> and configure your generation parameters as described in [Using the website](/generate-images/using-the-website.md)
4. Copy the content of "API request" and paste it into a terminal. Running the command will trigger a new generation job:

<div data-full-width="true"><figure><img src="/files/uS538NhIjJKtilhO9h2m" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure></div>

5. You will get a unique job ID as a response:

```
{
    "job_id":"ig_63d83f95"
}
```

Jobs created from the API are also visible from the website, so you can check <https://dreamlook.ai/jobs/image-gen> to see how your job is progressing.

## Keeping track of your jobs

Check the documentation in [Using the API](/train-models/using-the-api.md) to see how to list your jobs and check their state. Image generation jobs have the job type `image-gen`.

Here's an example of a image generation job response:

```json
{
    "job_type": "image-gen",
    "job_id": "ig_90c7ebd5",
    "state": "success",
    "state_updated": "2023-06-29T16:28:31.317874",
    "state_running_start": "2023-06-29T16:27:39.284893",
    "state_running_end": "2023-06-29T16:28:31.317874",
    "state_queued_start": "2023-06-29T16:25:28.018608",
    "state_queued_end": "2023-06-29T16:27:39.284893",
    "queued_duration": 131.266285,
    "running_duration": 52.032981,
    "queueing_state": "default",
    "config": {
        "prompt": "portrait photo of ukj man, color, Martin Schoeller, serious eyes, perfect eyes, cinematic, 80mm portrait photography, dramatic lighting photography, national geographic, portrait, photo, photography, Stoic, cinematic, 4k, epic, detailed photograph, shot on kodak detailed, bokeh, cinematic, hbo, dark moody, volumetric fog",
        "negative_prompt": "nudity, amputee, bad anatomy, blurry, fuzzy, disfigured, misshaped, mutant, deformed, bad art, out of frame, off center",
        "width": 768,
        "height": 1024,
        "num_samples": 16,
        "checkpoint_id": "ckp_15f9112b",
        "model_type": "sd-v1",
        "base_model": null,
        "num_inference_steps": 20,
        "scheduler_type": "dpm++",
        "enable_hrf": true,
        "denoising_strength": 0.6,
        "seed": -1
    },
    "dreambooth_result": null,
    "image_gen_results": [
        {
            "checkpoint_id": "ckp_15f9112b",
            "config_idx": 0,
            "generated_images": [
                {
                    "generated_image_id": "c7102f3f",
                    "url": "https://storage.googleapis.com/nyxai-standard-usc2/images/generated_images/ig_90c7ebc5/ig_90c7ebc5_c7102f3f.png",
                    "seed": 2811570194,
                    "generation_idx": 0
                },
                {
                    "generated_image_id": "577ab3c6",
                    "url": "https://storage.googleapis.com/nyxai-standard-usc2/images/generated_images/ig_90c7ebc5/ig_90c7ebc5_577ab3c6.png",
                    "seed": 1587936907,
                    "generation_idx": 2
                },
                ...
            ]
        }
    ],
    "percentage_done": 100,
    "failure_reason": null,
    "failure_reason_data": null,
    "thumbnails": [
        "https://storage.googleapis.com/nyxai-public-usc2/images/thumbnails/ig_90c7ebc5/ig_90c7ebc5_c7102f3f_thumbnail.png",
        "https://storage.googleapis.com/nyxai-public-usc2/images/thumbnails/ig_90c7ebc5/ig_90c7ebc5_3ef6b3fc_thumbnail.png",
        "https://storage.googleapis.com/nyxai-public-usc2/images/thumbnails/ig_90c7ebc5/ig_90c7ebc5_732c4f70_thumbnail.png",
        "https://storage.googleapis.com/nyxai-public-usc2/images/thumbnails/ig_90c7ebc5/ig_90c7ebc5_93c5e4d0_thumbnail.png"
    ],
    "tags": []
}
```


---

# Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation

If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question.

Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter:

```
GET https://docs.dreamlook.ai/generate-images/using-the-api.md?ask=<question>
```

The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language.
The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation.

Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.