Using the REST API

The Roboflow REST API is the authoritative interface to the platform — every feature ships here first, and the Python SDK and CLI both call it under the hood. Use the REST API directly when you're building a non-Python integration, calling from a webhook or browser, or working in an environment that can't install Python packages.

There are two base hosts to know about:

Host	Used for
https://api.roboflow.com	Management — workspaces, projects, versions, training, workflows, datasets, vision events, trash.
https://serverless.roboflow.com	Hosted inference — running a trained model or workflow against an image or video. See Run a Model on an Image.

Dedicated Deployments are managed at a third host (https://roboflow.cloud).

Resource hierarchy

The Roboflow data model is hierarchical and the API URLs follow the hierarchy:

• /:workspace — list projects in a workspace, plus workspace metadata.

• /:workspace/:project — a project's metadata and version list.

• /:workspace/:project/:version — a specific dataset version, its model (if trained), and download URLs.

• /:workspace/:project/:version/:format — download a dataset in a specific export format.

• /:workspace/workflows/:workflow — see Manage Workflows.

• /:workspace/groups — project folders. See Manage Project Folders.

• /:workspace/trash — soft-deleted projects, versions, and workflows. See Manage Trash.

Root endpoint

At the top level (https://api.roboflow.com/), you can verify your api_key is working. The response identifies the workspace your key belongs to:

curl "https://api.roboflow.com/?api_key=$ROBOFLOW_API_KEY"

{
  "welcome": "Welcome to the Roboflow API.",
  "instructions": "You are successfully authenticated.",
  "docs": "https://docs.roboflow.com",
  "workspace": "my-workspace"
}

From there, drill into List Workspaces and Projects to see what's in the workspace.

Authentication and scopes

API keys are workspace-scoped. Pass the key as a query parameter (?api_key=...), in the request body for POST calls, or as a Authorization: Bearer ... header. See Authenticate with the REST API for details and Scoped API Keys for the per-resource scope reference.

Errors

The API uses standard HTTP status codes and a JSON error body. See Errors and Status Codes for the cross-tool error reference.