Python Requests

Reviewed by Proof · Updated

Definition

The Python requests library can call luv13's OpenAI-compatible API directly with plain HTTP, without an SDK.

Key takeaways

  • requests is a popular Python HTTP library. Install it with pip install requests.
  • A chat call is one POST to https://api.luv13.ai/v1/chat/completions with a JSON body.
  • Send your key in an Authorization: Bearer header, read from an environment variable.
  • Always set a timeout. By default requests waits forever.
  • Call raise_for_status() or check status_code before reading the reply.

When to use it

The OpenAI SDKs handle retries and parsing for you. Plain requests is handy when you want no extra dependencies, want to see exactly what's sent, or are debugging.

Example

import os
import requests

resp = requests.post(
    "https://api.luv13.ai/v1/chat/completions",
    headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {os.environ['LUV13_API_KEY']}"},
    json={
        "model": "luv13/glm-5.3-flash",
        "messages": [{"role": "user", "content": "Give me one tip for clean code."}],
    },
    timeout=60,
)
resp.raise_for_status()
data = resp.json()
print(data["choices"][0]["message"]["content"])
print(data["usage"])

Passing a dict to json= encodes the body and sets Content-Type: application/json for you.

Handling errors

  • A 401 means the key is missing or wrong.
  • A 429 means you're sending too fast. Wait and retry. See Retrying Requests.
  • A 5xx means a server-side problem. Retrying later often works.

For luv13's own error codes, see Errors and Status Codes. To read a streamed reply with requests, see Server-Sent Events.

For a short luv13-only version of this example, see Python Example.