FAQ — Developers

Account & Access

Q: How do I sign up?

A: Visit the registration page and sign up with GitHub or Google. No email verification needed—you’ll be in your dashboard immediately.

Q: How do I generate an API key?

A: Visit Settings and click “Generate New Key” under Developer API Keys. Copy it immediately—you won’t see it again. Keep it secret!

Q: Can I have multiple API keys?

A: Yes. Generate as many as you need. You might use different keys for development, staging, and production.

Q: What if I lose my API key?

A: Generate a new one. Old keys become invalid immediately. You can also revoke old keys from Settings.

Q: Can I use Swarmient from a CI/CD pipeline?

A: Yes! Use your API key in environment variables. Every language has HTTP libraries—you can submit jobs from GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, Jenkins, etc.

Submitting Jobs

Q: What’s the difference between a task and a job?

A: A task is a single unit of work. A job is a collection of tasks. Jobs can have 1–1000 tasks.

Q: Can I submit a job with 1000 tasks?

A: Yes, but it might take a while. We recommend keeping jobs under 50 tasks.

Q: Do all tasks in a job execute on the same miner?

A: No. Each task can be assigned to a different miner. Use depends_on to enforce sequencing.

Q: Can I cancel a job after submitting it?

A: Yes. Call DELETE /v1/jobs/job_id. You’ll be charged for work completed before cancellation.

Q: What’s the maximum prompt length?

A: 100,000 characters. For larger prompts, consider splitting into multiple tasks.

Q: Can I use real files (not just strings) as job input?

A: Not yet. Include file content in the prompt as a string, or reference publicly accessible URLs.

Q: Can I submit a job from a web browser?

A: Not directly (CORS restrictions). Use a backend service or your dashboard to submit jobs.

Failures & Retries

Q: Why did my job timeout?

A: Your task exceeded the timeout_ms limit. Either increase the timeout or make the prompt simpler.

Q: Why does the miner keep disconnecting?

A: Enable retries: "max_retries": 2. Swarmient will retry on a different miner.

Q: My job says “INSUFFICIENT_RESOURCES”. What does that mean?

A: You requested resources (GPU, memory) that no available miner has. Either relax requirements or wait for more miners to join.

Q: Will I be charged if a job fails?

A: You’re charged for work that was executed. If a task fails before completion, you’re only charged for the time spent. Failed task retries cost extra.

Q: How do I know why a specific task failed?

A: Check the error field in the task response. It includes an error code and message.

Q: Can I resubmit a failed job?

A: Yes, just submit the job again. However, costs apply to the new submission.

API & Integration

Q: What languages does Swarmient support?

A: Any language with HTTP support (Python, JavaScript, Go, Rust, Java, etc.). We provide SDKs for Python and JavaScript.

Q: Can I use Swarmient with my existing CI/CD pipeline?

A: Yes. Submit jobs as part of your pipeline using your API key.

Q: Do you have rate limits?

A: Yes. Up to 100 job submissions/minute per API key. Contact support for higher limits.

Q: What’s the SLA for job execution?

A: We aim for 99.5% uptime. There’s no guaranteed execution time (depends on miner availability and queue depth).

Q: Can I get API webhook callbacks?

A: Not yet. Use streaming (SSE) or polling for now.

Q: Is there a GraphQL API?

A: Not yet. REST API only.

Troubleshooting

Q: I get “INVALID_API_KEY” errors.

A: Make sure your API key is correct. Check that you’re including the Authorization: Bearer header.

Q: My job says “NETWORK_ERROR”.

A: Usually temporary. Enable retries with max_retries: 2 to retry automatically.

Q: Results are truncated. How do I get the full result?

A: Use the full_result_url provided in the response to fetch the complete result.

Q: My job is stuck in PENDING for hours.

A: Usually means no miners have the resources you requested, or the queue is backed up. Try with fewer resource requirements, or contact support.

Q: I see “SANDBOX_ERROR” in the error message.

A: Miners run tasks in a sandboxed environment. Your prompt might be asking for something that’s not allowed (filesystem access, network, etc.). Simplify the prompt.

Q: How do I debug a failing task?