# Carpe Diem

> Carpe Diem is a marketplace for AI inference on Base. Buyers call Venice AI models (text, image, video, speech, music, embeddings, web search) through an OpenAI- and Anthropic-compatible API, usually below Venice list prices, either inside Carpe's TEE (`/v1`) or through a best-price router across several markets (`/router`). Providers sell their unused Venice capacity. Pay with an API key (credits by card or USDC, or a prepaid USDC account), or per request from a wallet with x402 (USDC on Base, no account).

Base URL: `https://carpe-diem.xyz/api/operator`. Two API surfaces, same key, same request bodies:

- `/v1/*` — served by Carpe alone, through its TEE (Intel TDX).
- `/router/*` — best-price router: each request is priced across Carpe and external markets (Surplus, AntSeed, OpenRouter, Chutes, Venice, Engy) and served by the cheapest. External markets are not all TEEs: send `"privacy": true` to stay on TEE markets, `"privacy": "private"` to stay on markets that keep nothing.

Auth: `Authorization: Bearer cdm_…` (create keys at https://carpe-diem.xyz/build?tab=keys). Anthropic-format tools use `https://carpe-diem.xyz/api/operator` as base URL (they append `/v1/messages`). There is no `/v1/responses` endpoint: use Chat Completions. x402: POST to `/v1/x402/…` without payment to get a 402 challenge; sign one EIP-2612 USDC permit (`carpe-session` scheme) and send it as `X-PAYMENT`.

## Docs

- [Guide](https://carpe-diem.xyz/docs): what Carpe is, quick start, concepts (surfaces, privacy, pricing, payment, auth, models)
- [Integrations](https://carpe-diem.xyz/docs/integrations): MCP server for AI assistants, coding agents (Claude Code, OpenCode, Aider, Cline, Continue, Zed, VS Code), SDKs (OpenAI, Anthropic, Vercel AI SDK, LangChain, LlamaIndex, LiteLLM), chat apps, x402
- [API reference](https://carpe-diem.xyz/docs/api): every endpoint, payment rails, x402, best-price router, errors and retries
- [Full documentation in one file](https://carpe-diem.xyz/llms-full.txt)

## Discovery (public, free)

- [Models](https://carpe-diem.xyz/api/operator/v1/models): OpenAI-shaped catalogue; `carpe_diem_type` says which endpoint serves each model; `capabilities` and `constraints` list what it accepts
- [Prices](https://carpe-diem.xyz/api/operator/pricing): USD per 1M tokens, fixed costs per image / call
- [Router markets](https://carpe-diem.xyz/api/operator/router/markets): markets on, routing fee, latency
- [Health](https://carpe-diem.xyz/api/operator/health)
- Quote before spending: `POST https://carpe-diem.xyz/api/operator/router/quote` with `{"model","input_tokens","max_tokens"}` (no auth, no charge)

## Tools for agents

- [carpe-diem-mcp](https://www.npmjs.com/package/carpe-diem-mcp): open-source MCP server (`npx -y carpe-diem-mcp`, env `CARPE_API_KEY`) for Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Cursor, Codex, VS Code, Zed, Gemini CLI… — both surfaces, spend limits checked before every paid call, x402 support. Source: https://github.com/Irdanwen/carpe-diem-mcp

## Optional

- [Privacy](https://carpe-diem.xyz/privacy): TEE attestation and what is kept
- [Terms](https://carpe-diem.xyz/terms)