Quickstart
Get your first Meridian API call running in under two minutes.
0
Decide which model to use
Meridian serves the fastest inference across every major provider. Start with one of these low-latency models:
azure-swc/Llama-4-Maverick
Fastest overall · 0.77s
azure-swc/gpt-4.1
OpenAI-compatible · 0.86s
gpt-5-codex
Bare-metal codex · 1.3s
1
Get your API key
Sign up at meridian.sh/sign-up and grab your key from the API Keys dashboard.
Your key will look like
sk-xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx2
Set environment variables
Export these in your shell or add them to your .env file.
MERIDIAN_API_KEY=sk-xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
MERIDIAN_BASE_URL=https://api.meridian.sh/v1
3
Choose your language
Meridian is OpenAI-compatible — use any standard SDK.
4
Install the SDK
pip install openai5
Make your first call
Copy this example, replace the API key, and run it.
from openai import OpenAI
client = OpenAI(
base_url="https://api.meridian.sh/v1",
api_key="sk-xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx",
)
response = client.chat.completions.create(
model="azure-swc/Llama-4-Maverick",
messages=[
{"role": "system", "content": "You are a helpful assistant."},
{"role": "user", "content": "Explain quantum computing in one sentence."},
],
max_tokens=128,
)
print(response.choices[0].message.content)