> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.valarhq.ai/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Introduction

> The inference provider tuned for high-throughput agentic work

Most inference APIs were built for chat: one prompt, one response, optimized for the latency of a single call.

But a growing share of AI work is asynchronous. Agents, batch jobs, labeling, data extraction, document processing, evaluation, and background workflows often run across hundreds or thousands of model calls. For these workloads, the goal is not the fastest first token - it is finishing the full job reliably, efficiently, and at the lowest possible cost.

## How requests work

Valar speaks the [OpenAI Responses API](https://developers.openai.com/api/reference/resources/responses/methods/create) at `/v1/responses`, reachable under the base URL `https://api.valarhq.ai/v1`. Any OpenAI-compatible client works once you repoint its base URL and key.

Because agent work is rarely interactive, the API leans on a `background` mode. Send `background: true` and the request returns a response id straight away instead of blocking; you then retrieve that id until the job reports `completed`. Pair that with [completion windows](/inference-modes#completion-windows) to trade latency for price, and you can keep large batches in flight without holding open a connection per request.

<Note>
  Authenticate with `Authorization: Bearer <key>`. Generate keys from the dashboard at [app.valarhq.ai](https://app.valarhq.ai), and store them in the `OPENAI_API_KEY` environment variable so the SDK and OpenAI clients pick them up automatically.
</Note>

## Choose your execution mode

How soon you need each result decides how you call Valar. [Inference modes](/inference-modes) covers this in depth; in short:

| Mode     | How you call it                                                                            | Latency     | Cost    | Best for                            |
| -------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | ----------- | ------- | ----------------------------------- |
| Realtime | Synchronous request on the **Now** window                                                  | Seconds     | Highest | Interactive chat, prototyping       |
| Async    | `background=True`, then poll or wait on a [webhook](/webhooks), on the **Standard** window | Minutes     | Lower   | Agent loops, background jobs        |
| Batch    | The [Batches API](/requests_at_scale) on the **Standard** window                           | Up to hours | Lowest  | Large datasets, evals, offline jobs |

## Where to go next

<Columns cols={1}>
  <Card title="Quickstart" icon="play" horizontal href="/quickstart">
    Make your first API request with Valar
  </Card>
</Columns>