Quickstart

Get your first Qoder Cloud Agent running in five steps: obtain a token, pick an environment, create an Agent, create a Session, and exchange messages. The whole flow uses only curl — no SDK required.

Prerequisites

A Qoder account
A terminal (macOS, Linux, or WSL)
curl, plus jq (optional, for formatting JSON)

Windows users

The commands in this guide use bash syntax. Windows users should use one of the following:

Git Bash (recommended): included with Git for Windows
WSL: install via wsl --install

If using PowerShell, note these differences:

Set environment variables: $env:QODER_PAT="your-token" (not export)
Use real curl: type curl.exe (PowerShell aliases curl to Invoke-WebRequest)
Install jq separately: winget install jqlang.jq

Step 1: Obtain a PAT

Sign in to the Qoder console.
Open “Settings → Personal Access Tokens”.
Click “Create Token”, set a name and expiration.
Copy the token and export it as an environment variable:

export QODER_PAT="your-personal-access-token"

The token is shown only once at creation. Save it immediately — adding it to ~/.bashrc or ~/.zshrc is recommended.

Step 2: Pick an Environment

List the available environments and capture the ID:

curl -s https://api.qoder.com/api/v1/cloud/environments \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $QODER_PAT"

Example response:

{
  "data": [
    {
      "id": "env_019e44eb66bb748cabcd1489f6fa4428",
      "type": "environment",
      "name": "default",
      "description": "",
      "config": {
        "type": "cloud",
        "networking": {
          "type": "unrestricted",
          "allowed_hosts": [],
          "allow_package_managers": false,
          "allow_mcp_servers": false
        },
        "packages": {
          "type": "packages",
          "apt": [],
          "npm": [],
          "pip": []
        }
      },
      "metadata": {},
      "archived_at": null,
      "created_at": "2026-01-01T00:00:00Z",
      "updated_at": "2026-01-01T00:00:00Z"
    }
  ],
  "first_id": "env_019e44eb66bb748cabcd1489f6fa4428",
  "last_id": "env_019e44eb66bb748cabcd1489f6fa4428",
  "has_more": false,
  "next_page": null
}

If the response returns "data": [] (empty array), your account has no environments yet. Create one first:

curl -s -X POST https://api.qoder.com/api/v1/cloud/environments \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $QODER_PAT" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"name":"default","config":{"type":"cloud","networking":{"type":"unrestricted"}}}'

# Extract the environment ID (use jq to avoid error-prone manual copying of long IDs)
ENV_ID=$(curl -s https://api.qoder.com/api/v1/cloud/environments \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $QODER_PAT" | jq -r '.data[0].id')

echo "Environment ID: $ENV_ID"

Step 3: Create an Agent

Define a general-purpose Agent with a shell tool:

AGENT_RESPONSE=$(curl -s -X POST https://api.qoder.com/api/v1/cloud/agents \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $QODER_PAT" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "name": "my-first-agent",
    "model": "ultimate",
    "system": "You are an efficient programming assistant skilled at writing code and troubleshooting issues.",
    "tools": [
      {"type": "agent_toolset_20260401", "enabled_tools": ["Bash", "Read", "Write", "Edit", "Glob", "Grep", "WebFetch", "WebSearch"]}
    ]
  }')
echo "$AGENT_RESPONSE" | jq .
AGENT_ID=$(echo "$AGENT_RESPONSE" | jq -r '.id')
echo "Agent ID: $AGENT_ID"

Example response:

{
  "id": "agent_019e451902fe7a2ca42c2dfc62d9320e",
  "type": "agent",
  "name": "my-first-agent",
  "description": "",
  "model": "ultimate",
  "system": "You are an efficient programming assistant skilled at writing code and troubleshooting issues.",
  "tools": [{"type": "agent_toolset_20260401", "enabled_tools": ["Bash", "Read", "Write", "Edit", "Glob", "Grep", "WebFetch", "WebSearch"]}],
  "mcp_servers": [],
  "skills": [],
  "metadata": {},
  "multiagent": null,
  "version": 1,
  "archived_at": null,
  "created_at": "2026-05-18T10:00:00Z",
  "updated_at": "2026-05-18T10:00:00Z"
}

Step 4: Create a Session

Creating a Session requires two parameters: agent (Agent ID or object) and environment_id (Environment ID). Bind the Agent to the Environment to create a runtime instance:

SESSION_RESPONSE=$(curl -s -X POST https://api.qoder.com/api/v1/cloud/sessions \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $QODER_PAT" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d "{
    \"agent\": \"$AGENT_ID\",
    \"environment_id\": \"$ENV_ID\"
  }")
echo "$SESSION_RESPONSE" | jq .
SESSION_ID=$(echo "$SESSION_RESPONSE" | jq -r '.id')
echo "Session ID: $SESSION_ID"

Example response:

{
  "id": "sess_019e451b146470cda02c560bf019fb37",
  "type": "session",
  "agent": {
    "id": "agent_019e451902fe7a2ca42c2dfc62d9320e",
    "type": "agent",
    "name": "my-first-agent",
    "model": {"id": "ultimate", "effective_context_window": 200000},
    "version": 1
  },
  "environment_id": "env_019e44eb66bb748cabcd1489f6fa4428",
  "status": "idle",
  "title": null,
  "metadata": {},
  "resources": [],
  "vault_ids": [],
  "deployment_id": null,
  "outcome_evaluations": [],
  "stats": {"active_seconds": 0, "duration_seconds": 0},
  "environment_variables": {},
  "archived_at": null,
  "created_at": "2026-05-18T10:01:00Z",
  "updated_at": "2026-05-18T10:01:00Z"
}

The Session starts in idle status. It will only begin processing once you send a message in the next step.

Step 5: Send a Message and Stream Events

Send a user message to the Session, then receive Agent responses live over SSE:

# Send a message (note: the request body wraps events in an array)
curl -s -X POST "https://api.qoder.com/api/v1/cloud/sessions/$SESSION_ID/events" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $QODER_PAT" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "events": [
      {
        "type": "user.message",
        "content": [{"type": "text", "text": "Write a Python function that computes the Fibonacci sequence and run a test."}]
      }
    ]
  }' | jq .

# Stream events over SSE
curl -s -N "https://api.qoder.com/api/v1/cloud/sessions/$SESSION_ID/events/stream" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $QODER_PAT"

Example event stream output:

id: evt_019ef515680d7a0ebd3160ca45ec5484
event: user.message
data: {"content":[{"text":"Write a Python function that computes the Fibonacci sequence and run a test.","type":"text"}],"id":"evt_019ef515680d7a0ebd3160ca45ec5484","processed_at":"2026-06-23T15:24:41.357659669Z","type":"user.message"}

id: evt_019ef515681a7c52a0b45aa87625f121
event: session.status_running
data: {"id":"evt_019ef515681a7c52a0b45aa87625f121","processed_at":"2026-06-23T15:24:41.357659669Z","type":"session.status_running"}

event: heartbeat
data: {}

id: evt_49dce735a4ab4fc4
event: agent.thinking
data: {"id":"evt_49dce735a4ab4fc4","processed_at":"2026-06-23T15:24:49.357659Z","type":"agent.thinking"}

id: evt_02f80c5a8c245e04
event: agent.message
data: {"content":[{"text":"I'll create a Python module with the Fibonacci function and comprehensive tests.","type":"text"}],"id":"evt_02f80c5a8c245e04","processed_at":"2026-06-23T15:24:49.357659Z","type":"agent.message"}

id: evt_50739b167fb7c6d3
event: agent.tool_use
data: {"evaluated_permission":"allow","id":"evt_50739b167fb7c6d3","input":{"content":"def fibonacci(n): ...","file_path":"/data/fibonacci.py"},"name":"Write","processed_at":"2026-06-23T15:24:49.357659Z","type":"agent.tool_use"}

id: evt_e7c375f3605ff156
event: agent.tool_result
data: {"content":[{"text":"Write file /data/fibonacci.py successfully","type":"text"}],"id":"evt_e7c375f3605ff156","is_error":false,"processed_at":"2026-06-23T15:25:01.853844Z","type":"agent.tool_result"}

id: evt_60eba1483797a419
event: session.status_idle
data: {"id":"evt_60eba1483797a419","processed_at":"2026-06-23T15:25:24.436729Z","stop_reason":{"type":"end_turn"},"type":"session.status_idle"}

Every event (except heartbeat) includes an id: line and the JSON payload contains id, type, and processed_at fields.
heartbeat events are sent approximately every 15 seconds to keep the connection alive.
The content field in agent.message uses the [{"type":"text","text":"..."}] array format.
session.status_running / session.status_idle carry no extra fields beyond id, type, processed_at, and (for idle) stop_reason.
agent.thinking signals that the model is reasoning but contains no content or text field.

End-to-End Script

The whole flow combined into a single runnable script:

#!/bin/bash
# Qoder Cloud Agents quickstart script
# Usage: export QODER_PAT="your-token" && bash quickstart.sh

set -euo pipefail

BASE_URL="https://api.qoder.com/api/v1/cloud"
HEADERS=(
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $QODER_PAT"
)

echo "=== Step 1: Fetch environment ==="
ENV_ID=$(curl -s "$BASE_URL/environments" "${HEADERS[@]}" | jq -r '.data[0].id')
if [ "$ENV_ID" = "null" ] || [ -z "$ENV_ID" ]; then
  echo "No environment found. Creating a default one..."
  ENV_ID=$(curl -s -X POST "$BASE_URL/environments" \
    "${HEADERS[@]}" \
    -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
    -d '{"name":"default","config":{"type":"cloud","networking":{"type":"unrestricted"}}}' | jq -r '.id')
fi
echo "Environment ID: $ENV_ID"

echo "=== Step 2: Get or create the Agent ==="
AGENT_ID=$(curl -s "$BASE_URL/agents" "${HEADERS[@]}" | jq -r '.data[0].id')
if [ "$AGENT_ID" = "null" ] || [ -z "$AGENT_ID" ]; then
  AGENT_ID=$(curl -s -X POST "$BASE_URL/agents" \
    "${HEADERS[@]}" \
    -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
    -d '{
      "name": "quickstart-agent",
      "model": "ultimate",
      "system": "You are an efficient programming assistant.",
      "tools": [{"type": "agent_toolset_20260401", "enabled_tools": ["Bash", "Read", "Write", "Edit", "Glob", "Grep", "WebFetch", "WebSearch"]}]
    }' | jq -r '.id')
fi
echo "Agent ID: $AGENT_ID"

echo "=== Step 3: Create the Session ==="
SESSION_ID=$(curl -s -X POST "$BASE_URL/sessions" \
  "${HEADERS[@]}" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d "{\"agent\": \"$AGENT_ID\", \"environment_id\": \"$ENV_ID\"}" | jq -r '.id')
echo "Session ID: $SESSION_ID"

echo "=== Step 4: Send a message ==="
curl -s -X POST "$BASE_URL/sessions/$SESSION_ID/events" \
  "${HEADERS[@]}" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "events": [
      {"type": "user.message", "content": [{"type": "text", "text": "Print Hello World and tell me the current system time."}]}
    ]
  }' | jq .

echo "=== Step 5: Stream events ==="
echo "(Press Ctrl+C to exit)"
curl -s -N "$BASE_URL/sessions/$SESSION_ID/events/stream" "${HEADERS[@]}"

FAQ

Q: I’m getting 401 Unauthorized. A: Check that $QODER_PAT is set correctly and the token has not expired. Recreate the token and update the environment variable. Q: Creating an Agent returns 400 Bad Request. A: Verify the request JSON. The model field must be a valid value (such as "ultimate"), and tools must be an array. Q: The Session stays in idle and emits no events. A: A newly created Session starts in idle status. You must send a user.message event (Step 5) to trigger Agent execution. Q: My SSE stream disconnected. A: The stream endpoint supports the Last-Event-ID header for reconnection replay. Pass the last event id you received; the stream resumes from the event after that ID. Event-type query filters are not currently supported. Q: GET /api/v1/cloud/environments returns an empty array. A: New accounts may not have a pre-provisioned environment. Follow the tip in Step 2 to create one manually.

Next steps

Agent setup

Every field in the Agent configuration.

Cloud environment setup

Customize the runtime environment.

Start a session

Manage Session lifecycle in depth.

Agent Skills

Attach domain expertise to your Agent for better task performance.

First steps

Define your agent

Configure agent environment

Delegate work to your agent

Manage agent context

Best Practices

API reference

Prerequisites

Step 1: Obtain a PAT

Step 2: Pick an Environment

Step 3: Create an Agent

Step 4: Create a Session

Step 5: Send a Message and Stream Events

End-to-End Script

FAQ

Next steps

Agent setup

Cloud environment setup

Start a session

Agent Skills

​Prerequisites

​Step 1: Obtain a PAT

​Step 2: Pick an Environment

​Step 3: Create an Agent

​Step 4: Create a Session

​Step 5: Send a Message and Stream Events

​End-to-End Script

​FAQ

​Next steps

Agent setup

Cloud environment setup

Start a session

Agent Skills

Prerequisites

Step 1: Obtain a PAT

Step 2: Pick an Environment

Step 3: Create an Agent

Step 4: Create a Session

Step 5: Send a Message and Stream Events

End-to-End Script

FAQ

Next steps