Question 1

What is Knot?

Accepted Answer

Knot is an OpenAI-compatible API gateway. It puts one API key in front of a pool of model capacity, routes each request to a healthy slot, retries past rate limits, and meters the tokens every request spends.

Question 2

Does my existing code work with it?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Knot implements the OpenAI API, so any OpenAI SDK works by pointing its base URL at the gateway and using a Knot key. Streaming, tool calling and vision all pass through unchanged.

Question 3

How does it handle rate limits?

Accepted Answer

Each public model is backed by an ordered pool of capacity. When one slot returns 429 or 5xx, the gateway transparently retries the next one. Because failover happens before the first byte reaches the client, streamed requests get it too.

Question 4

How is usage billed?

Accepted Answer

Per token, priced separately for input, output and cached input. Every request writes its own usage row and an immutable ledger entry, so spend can be traced request by request. Balances are stored as integer micro-dollars, so every figure stays exact to the millionth of a dollar.

Question 5

Which endpoints does it support?

Accepted Answer

POST /v1/chat/completions with streaming, plus GET /v1/models and GET /v1/credits.

Question 6

How do I get access?

Accepted Answer

Anyone can sign up, by email, Google or GitHub. Every new account is credited $5 once its email address is confirmed, which is enough to make real requests straight away. An invite code adds whatever it carries on top, and a card top-up adds more at any time.

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