fal Realtime API

asyncapi: '2.6.0'
id: 'urn:com:fal:event-apis'
info:
  title: fal Event-Driven APIs
  version: '1.0.0'
  description: >
    AsyncAPI description of fal's event-driven inference surfaces. fal exposes
    two real-time channels in addition to its REST queue: (1) a Server-Sent
    Events stream that pushes incremental status updates for any queued model
    request, and (2) a bi-directional WebSocket channel used by the Realtime
    Inference API for ultra-low-latency interactive models such as
    `fast-lcm-diffusion`, `fast-turbo-diffusion`, and `fast-sdxl`. The
    WebSocket channel is the same surface driven by the official
    fal-js / fal-client SDK `realtime` helpers.
  contact:
    name: fal Support
    url: https://fal.ai/docs
  license:
    name: Proprietary
    url: https://fal.ai/legal/terms-of-service
  x-apis-json:
    humanURL: https://fal.ai/docs/model-apis/real-time
    baseURL: wss://fal.run
defaultContentType: application/json
servers:
  queue-sse:
    url: queue.fal.run
    protocol: https
    description: >
      Queue status streaming server. Emits Server-Sent Events for any submitted
      queue request until the request reaches the `COMPLETED` status.
  realtime-ws:
    url: fal.run
    protocol: wss
    description: >
      Realtime WebSocket inference server. Authenticated either via a
      server-side proxy URL that injects the `Authorization: Key $FAL_KEY`
      header, or via a short-lived JWT token passed as the
      `fal_jwt_token` query parameter.
channels:
  '{model_id}/requests/{request_id}/status/stream':
    description: >
      Server-Sent Events stream of queue status updates for a single submitted
      request. The connection remains open and emits one event per state
      change until the request reaches `COMPLETED`. Enable runner logs by
      adding `?logs=1` to the query string.
    servers:
      - queue-sse
    parameters:
      model_id:
        description: >
          Fully-qualified fal model identifier (e.g. `fal-ai/flux/dev`,
          `fal-ai/fast-sdxl`, `fal-ai/veo3`).
        schema:
          type: string
      request_id:
        description: Queue request identifier returned by the original submit call.
        schema:
          type: string
          format: uuid
    bindings:
      http:
        type: response
        method: GET
        headers:
          type: object
          properties:
            Accept:
              const: text/event-stream
    subscribe:
      operationId: subscribeQueueStatusStream
      summary: Subscribe to queue status events for a submitted request.
      message:
        oneOf:
          - $ref: '#/components/messages/QueueStatusInQueue'
          - $ref: '#/components/messages/QueueStatusInProgress'
          - $ref: '#/components/messages/QueueStatusCompleted'

  '{app_id}/realtime':
    description: >
      Bi-directional WebSocket channel for realtime inference. Clients send
      one input message per generation step and receive zero or more partial
      or final output frames per step. The default path is `/realtime`; some
      apps expose custom paths configurable through the SDK `path` option.
      Messages are serialized as JSON by default and MAY be serialized as
      MessagePack (msgpack) when using the official SDKs, which is more
      efficient for binary image payloads.
    servers:
      - realtime-ws
    parameters:
      app_id:
        description: >
          Realtime-capable fal app id, e.g. `fal-ai/fast-lcm-diffusion`,
          `fal-ai/fast-turbo-diffusion`, or `fal-ai/fast-sdxl`.
        schema:
          type: string
    bindings:
      ws:
        bindingVersion: '0.1.0'
        query:
          type: object
          properties:
            fal_jwt_token:
              type: string
              description: >
                Short-lived JWT minted by your backend via the fal token
                endpoint. Required when not connecting through a proxy URL.
            max_buffering:
              type: integer
              description: >
                Optional maximum number of input frames the server may buffer
                before back-pressuring.
    publish:
      operationId: sendRealtimeInput
      summary: Send an inference input frame.
      description: >
        Each message represents a single inference invocation against the
        connected app. Field names follow the OpenAPI schema of the chosen
        model (e.g. `prompt`, `image_url`, `seed`, `num_inference_steps`,
        `strength`, `sync_mode`).
      message:
        $ref: '#/components/messages/RealtimeInput'
    subscribe:
      operationId: receiveRealtimeOutput
      summary: Receive inference outputs and connection control messages.
      message:
        oneOf:
          - $ref: '#/components/messages/RealtimeResult'
          - $ref: '#/components/messages/RealtimeError'
          - $ref: '#/components/messages/RealtimeUnauthorized'
components:
  messages:
    QueueStatusInQueue:
      name: QueueStatusInQueue
      title: Queue Status — IN_QUEUE
      summary: >
        Request has been received and persisted; waiting for an available
        runner.
      contentType: application/json
      payload:
        $ref: '#/components/schemas/QueueStatusInQueue'

    QueueStatusInProgress:
      name: QueueStatusInProgress
      title: Queue Status — IN_PROGRESS
      summary: fal's dispatcher has routed the request to a runner.
      contentType: application/json
      payload:
        $ref: '#/components/schemas/QueueStatusInProgress'

    QueueStatusCompleted:
      name: QueueStatusCompleted
      title: Queue Status — COMPLETED
      summary: >
        Result is stored and available for retrieval at `response_url` (or
        was POSTed to the configured webhook). This is the terminal event of
        the stream.
      contentType: application/json
      payload:
        $ref: '#/components/schemas/QueueStatusCompleted'

    RealtimeInput:
      name: RealtimeInput
      title: Realtime Inference Input
      summary: >
        Inference input frame. The accepted fields are defined by the
        OpenAPI schema of the target model — see the model's playground page
        on https://fal.ai/models for the canonical schema.
      contentType: application/json
      payload:
        $ref: '#/components/schemas/RealtimeInput'

    RealtimeResult:
      name: RealtimeResult
      title: Realtime Inference Result
      summary: >
        Inference output frame. Fields are model-specific; image-generation
        apps return an `images` array. The `request_id` echoes the inference
        invocation it corresponds to.
      contentType: application/json
      payload:
        $ref: '#/components/schemas/RealtimeResult'

    RealtimeError:
      name: RealtimeError
      title: Realtime Error (x-fal-error)
      summary: Inference or framework-level error returned by the realtime runner.
      contentType: application/json
      payload:
        $ref: '#/components/schemas/RealtimeError'

    RealtimeUnauthorized:
      name: RealtimeUnauthorized
      title: Realtime Unauthorized
      summary: >
        Sent when the supplied credentials (proxy headers or JWT) cannot be
        verified. The connection is closed by the server after this frame.
      contentType: application/json
      payload:
        $ref: '#/components/schemas/RealtimeUnauthorized'

  schemas:
    QueueStatusInQueue:
      type: object
      required: [status, request_id]
      properties:
        status:
          type: string
          const: IN_QUEUE
        request_id:
          type: string
          format: uuid
          description: Unique request identifier.
        queue_position:
          type: integer
          minimum: 0
          description: Number of requests ahead of this one in the queue.
        response_url:
          type: string
          format: uri
          description: URL where the final result will be retrievable.

    QueueStatusInProgress:
      type: object
      required: [status, request_id]
      properties:
        status:
          type: string
          const: IN_PROGRESS
        request_id:
          type: string
          format: uuid
        response_url:
          type: string
          format: uri
        logs:
          type: array
          description: >
            Runner log lines. Only populated when the stream URL is opened
            with the `?logs=1` query parameter.
          items:
            $ref: '#/components/schemas/QueueLogEntry'

    QueueStatusCompleted:
      type: object
      required: [status, request_id]
      properties:
        status:
          type: string
          const: COMPLETED
        request_id:
          type: string
          format: uuid
        response_url:
          type: string
          format: uri
        logs:
          type: array
          items:
            $ref: '#/components/schemas/QueueLogEntry'
        metrics:
          type: object
          properties:
            inference_time:
              type: number
              description: Processing duration in seconds.

    QueueLogEntry:
      type: object
      properties:
        message:
          type: string
        level:
          type: string
          description: Log level emitted by the runner (e.g. `INFO`, `ERROR`).
        timestamp:
          type: string
          format: date-time

    RealtimeInput:
      type: object
      description: >
        Free-form, model-specific input frame. The exemplar properties below
        are the most common across realtime image-generation apps; consult
        the model OpenAPI schema for the complete and authoritative list.
      additionalProperties: true
      properties:
        prompt:
          type: string
        negative_prompt:
          type: string
        image_url:
          type: string
          description: >
            Reference image URL, or `data:` URI carrying a base64-encoded
            image when `sync_mode` is `true`.
        seed:
          type: integer
        num_inference_steps:
          type: integer
        strength:
          type: number
        sync_mode:
          type: boolean
          description: >
            When `true`, responses are returned as base64-encoded payloads
            on the same WebSocket frame rather than via CDN URLs.

    RealtimeResult:
      type: object
      description: >
        Model-specific output frame. Fields shown reflect the
        image-generation realtime apps (fast-lcm-diffusion,
        fast-turbo-diffusion, fast-sdxl). Other modalities return their own
        modality-specific fields.
      additionalProperties: true
      properties:
        request_id:
          type: string
          description: >
            Echoes the inference invocation this output corresponds to.
        images:
          type: array
          items:
            type: object
            properties:
              url:
                type: string
                description: >
                  CDN URL of the generated image, or a `data:` URI when
                  `sync_mode: true` was supplied.
              width:
                type: integer
              height:
                type: integer
              content_type:
                type: string
        timings:
          type: object
          additionalProperties:
            type: number
        seed:
          type: integer
        has_nsfw_concepts:
          type: array
          items:
            type: boolean

    RealtimeError:
      type: object
      required: [type]
      properties:
        type:
          type: string
          const: x-fal-error
        error:
          type: string
          description: Short error code or label.
        reason:
          type: string
          description: Human-readable reason describing the failure.

    RealtimeUnauthorized:
      type: object
      required: [status, error]
      properties:
        status:
          type: string
          const: error
        error:
          type: string
          const: Unauthorized

  securitySchemes:
    falKey:
      type: httpApiKey
      in: header
      name: Authorization
      description: >
        `Authorization: Key $FAL_KEY` header. Used on the SSE queue stream
        and on the realtime WebSocket when the connection is routed through
        a server-side proxy.
    falJwt:
      type: userPassword
      description: >
        Short-lived JWT supplied as the `fal_jwt_token` query parameter on
        the realtime WebSocket URL. Mint via your backend's fal token
        endpoint.