ELM — Edinburgh Language Models API

openapi: 3.0.3
info:
  title: ELM — Edinburgh Language Models API
  description: >-
    ELM is the University of Edinburgh's own generative-AI access platform, described
    by its own metadata as "an online platform that delivers generative AI to UK
    tertiary education." It exposes an OpenAI-compatible HTTP API at
    https://elm.edina.ac.uk/api/v1 secured with a bearer token.

    This document was reconstructed by PROBING the live service on 2026-08-19. Only
    what was actually observed is described. Anonymous calls to /api/v1/models and
    /api/v1/chat/completions both returned HTTP 401 with an OpenAI-shaped error
    envelope, which is what establishes both the route and the auth scheme. The
    request and response bodies of the authenticated paths are NOT described here,
    because they were not observed — the platform publishes no OpenAPI document
    (/openapi.json and /docs both return the Angular SPA shell, a soft-200).

    Operator note: this is one of the few genuinely institution-ENGINEERED API
    surfaces in the University of Edinburgh's public footprint. edina.ac.uk is
    registered to the EDINA National Data Centre with Domain Owner "University of
    Edinburgh", and EDINA is a University of Edinburgh centre. Edinburgh is acting as
    a producer here, not a buyer.
  version: "1"
  contact:
    name: EDINA, University of Edinburgh
    url: https://information-services.ed.ac.uk/computing/comms-and-collab/elm
  x-operator: institution
  x-operator-evidence: "edina.ac.uk Domain Owner: University of Edinburgh (Nominet whois); Registered For: EDINA National Data Centre"
  x-access: gated
  x-provenance:
    method: probed
    generated: '2026-08-19'
    source: https://elm.edina.ac.uk/api/v1/models
servers:
- url: https://elm.edina.ac.uk/api/v1
  description: ELM OpenAI-compatible API (probed — 401 without a bearer token)
- url: https://elm.edina.ac.uk
  description: ELM platform root, for the unauthenticated health check
tags:
- name: ELM
  description: Edinburgh Language Models generative-AI gateway
paths:
  /models:
    get:
      tags: [ELM]
      operationId: listModels
      summary: List the models available to the caller
      description: >-
        OpenAI-compatible model listing. Observed 401 without a bearer token; the
        authenticated response body was not observed and is deliberately not described.
      security:
      - bearerAuth: []
      responses:
        '200':
          description: >-
            Model list. NOT OBSERVED — no authenticated probe was made, so no schema
            is asserted here. Expect the OpenAI /v1/models shape by convention only.
        '401':
          description: Missing or invalid Authorization header (observed)
          content:
            application/json:
              schema:
                $ref: '#/components/schemas/Error'
              example:
                error:
                  code: 401
                  type: invalid_request_error
                  message: Missing or invalid Authorization header
  /chat/completions:
    post:
      tags: [ELM]
      operationId: createChatCompletion
      summary: Create a chat completion
      description: >-
        OpenAI-compatible chat completion endpoint. Observed 401 without a bearer
        token when posted a minimal JSON body. Request and response schemas are not
        asserted because they were not observed.
      security:
      - bearerAuth: []
      requestBody:
        required: true
        content:
          application/json:
            schema:
              type: object
              description: >-
                Shape not observed. OpenAI chat-completion convention (model, messages)
                is assumed by the platform's compatibility claim, not verified here.
      responses:
        '200':
          description: Chat completion. NOT OBSERVED — no schema asserted.
        '401':
          description: Missing or invalid Authorization header (observed)
          content:
            application/json:
              schema:
                $ref: '#/components/schemas/Error'
components:
  securitySchemes:
    bearerAuth:
      type: http
      scheme: bearer
      description: >-
        Bearer token issued to University of Edinburgh accounts. There is no public
        self-service registration; /api redirects (302) to https://elm.edina.ac.uk/login.
  schemas:
    Error:
      type: object
      description: OpenAI-compatible error envelope (observed verbatim)
      properties:
        error:
          type: object
          properties:
            code: {type: integer, example: 401}
            type: {type: string, example: invalid_request_error}
            message: {type: string, example: Missing or invalid Authorization header}