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Chord’s API is REST over HTTPS, JSON in and out. The base URL is https://api.getchord.xyz and every path starts with /v1. Nothing below needs an account.

1. Make a request

Section titled “1. Make a request”

The chain overview is the cheapest useful call: the last 24 hours on Arc, venue share, hourly buckets and daily rows, with the coverage flags every read carries.

Terminal window
curl https://api.getchord.xyz/v1/arc/overview
{
  "chain": 5042,
  "last24h": { "volUsd": 70377594.23, "swaps": 788926, "tokens": 6288, "sinceHour": 1789808400 },
  "venues24h": [ { "dex": "uniswap_v4", "volUsd": 55014882.20, "trades": 683313, "tokens": 4059, "sharePct": 78.17 } ],
  "hourly24": [ { "hour": 1789808400, "volUsd": 3234644.52, "swaps": 50225 } ],
  "daily": [ { "day": 1787356800, "swaps": 5712, "volUsd": 609934.64, "tokens": 292, "wallets": 768, "venues": 4 } ],
  "coverage": { "recentAt": 1789891429, "stale": false, "backfillComplete": true },
  "updatedAt": 1789891764243
}

Read coverage before you trust a quiet number. stale: true means the most recent rolled-up hour is older than the lane’s freshness bar; backfillComplete: false means long windows undercount. See Data freshness.

2. Get a key (optional)

Section titled “2. Get a key (optional)”

Anonymous reads answer at 60 requests a minute per IP. A key raises that to your plan and meters usage per key; it is required for the Ask agent API and for the only= debug lever on quotes.

  1. Open getchord.xyz/developer and sign in with Google.
  2. Create a key. It is shown once; store it.
  3. Send it as a header on every request.
Terminal window
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.getchord.xyz/v1/me
{ "email": "[email protected]", "tier": "free", "limits": { "rpm": 60, "monthly": 100000, "priceUsd": 0, "label": "Free" }, "usage": { "today": 41, "month": 1209 } }

Plans are on getchord.xyz/pricing: Free (60 a minute, 300 calls in any 30 days), Build (100 a minute, 16,000 calls) and Grow (150 a minute, 144,000 calls). A plan covers all keys on an account together. See Rate limits.

3. Swap in three calls

Section titled “3. Swap in three calls”

This buys cirBTC with 5 USDC on Arc. Amounts are strings in the token’s smallest unit: the USDC predeploy has 6 decimals, so 5 USDC is 5000000.

Quote

Section titled “Quote”
Terminal window
curl "https://api.getchord.xyz/v1/quote?chain=5042\
&inputMint=0x3600000000000000000000000000000000000000\
&outputMint=0x171a4217b86a807a64eb94757db6849fb4bdbaa0\
&amount=5000000&slippageBps=100"

The answer is the best route: outputAmount, otherAmountThreshold (the minimum the transaction enforces), priceImpactPct, the routePlan with one leg per venue, the protocol feeBps on the output token, and a gas estimate. An empty routePlan with outputAmount: "0" means no route at this size, and noRouteReason says why.

Build

Section titled “Build”

Send the quote body back unmodified with the wallet that signs.

Terminal window
curl -X POST https://api.getchord.xyz/v1/swap \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{ "quoteResponse": <the quote body>, "userPublicKey": "0xYourWallet", "chain": 5042 }'
{ "transaction": { "to": "0x1b1fee89a381e595fe6536b99ba91f3e16e9601a", "data": "0xdc72a437…", "value": "0", "gasLimit": "1500000", "chainId": 5042 } }

For an ERC-20 input, approve transaction.to (the Chord router) for at least the input amount first. On Arc the gas token’s ERC-20 face is the USDC predeploy, so even a “native” input is pulled by transferFrom and value is always 0.

Sign and send

Section titled “Sign and send”
const { transaction } = await res.json();
await wallet.sendTransaction({
  to: transaction.to,
  data: transaction.data,
  value: BigInt(transaction.value),
  gas: BigInt(transaction.gasLimit),
  chainId: 5042,
});

Before the wallet opens you can POST /v1/swap/simulate with the same fields: it eth_calls the calldata from your address, decodes a revert if there is one, and estimates gas. The full flow, with approvals and simulation, is in the Swap recipe.

Next

Section titled “Next”