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Getting Started
Quickstart

Quickstart

Go from zero to your first AI lip sync or video translation request in minutes.

This guide walks you through generating your first AI lip-synced video with the CHAMELAION API, then shows how to translate a video with the same workflow. You’ll need an API key and a video + audio pair to get started.

Prerequisites

Section titled “Prerequisites”
  • A CHAMELAION account with an API key (get one from the Dashboard)
  • A source video URL (MP4) containing a speaking person
  • A target audio URL (WAV or MP3) to sync the lips to

Step 1: Get your API key

Section titled “Step 1: Get your API key”

Log in to your CHAMELAION Dashboard and create a new API key. Copy it somewhere safe; you’ll need it for all API requests.

Step 2: Start a lip sync generation

Section titled “Step 2: Start a lip sync generation”

Send a POST request to /v1/lipsync/generate with your video and audio URLs:

Using cURL

Section titled “Using cURL”
Terminal window
curl -X POST https://api.chamelaion.com/api/v1/lipsync/generate \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "reference_id": "my-first-lipsync",
    "inputs": [
      {
        "type": "video",
        "url": "https://storage.googleapis.com/chamelaion-test-media/video.mp4"
      },
      {
        "type": "audio",
        "url": "https://storage.googleapis.com/chamelaion-test-media/audio.wav"
      }
    ]
  }'

Using Python

Section titled “Using Python”
import requests


API_KEY = "YOUR_API_KEY"
BASE_URL = "https://api.chamelaion.com/api"


response = requests.post(
    f"{BASE_URL}/v1/lipsync/generate",
    headers={
        "Authorization": f"Bearer {API_KEY}",
        "Content-Type": "application/json",
    },
    json={
        "reference_id": "my-first-lipsync",
        "inputs": [
            {"type": "video", "url": "https://storage.googleapis.com/chamelaion-test-media/video.mp4"},
            {"type": "audio", "url": "https://storage.googleapis.com/chamelaion-test-media/audio.wav"},
        ],
    },
)


data = response.json()
print(f"Request ID: {data['request_id']}")
print(f"Status: {data['status']}")

Using TypeScript

Section titled “Using TypeScript”
const API_KEY = "YOUR_API_KEY";
const BASE_URL = "https://api.chamelaion.com/api";


const response = await fetch(`${BASE_URL}/v1/lipsync/generate`, {
  method: "POST",
  headers: {
    Authorization: `Bearer ${API_KEY}`,
    "Content-Type": "application/json",
  },
  body: JSON.stringify({
    reference_id: "my-first-lipsync",
    inputs: [
      {
        type: "video",
        url: "https://storage.googleapis.com/chamelaion-test-media/video.mp4",
      },
      {
        type: "audio",
        url: "https://storage.googleapis.com/chamelaion-test-media/audio.wav",
      },
    ],
  }),
});


const data = await response.json();
console.log(`Request ID: ${data.request_id}`);
console.log(`Status: ${data.status}`);

You’ll get back a response like:

{
  "status": "success",
  "request_id": "6f82a2d8-a6d4-4e8a-a0fa-e8b09823a2d8"
}

Step 3: Poll for the result

Section titled “Step 3: Poll for the result”

Lip sync generation is asynchronous. Use the request_id from Step 2 to check on your job:

Terminal window
curl https://api.chamelaion.com/api/v1/lipsync/requests/6f82a2d8-a6d4-4e8a-a0fa-e8b09823a2d8 \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"

A lip sync request moves from queued to started to finished (or failed). When it is finished, the response includes the output URL:

{
  "id": "6f82a2d8-a6d4-4e8a-a0fa-e8b09823a2d8",
  "reference_id": "my-first-lipsync",
  "status": "finished",
  "created_at": "2026-04-07T10:00:00Z",
  "started_at": "2026-04-07T10:00:05Z",
  "finished_at": "2026-04-07T10:01:30Z",
  "output_url": "https://storage.chamelaion.com/output/6f82a2d8.mp4"
}

Step 4: Download your result

Section titled “Step 4: Download your result”

Once the status is finished, the output_url field contains a link to your lip-synced video. The link is signed and expires after one hour, so download it promptly or retrieve the request again for a fresh link.

Terminal window
curl -o result.mp4 "https://storage.chamelaion.com/output/6f82a2d8.mp4"

Complete Python example

Section titled “Complete Python example”

Here’s a full end-to-end script that submits a job and waits for the result:

import requests
import time


API_KEY = "YOUR_API_KEY"
BASE_URL = "https://api.chamelaion.com/api"
HEADERS = {"Authorization": f"Bearer {API_KEY}"}


# 1. Submit the lip sync job
response = requests.post(
    f"{BASE_URL}/v1/lipsync/generate",
    headers={**HEADERS, "Content-Type": "application/json"},
    json={
        "reference_id": "quickstart-demo",
        "inputs": [
            {"type": "video", "url": "https://storage.googleapis.com/chamelaion-test-media/video.mp4"},
            {"type": "audio", "url": "https://storage.googleapis.com/chamelaion-test-media/audio.wav"},
        ],
    },
)
response.raise_for_status()
request_id = response.json()["request_id"]
print(f"Submitted job: {request_id}")


# 2. Poll until complete
while True:
    status_response = requests.get(
        f"{BASE_URL}/v1/lipsync/requests/{request_id}",
        headers=HEADERS,
    )
    status_response.raise_for_status()
    result = status_response.json()


    print(f"Status: {result['status']}")


    if result["status"] == "finished":
        print(f"Output URL: {result['output_url']}")
        break
    elif result["status"] == "failed":
        print(f"Error: {result.get('error_message', 'Unknown error')}")
        break


    time.sleep(5)

Translate a video

Section titled “Translate a video”

Video Translate follows the same submit-and-poll flow. Send one video and the languages you want; CHAMELAION handles transcription, translation, voices, and lip sync. Replace the URL with your own video:

Terminal window
curl -X POST https://api.chamelaion.com/api/v1/video-translate/generate \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "reference_id": "my-first-translation",
    "source_language": "en",
    "target_languages": ["de", "fr"],
    "inputs": [
      {
        "type": "video",
        "url": "https://storage.googleapis.com/chamelaion-test-media/video.mp4"
      }
    ]
  }'

Poll GET /v1/video-translate/requests/{request_id} until the status is completed. The response then contains a video, audio, and SRT URL for each target language.

Next steps

Section titled “Next steps”