Flume finds tile and vinyl flooring that match a photo, prices it delivered to a US ZIP code, and hands the chosen product back to your product. There are two ways to integrate.
Embed the iframe (recommended)The fastest way. Flume draws every screen. Your backend makes two calls and your page runs one snippet.
Call the APIYou build the screens. Your backend calls verify, search, product, quote and save.
Which one should you use?
Section titled “Which one should you use?”Start with the iframe unless you need your own screens. It is the shortest path to a working integration, and Flume keeps the search and pricing screens up to date for you.
| Embed the iframe (recommended) | Call the API | |
|---|---|---|
| Time to integrate | Shortest. Two server calls and one snippet | Longer. You build and test every screen |
| Who builds the screens | Flume | You |
| Server calls you make | 2: start a session, exchange a connect code | The six steps: verify, search, product, quote, link into Flume |
| Email verification | In the iframe. You build nothing | Your own screens, with two calls |
| Search by photo and instant quote | In the iframe | POST /search, POST /request-instant-quote |
| The result in your product | A flume:save_item message | The POST /save-item response |
| New Flume features | Appear in the iframe | You add each one |
| Fits when | You want it live fast | You need Flume inside your own design |
Two ways to integrate, side by side. With the iframe, Flume draws the screens and your backend makes two calls. With the API, you draw them and your backend makes every call.
Read this diagram as text
- Embed the iframe, recommended: Flume draws the verify, search, quote and save screens inside an iframe.
- Your page frames the iframe and handles its messages: four from the iframe, two replies from your page.
- Your backend makes two server calls: start a session, and exchange a connect code.
- Call the API: you build every screen yourself.
- Your backend makes every call to the Partner API, in six steps: verify (two calls), search by photo, product detail, instant quote, and a link into Flume.
- Both use the same partner key, users and save payload, and you can combine them.
- Both use the same partner key, the same users and the same sandbox.
- The save payload is the same object on both paths.
- You can combine them. The iframe itself relies on two of the same server calls, and a product saved in the iframe can be read or linked with the API.
How it fits together
Section titled “How it fits together”Who talks to whom. Four parts and one person. Your page and the Flume iframe share the browser. Only your backend calls Flume with your key.
Read this diagram as text
- The user clicks a button on your page.
- Your page calls your own backend. It never calls Flume.
- Your backend calls Flume over HTTPS, with your partner key. These are the server calls.
- Your page frames the Flume iframe. The two talk only with postMessage: four message types from the iframe, two from your page.
- The user searches, prices and saves inside the iframe. The iframe makes its own calls to Flume with its own short-lived credential.
- Your partner key and user access tokens stay on your backend. They never reach the browser.
- Flume gives you a partner key. It identifies your platform.
- Each user verifies their email once. You get a user access token for them.
- With both, your backend acts for that user: it opens the iframe, or it searches, prices and saves through the API.
- Everything a user does also appears in their own Flume account.
Read Authentication and keys and Users and verification first. They apply to both paths. Every term is in the glossary, and every picture is on Diagrams.
What exists today
Section titled “What exists today”| Capability | Status |
|---|---|
| Sandbox | Open to partners with a sandbox key. Base URL https://sandbox-api.tryflume.ai/partner/v1 |
| Live | Early access. Not yet open to new partners; Flume enables it by request, one partner at a time. Build in the sandbox. See Environments |
| Regions | On live, requests from some countries are refused before they reach the API |
| Categories you can search | Tile and vinyl flooring |
| Delivery | US ZIP codes. Prices are in USD |
| Keys | Issued by Flume. You rotate and revoke them yourself |
| OpenAPI document | /openapi.json, the file the API reference is built from |
| Webhooks | Not available. Poll, or use the iframe's messages |
| SDKs and client libraries | Not available. Call the HTTP API directly |
| Self-serve keys or a dashboard | Not available. Flume issues the first key |
| A status page | Not available. Write to Flume |
| Sandbox test data | Not available. The sandbox sends real verification emails |
| Rate limit headers | Not available. A 429 from the API carries Retry-After |
| Reading or changing your allowed origins and hosts | Not available. Ask Flume |
| Calls from a browser | Not supported. Server to server only |
Start here
Section titled “Start here”Get a sandbox keyWhat to send Flume, and what you get back.
Iframe quickstartRecommended. Open the iframe and receive a saved item.
API quickstartVerify a user, search by photo, get a quote.
API referenceEvery endpoint, field and error.
For language models and agents
Section titled “For language models and agents”- Every page has a Markdown version. Add
.mdto its URL. /llms.txtlists every page, with a reading order and the rules in brief./llms-full.txtholds the whole site in one file./openapi.jsonis the OpenAPI 3.1 document for the Partner API.- Every page has a menu: copy it as Markdown, or open it in ChatGPT or Claude.