API Reference

NowToPrint exposes three primary integration surfaces. Pick the surface that matches your workflow, then anchor your implementation to the published contract and guide for that surface.

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API Surfaces

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Canonical model guide

The transport contracts describe request and response formats. For the shared media, device, supplier or source, and job snapshot semantics behind XJDF, use the master-data guide.

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Published Contracts & Generated Reference

Surface	Current route family	Public contract	Generated reference	Integration guide
Partner API	https://api.nowtoprint.com/api/v1	/docs/api/openapi.yaml	Partner REST API	Getting started
XJDF / PrintTalk	https://api.nowtoprint.com/api/v1/xjdf	/docs/api/xjdf-openapi.yaml	XJDF & PrintTalk API	Swagger preview
Preflight Engine	https://api.nowtoprint.com/api/v1	/docs/api/preflight-openapi.yaml	Spec only — no reference page yet	OpenAPI Explorer

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Quote and order flow boundaries

Order and batch capabilities are launch-disabled and remain fail-closed boundaries. They return PARTNER_ORDER_CAPABILITY_UNAVAILABLE or PARTNER_BATCH_ORDER_CAPABILITY_UNAVAILABLE with RFC 9457 503 after auth and permission checks. No order or batch item is created, listed, or attempted; these non-public routes are not advertised here or in the public Partner OpenAPI.

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Authentication

Partner API

Use Authorization: Bearer <ntp_test_* or ntp_live_* key> for all Partner API requests.

GET /api/v1/rfq HTTP/1.1
Host: api.nowtoprint.com
Authorization: Bearer ntp_live_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Accept: application/json

XJDF / PrintTalk

The XJDF / PrintTalk surface is a private-beta readiness reference. It supports bearer auth or X-API-Key, and some enterprise postures may also use mTLS. Treat the integration contract and onboarding agreement as the final authority; do not treat the public spec as CIP4 certification, legal conformance, or external GA evidence.

Preflight Engine

Use bearer auth for queued PDF inspection requests submitted to the v1 preflight surface.

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Operational posture

Surface	What to expect	What to trust
Partner API	Entitlement-based access, quotas, and rollout state	Dashboard state plus response headers
XJDF / PrintTalk	Partner-specific readiness and capability negotiation	Contract posture, guide details, and 429 behavior
Preflight Engine	Workload-aware throttling and async processing	Queue response semantics and retry guidance

When a limit is hit, the API returns 429 Too Many Requests. Respect Retry-After and keep write operations idempotent.

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Versioning policy

• Partner API is currently published on v1
• XJDF and PrintTalk are exposed through the private-beta readiness v1 integration layer
• Preflight is published on the current v3 surface
• Breaking changes are introduced in a new major route family
• Deprecation notice is communicated before older majors are retired

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Repository examples

Use docs/api/examples/ for integration snippets and reference payloads. Treat the published OpenAPI contracts as the source of truth when examples and implementation drift.

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Related Guides