Channel3 API Integration Guide

You are helping a developer integrate with the Channel3 API. This guide contains everything you need to write correct, working integration code.

Quick Orientation

Channel3 provides a universal product catalog API. Developers use it to search products, get product details, enrich URLs, track prices, and look up brands/websites. Each product can have multiple merchant offers, and every offer link includes affiliate tracking so developers earn commission on sales they drive.

Base URL: https://api.trychannel3.com Auth: x-api-key header (or SDK client initialization with apiKey) Docs: https://docs.trychannel3.com

Search and product details use the /v1 API. Enrich, price tracking, brands, and websites use /v0.

Prerequisites

• API key: Requires a CHANNEL3_API_KEY environment variable. Get a free key at trychannel3.com.
• Source: github.com/channel3-ai/skills
• API docs: docs.trychannel3.com

Before Writing Code

1. Read references/api-reference.md for the full endpoint and type reference — it has every parameter, type, and response shape you'll need.
2. Ask the developer which language they're using (TypeScript, Python, or raw HTTP/curl) if it's not obvious from context.
3. If the developer hasn't set up their API key yet, show them how to get one at https://trychannel3.com and configure it as an environment variable (CHANNEL3_API_KEY).

SDK Installation

TypeScript:

npm install @channel3/sdk

Python:

pip install channel3_sdk

Client Initialization

TypeScript:

import Channel3 from '@channel3/sdk';

const client = new Channel3({
  apiKey: process.env['CHANNEL3_API_KEY'],
});

Python (sync):

import os
from channel3_sdk import Channel3

client = Channel3(api_key=os.environ.get("CHANNEL3_API_KEY"))

Python (async):

import os
from channel3_sdk import AsyncChannel3

client = AsyncChannel3(api_key=os.environ.get("CHANNEL3_API_KEY"))

curl:

curl -X POST https://api.trychannel3.com/v1/search \
  -H "x-api-key: $CHANNEL3_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"query": "wireless headphones", "limit": 5}'

Core Endpoints

1. Product Search (POST /v1/search)

The primary endpoint. Supports text queries, image search (via URL or base64), rich filtering, and cursor-based pagination. Returns a SearchResponse containing an array of ProductDetail objects and an optional pagination token.

Key parameters:

• query — natural language or keywords
• image_url / base64_image — for visual search (find visually similar products)
• filters — price range, brand, category, gender, age, condition, availability, website (plus exclusion filters)
• limit — 1-30 results (default 20)
• page_token — cursor from a previous response's next_page_token to fetch the next page
• config.keyword_search_only — disable semantic search, use exact keyword matching only

Each product in the response has an offers array — one entry per merchant selling that product. Each offer includes the affiliate-tracked url, merchant domain, price, availability, and max_commission_rate.

Example — TypeScript:

const response = await client.search.perform({
  query: 'running shoes under $100',
  filters: {
    price: { max_price: 100 },
    gender: 'male',
    condition: 'new',
  },
  limit: 10,
});

for (const product of response.products) {
  const bestOffer = product.offers?.[0];
  if (bestOffer) {
    console.log(`${product.title} - $${bestOffer.price.price} ${bestOffer.price.currency}`);
    console.log(`  Buy at ${bestOffer.domain}: ${bestOffer.url}`);
  }
}

Example — Python:

response = client.search.perform(
    query="running shoes under $100",
    filters={
        "price": {"max_price": 100},
        "gender": "male",
        "condition": "new",
    },
    limit=10,
)

for product in response.products:
    best_offer = product.offers[0] if product.offers else None
    if best_offer:
        print(f"{product.title} - ${best_offer.price.price} {best_offer.price.currency}")
        print(f"  Buy at {best_offer.domain}: {best_offer.url}")

Example — curl:

curl -X POST https://api.trychannel3.com/v1/search \
  -H "x-api-key: $CHANNEL3_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "query": "running shoes under $100",
    "filters": {
      "price": {"max_price": 100},
      "gender": "male",
      "condition": "new"
    },
    "limit": 10
  }'

Pagination — TypeScript:

let pageToken: string | null | undefined = undefined;

do {
  const response = await client.search.perform({
    query: 'sneakers',
    limit: 20,
    page_token: pageToken,
  });

  for (const product of response.products) {
    console.log(product.title);
  }

  pageToken = response.next_page_token;
} while (pageToken);

2. Product Details (GET /v1/products/{product_id})

Retrieve full details for a specific product by ID. Returns a ProductDetail object with images, key features, materials, offers from multiple merchants, and more.

Example — TypeScript:

const product = await client.products.retrieve('prod_abc123');
console.log(product.title, product.description);

for (const offer of product.offers ?? []) {
  console.log(`  ${offer.domain}: $${offer.price.price} (${offer.availability})`);
}

You can optionally pass website_ids to constrain which merchant offers are returned:

const product = await client.products.retrieve('prod_abc123', {
  website_ids: ['website_xyz'],
});

3. URL Enrichment (POST /v0/enrich)

Given a product page URL, returns structured product data from Channel3's catalog. If the product isn't already indexed, it attempts real-time extraction with basic details (price, images, title). The response includes both legacy flat fields and the new offers array.

Example — Python:

result = client.enrich.enrich_url(url="https://example.com/product/cool-sneakers")
print(result.title)
for offer in result.offers or []:
    print(f"  {offer.domain}: ${offer.price.price}")

4. Price Tracking (/v0/price-tracking/...)

Subscribe to price changes on products, retrieve price history (up to 30 days), and manage subscriptions.

• client.priceTracking.start({ canonical_product_id }) — start tracking
• client.priceTracking.stop({ canonical_product_id }) — stop tracking
• client.priceTracking.getHistory(id, { days }) — get price history with statistics
• client.priceTracking.listSubscriptions() — list active subscriptions (cursor-paginated)

The history response includes statistics: current price, min/max, mean, standard deviation, and a current_status indicator ("low", "typical", or "high").

5. Brands (GET /v0/brands, GET /v0/brands/{brand_id}, GET /v0/list-brands)

• client.brands.list({ limit, cursor }) — cursor-paginated alphabetical list; supports for await iteration
• client.brands.find({ query: 'Nike' }) — find a brand by name
• client.brands.retrieve(brandId) — get a brand by ID

Each brand includes id, name, optional description, logo_url, and best_commission_rate.

6. Websites (GET /v0/websites)

• client.websites.find({ query: 'nike.com' }) — look up a retailer website

Returns id, url, and best_commission_rate. Useful for filtering search results to specific retailers.

Error Handling

Both SDKs throw typed errors. Always handle at least AuthenticationError (401) and RateLimitError (429).

TypeScript:

import Channel3 from '@channel3/sdk';

try {
  const response = await client.search.perform({ query: 'laptop' });
} catch (err) {
  if (err instanceof Channel3.AuthenticationError) {
    console.error('Invalid API key');
  } else if (err instanceof Channel3.RateLimitError) {
    console.error('Rate limited — slow down or upgrade your plan');
  } else if (err instanceof Channel3.NotFoundError) {
    console.error('Resource not found');
  } else if (err instanceof Channel3.APIError) {
    console.error(`API error ${err.status}: ${err.message}`);
  }
}

Python:

from channel3_sdk import AuthenticationError, RateLimitError, APIStatusError

try:
    response = client.search.perform(query="laptop")
except AuthenticationError:
    print("Invalid API key")
except RateLimitError:
    print("Rate limited — slow down or upgrade your plan")
except APIStatusError as e:
    print(f"API error {e.status_code}: {e.message}")

SDK Configuration

Both SDKs support:

• Retries: Default 2 automatic retries on connection errors, 408, 409, 429, and 5xx. Configure with maxRetries (TS) / max_retries (Python).
• Timeouts: Default 60 seconds. Configure with timeout parameter.
• Logging: Set logLevel: 'debug' (TS) or CHANNEL3_LOG=debug env var (Python) for request/response logging.

Common Patterns

Image-Based Search (Visual Similarity)

const response = await client.search.perform({
  image_url: 'https://example.com/photo-of-dress.jpg',
  limit: 10,
});

for (const product of response.products) {
  const offer = product.offers?.[0];
  console.log(`${product.title} — $${offer?.price.price} at ${offer?.domain}`);
}

Combining Text + Image Search

const response = await client.search.perform({
  query: 'similar but in blue',
  image_url: 'https://example.com/red-jacket.jpg',
  limit: 10,
});

Filtering to Specific Retailers

const nike = await client.websites.find({ query: 'nike.com' });

const response = await client.search.perform({
  query: 'wireless earbuds',
  filters: { website_ids: [nike.id] },
});

Excluding Brands or Websites

const response = await client.search.perform({
  query: 'running shoes',
  filters: {
    exclude_brand_ids: ['brand_to_skip'],
    exclude_website_ids: ['website_to_skip'],
  },
});

Comparing Offers Across Merchants

const product = await client.products.retrieve('prod_abc123');

for (const offer of product.offers ?? []) {
  console.log(`${offer.domain}: $${offer.price.price} (commission: ${(offer.max_commission_rate ?? 0) * 100}%)`);
}

Price Drop Monitoring

await client.priceTracking.start({
  canonical_product_id: 'prod_abc123',
});

const history = await client.priceTracking.getHistory('prod_abc123', { days: 30 });
console.log(`Current: $${history.statistics?.current_price} (${history.statistics?.current_status})`);
console.log(`30-day range: $${history.statistics?.min_price} - $${history.statistics?.max_price}`);

Iterating All Brands

for await (const brand of client.brands.list()) {
  console.log(`${brand.name} — ${(brand.best_commission_rate ?? 0) * 100}% commission`);
}

Important Notes

• Every product has an offers array. Each offer's url is an affiliate-tracked link — using these links earns the developer commission on resulting sales with no extra setup.
• A single product can have offers from multiple merchants. Use offer.domain to identify the retailer, offer.price for pricing, and offer.max_commission_rate to understand potential earnings.
• Image search and text search can be combined. When both query and image_url/base64_image are provided, the API performs a multimodal search.
• config.keyword_search_only is incompatible with image search. Use it when you need exact keyword matching instead of semantic search.
• Products have rich image metadata including shot_type (hero, lifestyle, on_model, etc.) — useful for building polished product displays.
• The offers[].availability field is simplified to "InStock" or "OutOfStock". The full AvailabilityStatus enum (8 values) is available as a search filter.