Debating Bots API

Quick start

curl -X POST \
  https://debatingbots.com/api/v1/debate.php?action=start \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer db_YOUR_KEY_HERE" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Idempotency-Key: my-first-debate" \
  -d '{"question": "Is Rust better than Go for backend services?"}'

{
  "debate_id": "abc123",
  "status": "queued",
  "stream_url": "/api/v1/debate.php?action=stream&id=abc123",
  "poll_url": "/api/v1/debate.php?action=status&id=abc123",
  "cost": "$0.69",
  "models": {
    "alpha": "claude-sonnet-4-6",
    "beta": "gpt-5.5"
  }
}

Then poll poll_url, connect to stream_url for live SSE events, or provide a webhook_url to receive results when the debate finishes.

Model names in the examples are illustrative snapshots. Call /api/v1/models.php to discover the current catalog for each tier.

Authentication

All API requests require a bearer token in the Authorization header:

Authorization: Bearer db_a3f29e1c4b...

Keys use the format db_ followed by 40 hex characters (43 characters total). Only the SHA-256 hash is stored on our servers — if you lose a key, generate a new one.

Generate and manage keys from your avatar menu → API Keys in the app. Each account supports up to 10 active keys.

Endpoints

All endpoints live under /api/v1/. Responses are JSON with Content-Type: application/json, except for the SSE stream endpoint which uses text/event-stream.

Base URL: https://debatingbots.com

{
  "debate_id": "abc123",
  "status": "queued",
  "stream_url": "/api/v1/debate.php?action=stream&id=abc123",
  "poll_url": "/api/v1/debate.php?action=status&id=abc123",
  "cost": "$0.69",
  "models": {
    "alpha": "claude-sonnet-4-6",
    "beta": "gpt-5.5"
  },
  "debater_count": 2,
  "side_names": {
    "alpha": "Alpha",
    "beta": "Beta"
  }
}

{
  "debate_id": "abc123",
  "status": "running"
}

{
  "debate_id": "abc123",
  "status": "complete",
  "result": {
    "winner": "alpha",
    "winner_debater_id": "alpha",
    "winner_side_name": "Alpha",
    "consensus_by": "Unanimous agreement",
    "contested": false,
    "answer": "The final synthesized answer text...",
    "alpha_position": "Alpha's final position...",
    "beta_position": "Beta's final position...",
    "labels": { "alpha": "Pro-Rust", "beta": "Pro-Go" },
    "side_names": { "alpha": "Alpha", "beta": "Beta" },
    "models": {
      "alpha": "claude-sonnet-4-6",
      "beta": "gpt-5.5",
      "judge": "gemini-3.1-pro-preview"
    },
    "tier": "standard",
    "thinking_level": "high",
    "cost": "$0.69"
  },
  "transcript": [ ... ]
}

curl -N \
  "https://debatingbots.com/api/v1/debate.php?action=stream&id=abc123" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer db_YOUR_KEY_HERE"

curl -X POST \
  https://debatingbots.com/api/v1/debate.php?action=cancel \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer db_YOUR_KEY_HERE" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"debate_id": "abc123"}'

{
  "debate_id": "abc123",
  "status": "cancelled",
  "cancelled": true,
  "refunded": true
}

{
  "balance": "12.5000",
  "currency": "USD"
}

{
  "price_per_debate": "$0.69",
  "tiers": {
    "quick": {
      "models": [
        { "provider": "claude", "model": "claude-sonnet-4-6", "label": "Claude Sonnet 4.6" },
        { "provider": "openai", "model": "gpt-5.4-mini", "label": "GPT-5.4 Mini" }
      ]
    },
    "standard": { "models": [ ... ] },
    "deep": { "models": [ ... ] }
  }
}

Integration patterns

Choose the pattern that fits your use case:

1. Poll (simplest)

Start a debate, then poll the status endpoint every few seconds until status is complete. Best for batch jobs and scripts where latency isn't critical.

response = POST /start { question: "..." }
while response.status != "complete":
    sleep(5)
    response = GET /status?id=response.debate_id
print(response.result.answer)

2. Stream (real-time)

Connect to the SSE stream endpoint immediately after starting. You'll receive live tokens as each model argues, judge votes as they happen, and the final result. Best for interactive UIs.

3. Webhook (fire-and-forget)

Pass a webhook_url when starting. Your server receives a POST with the complete debate result when it finishes. Best for async pipelines, CI/CD, and Slack bots. See the Webhooks section for signature verification.

Idempotency

The Idempotency-Key header is required on POST /debate.php?action=start. It prevents double-charges if you retry a request due to a network timeout.

Idempotency-Key: order-42-debate-001

Use any unique string up to 255 characters. If you send the same key with the same request body, you'll get the original response back without being charged again. If you send the same key with a different body, you'll get a 409 Conflict.

Webhooks

When you include webhook_url in your start request, the server POSTs the complete debate result to that URL when the debate finishes.

Requirements

• Must be HTTPS (port 443 only)
• Must not resolve to a private/reserved IP
• Must not target localhost or .local domains
• Max URL length: 2,000 characters

Signature verification

Every webhook request includes two headers for verification:

Each API key has a webhook signing secret (a 64-character hex string), returned once when you create the key alongside the key itself. Use this secret to verify webhook payloads: compute HMAC-SHA256(timestamp + "." + raw_body, your_webhook_secret) and compare it to the signature value (without the sha256= prefix).

import hmac, hashlib

def verify_webhook(body: bytes, timestamp: str, signature: str, webhook_secret: str) -> bool:
    expected = hmac.new(
        webhook_secret.encode(),
        f"{timestamp}.{body.decode()}".encode(),
        hashlib.sha256
    ).hexdigest()
    return hmac.compare_digest(f"sha256={expected}", signature)

File uploads

For code review debates, include a base64-encoded zip file in the repo_zip_base64 field of your start request. The AI models can then browse and reference files during the debate.

# Encode a zip file and include it
ZIP_B64=$(base64 -w 0 my-repo.zip)

curl -X POST \
  https://debatingbots.com/api/v1/debate.php?action=start \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer db_YOUR_KEY_HERE" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Idempotency-Key: review-pr-42" \
  -d "{
    \"question\": \"Review this codebase for security issues\",
    \"repo_zip_base64\": \"$ZIP_B64\"
  }"

Error codes

All errors return a JSON object with an error field. Common HTTP status codes:

{
  "error": "Insufficient balance",
  "balance": "0.2300"
}

The balance field is only present on 402 responses. All other errors return just the error string.