API

Columns AI provides APIs for ingesting event data and querying it in real time.

With Columns, you do not need to build and maintain your own real-time analytics stack. You can:

1. Send data to a topic.
2. Query the topic through the UI or API.

Ingestion Endpoint

To send real-time events, you need:

• an API key
• a topic name

Note: The ingestion payload currently supports JSON messages.

Use endpoint: POST /api/event/send

Payload format:

{
  // API key for an authenticated account
  apiKey: string;

  // Topic name
  topic: string;

  // One or more messages (JSON serialized strings)
  messages: string[];
}

Example request:

curl -d "@data.json" -H "Content-Type: application/json" -X POST https://columns.ai/api/event/send

Example data.json:

{
  "apiKey": "<API KEY>",
  "topic": "test2",
  "messages": [
    "{\"name\":\"abc\",\"value\":8}",
    "{\"name\":\"def\",\"value\":9}",
    "{\"name\":\"ghi\",\"value\":10}",
    "{\"name\":\"jkl\",\"value\":11}",
    "{\"name\":\"mno\",\"value\":12}",
    "{\"name\":\"pqr\",\"value\":13}",
    "{\"name\":\"stu\",\"value\":14}",
    "{\"name\":\"vwx\",\"value\":15}",
    "{\"name\":\"yz\",\"value\":16}"
  ]
}

Topic names are globally unique and can contain:

• letters (a-z, A-Z)
• digits (0-9)
• underscore (_)

Live Query

Once data arrives in a topic, you can define a data source and query it.

An event data source defines:

1. schema (columns and data types)
2. retention window (in hours)

You can access the data through:

1. Columns UI (visualizer, templates, and story composer)
2. Columns API (query object + functions)

Plan Limits

Columns supports free and paid usage tiers, mainly differentiated by throughput limits.

For large workloads, contact support@columns.ai for dedicated support.

See Columns AI Pricing.

Analytical API (Lease Model)

You can also bring your own data and use Columns compute as a hosted analytical layer.

Learn more on Developer Page.