PlayFlow Cloud Documentation

PlayFlow is a game server hosting and orchestration platform. Deploy, manage, and scale multiplayer game servers globally with built-in matchmaking, lobby management, and billing.

OpenAPI Spec (JSON)

Download the machine-readable OpenAPI 3.1 spec for use with Postman, code generators, or custom tooling.

Interactive Reference

Try out endpoints directly in the Scalar API playground with live request/response previews.

Authentication

All API endpoints (except Health) require the api-key header:

curl https://api.computeflow.cloud/api/v3/servers \
  -H "api-key: pf_your_project_api_key"

Each project has two keys:

Key Type	Prefix	Use Case
Server API Key	`pf_*`	Backend services, CI/CD, admin tools
Client API Key	`pfclient_*`	Game clients, browser apps

Find your API keys in the PlayFlow Dashboard under Project Settings.

Never expose your Server API Key in client-side code. Use the Client API Key for anything that ships to players.

A few operations — deleting builds and updating project settings — require a Server API Key. A Client API Key on these endpoints returns 403.

Quick Start

Upload a build

POST /v3/builds/upload-url — get a presigned URL, then PUT your ZIP to it. Processing starts automatically when the upload completes.

Wait for it to be ready

Poll GET /v3/builds/{id} until status is ready.

Start a server

POST /v3/servers/start with a name, a region, and the build’s version_tag (its name). The response includes a network_ports array with the connection details.

Connect your game client

Read host and external_port from network_ports[] in the response to connect players. Ports are proxy-allocated, so always read them from the response rather than hardcoding a fixed port.

For detailed examples with cURL, C#, and Python, see the full API guide.

Key Concepts

Builds — Your game server binary packaged as a ZIP or Docker image. Versioned per name per project.
Servers — Running game server instances. Each gets dedicated compute and network ports with automatic health monitoring. Servers launch on-demand and cold-start.
Regions — 13 global regions. region is required when you start a server. See Server Regions for the full list.
Compute Sizes — 9 launchable sizes, from micro (1 shared vCPU / 512MB) to dedicated-xlarge (2 perf vCPU / 16GB). The default is small. See Plan & Instance Types.

Lifecycles

Server Lifecycle

launching → running (game ports open) → stopped (game exits, TTL expires, or manual stop)

Build Lifecycle

uploading → processing (build pipeline creates deployable image) → ready | failed

Rate Limits

Endpoint Type	Limit
Read endpoints (list, get, logs)	100 req/sec per API key
Write endpoints (start, upload)	10 req/sec per API key

Rate limit status is returned via X-RateLimit-Limit and X-RateLimit-Remaining headers. Exceeding the limit returns 429.

Plan Limits

Plan	Servers	TTL	Compute Sizes
Free	1 active max	Forced 1 hour (3600s)	`small` only
Pro ($20/mo)	Unlimited	Up to 24 hours (86400s)	All sizes

Error Format

All errors return a consistent JSON shape:

{
  "error": "Human-readable message",
  "detail": "Additional context",
  "status": 404
}

Validation errors (422) include structured details:

{
  "error": "Validation error",
  "detail": [
    { "loc": ["region"], "msg": "Required", "type": "invalid_type" }
  ],
  "status": 422
}

Base URL

https://api.computeflow.cloud/api

Version	Prefix	Notes
V3 (canonical)	`/api/v3/*`	OpenAPI-validated, clean response shapes
V2 (legacy)	`/api/v2/*`	Compatibility layer for older SDKs

Overview

Endpoints

API Introduction

OpenAPI Spec (JSON)

Interactive Reference

Authentication

Quick Start

Key Concepts

Lifecycles

Server Lifecycle

Build Lifecycle

Rate Limits

Plan Limits

Error Format

Base URL

OpenAPI Spec (JSON)

Interactive Reference

​Authentication

​Quick Start

​Key Concepts

​Lifecycles

​Server Lifecycle

​Build Lifecycle

​Rate Limits

​Plan Limits

​Error Format

​Base URL

Authentication

Quick Start

Key Concepts

Lifecycles

Server Lifecycle

Build Lifecycle

Rate Limits

Plan Limits

Error Format

Base URL