Get started with Snowcone

Three values: a product, your artwork, and your Shop ID. It’s just an image URL — build it in any language, and it renders in under a second.

<img src="https://img.snowcone.app/BEEB77?asset=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.example.com%2Fart.png&shop=YOUR_SHOP_ID" />

const asset = encodeURIComponent("https://cdn.example.com/art.png");
const src = `https://img.snowcone.app/BEEB77?asset=${asset}&shop=YOUR_SHOP_ID`;
// drop `src` into any <img>

curl -L "https://img.snowcone.app/BEEB77?asset=…&shop=YOUR_SHOP_ID" -o mockup.avif

asset = urllib.parse.quote("https://cdn.example.com/art.png", safe="")
src = f"https://img.snowcone.app/BEEB77?asset={asset}&shop=YOUR_SHOP_ID"

Already signed up? Your shop was created when you signed up — copy its ID at snowcone.app/studio/api-keys. It’s public, like a Cloudinary cloud name. No account yet? Mint one with a single API call — no signup required.

# Mint a Shop ID in one call — no signup required.
curl -X POST https://api.snowcone.app/shops/sandbox -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -d '{}'
# → { "shop_id": "ab3dPq7Rms",   # use as &shop= right away
#     "shop_secret": "scsec_…",   # for signing URLs (see Public or signed)
#     "api_key": "kQ7r…2Fb",      # shop-scoped key for AI-gen / asset writes, returned ONCE
#     "claim": { … } }            # hand this to a human to claim the shop & set up payouts

Mint once and reuse the Shop ID — one copied from these examples attributes sales to someone else. A sandbox shop lives 24 hours unclaimed; your human claims it at snowcone.app/activate. The full claim flow, rate limits, and lifecycle live on Get a Shop ID.

Every render tells you what it cost. Fetch the URL with curl -i and the response reports its cache status, render time, and price — your first render doubles as your first bill preview.

# Every render tells you what it cost — check the response headers.
curl -i -L -o mockup.avif "https://img.snowcone.app/BEEB77?asset=…&shop=YOUR_SHOP_ID"
# x-render-cache: miss        ← first hit renders fresh
# x-render-ms: 742            ← server render time for this image
# x-render-cost-usd: 0.02     ← what this render cost you
# Run it again: x-render-cache: hit — cached repeats don't re-render.

The mockup shows what they’re buying. Pull the rest — name, price, description, variants — from the public catalog.

import { getProduct } from "@snowcone-app/sdk";

const product = await getProduct("BEEB77"); // any product code

product.name;         // "Framed Canvas"
product.price;        // 2399  (MSRP, in minor units / cents — suggested retail)
product.description;  // string[] — paragraphs (not a single string)
// Plus the fields a realtime render needs:
product.mockups?.[0]?.id;                      // "FV1qjO"  (a mockupId)
product.placements?.map((p) => p.label);       // ["Front"] (placement labels)
const variantId = product.options?.combinations?.find((c) => c.variantId)?.variantId;

curl https://search.snowcone.app/indexes/snowcone/documents/BEEB77 \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer eee819b849798ad9091228c486ec05d0931e5292"

const res = await fetch(
  "https://search.snowcone.app/indexes/snowcone/documents/BEEB77",
  { headers: { Authorization: "Bearer eee819b849798ad9091228c486ec05d0931e5292" } },
);
const product = await res.json(); // { id, name, price, mockups, placements, options, … }

import requests

product = requests.get(
    "https://search.snowcone.app/indexes/snowcone/documents/BEEB77",
    headers={"Authorization": "Bearer eee819b849798ad9091228c486ec05d0931e5292"},
).json()

No artwork yet? Don’t start blank — the designs catalog is every published, remixable marketplace design, each already paired with a product. Render one by reference — design=<id> — from every shop, including a freshly minted sandbox, with zero configuration and for free: catalog renders never count against your usage budget, so your first beautiful mockup is one search away.

# Search the pre-made designs catalog (same public key, second index).
curl "https://search.snowcone.app/indexes/snowcone-designs/search" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer eee819b849798ad9091228c486ec05d0931e5292" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{ "q": "christmas card", "limit": 5 }'

# Each hit carries URL components — productId + asset URLs. Compose with YOUR shop:
#   https://img.snowcone.app/<productId>?asset.front=<assets.front>&shop=YOUR_SHOP_ID

The SDK wraps this as searchDesigns(query), and the MCP server’s snowcone_search_designs tool returns ready-to-render URLs for your shop.

Buying is a URL too — it’s the mockup URL with img → buy. The link drops that item into a cart and sends the shopper to your brandable Snowcone-hosted checkout.

<!-- It's the mockup URL with img → buy. Same product, asset, Shop ID. -->
<a href="https://buy.snowcone.app/BEEB77?asset=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.example.com%2Fart.png&shop=YOUR_SHOP_ID">
  Buy now — $24
</a>

<form action="https://buy.snowcone.app/BEEB77" method="POST">
  <input type="hidden" name="asset" value="https://cdn.example.com/art.png" />
  <input type="hidden" name="shop"  value="YOUR_SHOP_ID" />
  <button type="submit">Buy now — $24</button>
</form>

Prefer to own checkout? Point the buy button at your Shopify store or take payment yourself and send us the order via the Orders API — Sell on every channel compares all three.

Every product has an MSRP — the Framed Canvas is $24 — which is also your default cost, so selling at MSRP earns $0. Raise your retail price, lower your cost with a wholesale tier, or both; Pricing & margins covers the levers.