First time here
Five-minute quickstart
Albatross supplies models and billing; you work in a client of your choice.
- Protocol
- Choose a tool
- Support status
- Start here
What Albatross does
Use a chat app to draft, translate and organize text. Use an image entry to generate pictures. For tasks across local files, an agent app can read files and execute tools with your permission. Albatross connects these tools to the models your organization has enabled.
Marketing and operations staff are ordinary users here. Platform administrators manage service access and billing; your job title does not grant administrator privileges.
Before you begin
Use the Albatross console to sign in and manage your account. Client API Host uses https://staging-gateway.bulakua.com; it is a different address. Site navigation stays in the current environment. When previewing locally, use the console for the environment you intend to call; keys and usage belong to that same environment. Add /v1 only where the instructions below require it.
Get your Gateway address (the Albatross service address), API Key (your access credential) and exact allowed model name from your service administrator. Log in to the console to check model permissions, available quota and balance. A catalog listing alone does not grant access.
Keep your existing providers and conversations. Add a separate Albatross configuration. A CherryIN, Chatbox AI, ChatGPT or Claude subscription does not fund Albatross requests.
Choose your first tool
- Cherry Studio: chat, translation, image generation and single-image editing with the documented JPEG workaround.
- Chatbox: simple chat and image generation. Reference-image editing is not supported by the tested version's outgoing request.
- Codex Desktop and Claude Code: file organization and assisted automation; their Albatross integration still needs the stated acceptance checks.
Complete your first request
- Follow one client guide to enter the address and key, then choose the permitted text model.
- Ask for a short greeting. Watch the text arrive and wait until the Stop control returns to Send.
- Ask a follow-up in the same chat. After processing, check Usage for your personal key or a service-account key you are responsible for. For an organization-owned key, ask the organization administrator to verify the request and charge; an empty list does not mean no charge.
Costs and getting help
Albatross Usage and wallet records are the customer bill. Client token counters or price estimates are not your bill; upstream procurement costs are separate. Titles, connection tests and tool continuations may each send paid requests. Stop repeated retries when a request fails.
Invalid Key means checking the Albatross credential. Insufficient quota means checking Albatross balance and limits, not buying a client subscription. For Too Many Requests, wait before retrying; for Gateway Timeout, check Usage before sending again. Both clients displayed these errors in controlled tests; only the invalid-key test reached the local Gateway, with a synthetic key. Quota, rate-limit and timeout responses were simulated without upstream calls.
Contact your Albatross service administrator with the client version, model, time and time zone, error text and request ID if visible. Remove keys, account details and private content from screenshots. Check Usage for keys you can view; ask your organization administrator to check an organization-owned key. Missing records do not mean no charge. Cancelling locally does not guarantee zero upstream work or zero charge.