File Upload Example

This guide demonstrates how to upload files to an Oxen repository using the HTTP API. We’ll break down the process into simple, manageable steps.

Overview

Uploading a file to Oxen involves three main steps:

Create a repository (if it doesn’t exist)
Upload the file to a specific branch
Optionally create additional branches from the uploaded content

Prerequisites

Before you begin, you’ll need:

API Key: Authentication token for your Oxen account
Server URL: The Oxen server endpoint (e.g., https://hub.oxen.ai or your local server)
File to upload: The local file you want to add to your repository

Configuration

First, set up your configuration variables:

# Server Configuration
SERVER_URL = "https://hub.oxen.ai"
API_KEY = "your-api-key-here"

# Repository Configuration
NAMESPACE = "your-username"
REPO_NAME = "my-dataset"
DESCRIPTION = "Example dataset created via HTTP API"

# User Configuration (for commits)
USER_NAME = "Your Name"
USER_EMAIL = "your.email@example.com"

# Branch Configuration
SOURCE_BRANCH = "main"

# File Upload Configuration
LOCAL_FILE_PATH = "./example.txt"
REMOTE_FILE_PATH = "data/example.txt"
COMMIT_MESSAGE = "Add file via HTTP API"

Step 1: Create a Repository

Create a new repository to store your files. If the repository already exists, this step will return a 409 status code and you can continue.

Endpoint

POST /api/repos

Example

import requests

def create_repository(base_url, api_key, namespace, name, user_name, user_email, description):
    url = f"{base_url}/api/repos"
    
    headers = {
        'Authorization': f'Bearer {api_key}'
    }
    
    payload = {
        "namespace": namespace,
        "name": name,
        "user": {
            "name": user_name,
            "email": user_email
        },
        "description": description
    }
    
    response = requests.post(url, json=payload, headers=headers)
    
    if response.status_code == 200:
        print("✓ Repository created successfully")
        return response.json()
    elif response.status_code == 409:
        print("⚠ Repository already exists")
        return response.json()
    else:
        print(f"✗ Failed: {response.status_code}")
        print(response.text)
        return None

# Usage
create_repository(
    base_url="https://hub.oxen.ai",
    api_key="your-api-key",
    namespace="your-username",
    name="my-dataset",
    user_name="Your Name",
    user_email="your.email@example.com",
    description="Example dataset"
)

Request Body

Field	Type	Required	Description
`namespace`	string	Yes	Your username or organization name
`name`	string	Yes	Repository name
`user.name`	string	Yes	Author name for commits
`user.email`	string	Yes	Author email for commits
`description`	string	No	Repository description

Response

{
  "namespace": "your-username",
  "name": "my-dataset",
  "description": "Example dataset created via HTTP API",
  "created_at": "2026-01-08T21:28:00Z"
}

Step 2: Upload a File

Upload a file to your repository. This creates a commit on the specified branch with your file.

Endpoint

PUT /api/repos/{namespace}/{repo_name}/file/{branch}/{path}

Path Parameters

Parameter	Description	Example
`namespace`	Your username or organization	`your-username`
`repo_name`	Repository name	`my-dataset`
`branch`	Target branch name	`main`
`path`	Destination path in repository	`data/example.txt`

Example

import os
import requests

def upload_file(base_url, api_key, namespace, repo_name, branch, 
                local_file_path, remote_file_path, commit_message, 
                author_name, author_email):
    # Check if file exists
    if not os.path.exists(local_file_path):
        print(f"✗ File not found: {local_file_path}")
        return None
    
    # Construct URL with branch and directory path
    resource = f"{branch}/{remote_file_path}"
    url = f"{base_url}/api/repos/{namespace}/{repo_name}/file/{resource}"
    
    headers = {
        'Authorization': f'Bearer {api_key}'
    }
    
    # Prepare file for upload
    files = [
        ("file", (os.path.basename(local_file_path), open(local_file_path, 'rb')))
    ]
    
    payload = {
        'message': commit_message,
        'name': author_name,
        'email': author_email
    }
    
    response = requests.put(url, data=payload, files=files, headers=headers)
    
    # Close the file
    files[0][1][1].close()
    
    if response.status_code == 200:
        result = response.json()
        print(f"✓ File uploaded successfully")
        if 'commit' in result:
            print(f"  Commit ID: {result['commit'].get('id', 'N/A')}")
        return result
    else:
        print(f"✗ Failed: {response.status_code}")
        print(response.text)
        return None

# Usage
upload_file(
    base_url="https://hub.oxen.ai",
    api_key="your-api-key",
    namespace="your-username",
    repo_name="my-dataset",
    branch="main",
    local_file_path="./example.txt",
    remote_file_path="data/example.txt",
    commit_message="Add example file",
    author_name="Your Name",
    author_email="your.email@example.com"
)

Request Body (Multipart Form Data)

Field	Type	Required	Description
`file`	file	Yes	The file(s) to upload. Can be multiple files with the same field name
`message`	string	Yes	Commit message
`name`	string	Yes	Author name
`email`	string	Yes	Author email

Note: You can upload multiple files in a single request by including multiple file fields with different filenames.

Response

{
  "commit": {
    "id": "abc123def456...",
    "message": "Add example file",
    "author": {
      "name": "Your Name",
      "email": "your.email@example.com"
    },
    "timestamp": "2026-01-08T21:28:00Z"
  },
  "file": {
    "path": "data/example.txt",
    "size": 1024,
    "hash": "sha256:..."
  }
}

Step 3: Create a Branch (Optional)

After uploading files, you can create additional branches from your main branch.

Endpoint

POST /api/repos/{namespace}/{repo_name}/branches

Example

import requests

def create_branch(base_url, api_key, namespace, repo_name, 
                  new_branch_name, from_branch):
    url = f"{base_url}/api/repos/{namespace}/{repo_name}/branches"
    
    headers = {
        'Authorization': f'Bearer {api_key}'
    }
    
    payload = {
        "new_name": new_branch_name,
        "from_name": from_branch
    }
    
    response = requests.post(url, json=payload, headers=headers)
    
    if response.status_code == 200:
        print(f"✓ Branch '{new_branch_name}' created")
        return response.json()
    else:
        print(f"✗ Failed: {response.status_code}")
        print(response.text)
        return None

# Usage
create_branch(
    base_url="https://hub.oxen.ai",
    api_key="your-api-key",
    namespace="your-username",
    repo_name="my-dataset",
    new_branch_name="development",
    from_branch="main"
)

Request Body

Field	Type	Required	Description
`new_name`	string	Yes	Name of the new branch
`from_name`	string	Yes	Source branch to create from

Response

{
  "name": "development",
  "commit_id": "abc123def456...",
  "created_at": "2026-01-08T21:28:00Z"
}

Complete Example

Here’s a complete Python script that ties everything together:

import os
import sys
import requests

# Configuration
SERVER_URL = "https://hub.oxen.ai"
API_KEY = "your-api-key-here"
NAMESPACE = "your-username"
REPO_NAME = "my-dataset"
USER_NAME = "Your Name"
USER_EMAIL = "your.email@example.com"
DESCRIPTION = "Example dataset created via HTTP API"

# File configuration
LOCAL_FILE_PATH = "./example.txt"
REMOTE_FILE_PATH = "data/example.txt"
COMMIT_MESSAGE = "Add file via HTTP API"
SOURCE_BRANCH = "main"

def main():
    print("=" * 70)
    print("Oxen File Upload Pipeline")
    print("=" * 70)
    
    base_url = SERVER_URL.rstrip('/')
    
    # Step 1: Create Repository
    print(f"\n[Step 1/2] Creating repository: {NAMESPACE}/{REPO_NAME}")
    create_repository(
        base_url=base_url,
        api_key=API_KEY,
        namespace=NAMESPACE,
        name=REPO_NAME,
        user_name=USER_NAME,
        user_email=USER_EMAIL,
        description=DESCRIPTION
    )
    
    # Step 2: Upload File
    print(f"\n[Step 2/2] Uploading file to '{SOURCE_BRANCH}' branch")
    print(f"           {LOCAL_FILE_PATH} → {REMOTE_FILE_PATH}")
    upload_file(
        base_url=base_url,
        api_key=API_KEY,
        namespace=NAMESPACE,
        repo_name=REPO_NAME,
        branch=SOURCE_BRANCH,
        local_file_path=LOCAL_FILE_PATH,
        remote_file_path=REMOTE_FILE_PATH,
        commit_message=COMMIT_MESSAGE,
        author_name=USER_NAME,
        author_email=USER_EMAIL
    )
    
    print("\n" + "=" * 70)
    print("✓ Upload completed successfully!")
    print("=" * 70)
    print(f"\nRepository: {SERVER_URL}/{NAMESPACE}/{REPO_NAME}")
    print(f"File location: {SOURCE_BRANCH} → {REMOTE_FILE_PATH}")
    print("=" * 70 + "\n")

if __name__ == '__main__':
    main()

Authentication

All API requests require authentication using a Bearer token in the Authorization header:

Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY

Getting an API Key

Log in to your Oxen account at hub.oxen.ai
Navigate to your account settings
Generate a new API key

Advanced Usage

Uploading Multiple Files

You can upload multiple files in a single request by including multiple file fields:

import requests

namespace = "your-username"
repo_name = "my-dataset"
api_key = "your-api-key"
resource = "main/data"  # branch/directory

url = f"https://hub.oxen.ai/api/repos/{namespace}/{repo_name}/file/{resource}"

# Multiple files in one request
files = [
    ("file", ("file1.txt", open("./data/file1.txt", "rb"))),
    ("file", ("file2.csv", open("./data/file2.csv", "rb"))),
    ("file", ("photo.jpg", open("./images/photo.jpg", "rb")))
]

payload = {
    "email": "your.email@example.com",
    "message": "Add multiple files",
    "name": "Your Name"
}

headers = {"Authorization": f"Bearer {api_key}"}

response = requests.put(url, data=payload, files=files, headers=headers)

# Close all files
for _, (_, file_obj) in files:
    file_obj.close()

if response.status_code == 200:
    print("✓ All files uploaded successfully")
    print(response.json())
else:
    print(f"✗ Upload failed: {response.status_code}")
    print(response.text)

Or upload files one at a time:

files_to_upload = [
    ("./data/file1.txt", "data/file1.txt"),
    ("./data/file2.csv", "data/file2.csv"),
    ("./images/photo.jpg", "images/photo.jpg"),
]

for local_path, remote_path in files_to_upload:
    print(f"Uploading {local_path}...")
    upload_file(
        base_url=SERVER_URL,
        api_key=API_KEY,
        namespace=NAMESPACE,
        repo_name=REPO_NAME,
        branch="main",
        local_file_path=local_path,
        remote_file_path=remote_path,
        commit_message=f"Add {os.path.basename(local_path)}",
        author_name=USER_NAME,
        author_email=USER_EMAIL
    )

Uploading to Different Branches

# Upload to development branch
upload_file(
    base_url=SERVER_URL,
    api_key=API_KEY,
    namespace=NAMESPACE,
    repo_name=REPO_NAME,
    branch="development",  # Different branch
    local_file_path="./experiment.txt",
    remote_file_path="experiments/test1.txt",
    commit_message="Add experimental data",
    author_name=USER_NAME,
    author_email=USER_EMAIL
)

Organizing Files in Directories

Files are automatically organized based on the remote_file_path:

# Creates nested directory structure
upload_paths = {
    "./raw_data.csv": "datasets/raw/data.csv",
    "./processed.csv": "datasets/processed/data.csv",
    "./model.pt": "models/v1/checkpoint.pt",
    "./readme.md": "docs/README.md",
}

Next Steps

Download Files - Learn how to retrieve files
List Files - Browse repository contents
Workspaces - Work with remote data without downloading
Branches - Manage repository branches

Repository API

Branches

Commits

Compare

Export

Repositories

Workspaces

Version Files

Data Frames

Import

Namespaces

Workspace Files

Metadata

Merge

Files

Health

Fork

Directories

Documentation Index

​Overview

​Prerequisites

​Configuration

​Step 1: Create a Repository

​Endpoint

​Example

​Request Body

​Response

​Step 2: Upload a File

​Endpoint

​Path Parameters

​Example

​Request Body (Multipart Form Data)

​Response

​Step 3: Create a Branch (Optional)

​Endpoint

​Example

​Request Body

​Response

​Complete Example

​Authentication

​Getting an API Key

​Advanced Usage

​Uploading Multiple Files

​Uploading to Different Branches

​Organizing Files in Directories

​Next Steps

​Related Resources

Overview

Prerequisites

Configuration

Step 1: Create a Repository

Endpoint

Example

Request Body

Response

Step 2: Upload a File

Endpoint

Path Parameters

Example

Request Body (Multipart Form Data)

Response

Step 3: Create a Branch (Optional)

Endpoint

Example

Request Body

Response

Complete Example

Authentication

Getting an API Key

Advanced Usage

Uploading Multiple Files

Uploading to Different Branches

Organizing Files in Directories

Next Steps

Related Resources