AI Image and Video API Integration Checklist
A practical checklist for adding AI image generation, image editing, and AI video generation to your product backend.
Keep API keys on the server
Creative generation APIs should be called from your backend, not directly from the browser. Keep sub keys in server-side environment variables, rotate them when needed, and avoid exposing credentials in client bundles.
Your frontend should send user intent to your own backend. Your backend then validates access, creates the generation task, stores the task ID, and returns a safe status response to the user interface.
Model the workflow around asynchronous tasks
Image and video generation should be treated as asynchronous work. A good integration creates a task, persists the task ID, polls status, and updates the UI when output URLs become available.
This makes the product easier to operate because refreshes, retries, and temporary provider delays do not lose user work.
- Create a task record before calling the provider.
- Store prompt, mode, cost, status, and output URLs.
- Use polling or background workers for long video tasks.
Design for cost and abuse controls
Before launching an API-powered creative feature, decide how credits, rate limits, retries, and failed tasks should behave. The best user experience is clear about balance, estimated cost, and task state.
For team products, add per-user usage logs and admin visibility early. It is much easier than reconstructing generation history after customers start using the feature heavily.