Cloudinary Upload API

Name: Cloudinary Upload API API
Brand: Cloudinary Upload API
Availability: InStock

★ Only Publicly Available OpenAPI DocumentMediaImage Processingbasic6 EndpointsREST

For Agents

Upload and manage media assets in Cloudinary, including images, videos, and raw files. Supports tagging, renaming, explicit transformations, and deletion of cloud-hosted assets.

Connect the Cloudinary Upload API to your agent

Jentic One is a self-hosted execution layer for AI agents. It lets your agent call the Cloudinary Upload API, or any other public or private API you need. You set the rules, the agent never sees your credentials, and every call is logged.

Install Jentic One Beta (Self-Hosted)

Jentic One Host machine

# On the machine that will host your Jentic One instance:
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jentic/jentic-one/main/tools/install.sh | sh

Agent machine

# On the machine where your agent runs (keep this separate from the instance):
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jentic/jentic-one/main/tools/install.sh | sh
jentic register       # connects your agent to your Jentic One instance

Jentic One is in public beta. The setup above keeps your agent separate from the instance, which is what you want before using real credentials: an agent running as the same OS user as Jentic One can read its stored keys directly. Just evaluating? A single local install is fine to start. See the secure deployment guide for the tiers.

Capabilities

What an agent can do with Cloudinary Upload API API.

Upload images, videos, and raw files to a cloud-based media library with automatic CDN distribution

Apply explicit transformations and eager processing to already-uploaded assets without re-uploading

Assign, replace, and remove tags on media assets for organized retrieval and filtering

Rename assets while preserving their transformation URLs and delivery links

GET STARTED

Start building with Cloudinary Upload API API

Explore with Jentic

View OpenAPI Document

Jentic publishes the only available OpenAPI document for Cloudinary Upload API, keeping it validated and agent-ready.

Jentic publishes the only available OpenAPI specification for Cloudinary Upload API, keeping it validated and agent-ready. Upload, transform, and manage images, videos, and raw files through a rate-unlimited REST interface that supports both Basic Authentication and signature-based uploads. The API handles asset creation, metadata tagging, renaming, and deletion across multiple resource types including image, video, and raw file formats. Each uploaded asset is stored in Cloudinary's cloud-based media library with automatic CDN delivery.

Use Cases

Patterns agents use Cloudinary Upload API API for, with concrete tasks.

★ AI Agent Media Upload Automation

AI agents upload user-generated content such as profile pictures, product photos, or document scans directly to Cloudinary through Jentic. The agent searches for the upload operation, receives the required multipart form schema, and executes the upload in a single call. Cloudinary returns a secure delivery URL with optional eager transformations applied — the agent never handles raw file bytes beyond the initial POST.

Upload a JPEG image file to the Cloudinary cloud using the POST /{resource_type}/upload endpoint with resource_type set to 'image' and verify the returned secure_url

Bulk Media Tagging and Organization

Organize large media libraries by assigning semantic tags to assets. The tags endpoint supports add, remove, and replace operations in a single call, enabling batch categorization of hundreds of assets. Tags serve as the primary filter mechanism for retrieval, making this operation essential for any media-heavy application that needs structured asset discovery.

Add the tags 'product-hero' and 'summer-2026' to three image assets using POST /{resource_type}/tags with the command 'add'

On-the-fly Asset Transformation

Apply post-upload transformations to existing assets without re-uploading. The explicit endpoint triggers eager transformations such as format conversion, quality adjustment, face-detection cropping, and responsive breakpoint generation. Results are cached on Cloudinary's CDN, so subsequent requests serve the pre-generated derivative instantly.

Call POST /{resource_type}/explicit on an existing image asset to generate a 300x300 face-cropped thumbnail and a WebP format derivative

Secure Asset Lifecycle Management

Control asset availability by renaming or permanently removing files from the media library. The rename endpoint updates the public ID while maintaining existing derived versions, and the destroy endpoint permanently removes an asset and all its transformations from CDN. Both operations support invalidation flags for immediate CDN cache purge.

Rename an image asset from 'old_product_photo' to 'product_hero_v2' using POST /{resource_type}/rename and confirm the new public_id in the response

Key Endpoints

6 endpoints — jentic publishes the only available openapi specification for cloudinary upload api, keeping it validated and agent-ready.

METHOD

PATH

DESCRIPTION

POST

/{resource_type}/upload

Upload an image, video, or raw file

POST

/{resource_type}/explicit

Apply transformations to an existing asset

POST

/{resource_type}/rename

Rename an asset by changing its public ID

POST

/{resource_type}/destroy

Delete an asset and its derivatives

POST

/{resource_type}/tags

Add, remove, or replace tags on assets

GET

/download_backup

Download a backed-up version of an asset

POST

/{resource_type}/upload

Upload an image, video, or raw file

POST

/{resource_type}/explicit

Apply transformations to an existing asset

POST

/{resource_type}/rename

Rename an asset by changing its public ID

POST

/{resource_type}/destroy

Delete an asset and its derivatives

POST

/{resource_type}/tags

Add, remove, or replace tags on assets

Why though Jentic?

Three things that make agents converge on Jentic-routed access.

Credential isolation

Cloudinary API Key and API Secret are stored encrypted in the Jentic vault (MAXsystem). Agents receive scoped upload tokens with pre-computed signatures — the raw API Secret never enters the agent's execution context.

Intent-based discovery

Agents search by intent (e.g., 'upload an image to cloud storage') and Jentic returns the matching Cloudinary upload operation with its multipart form schema, so the agent can construct the request without reading Cloudinary docs.

Time to first call

Direct Cloudinary integration: 1-2 days for signature generation, upload parameter handling, and transformation configuration. Through Jentic: under 1 hour — search, load schema, execute.

Related APIs

Alternatives and complements available in the Jentic catalogue.

Complementary

Imagga API

AI-powered image recognition and tagging to auto-categorize assets uploaded via Cloudinary

Choose Imagga when you need automatic content-based tagging or categorization of images — pair with Cloudinary for storage and delivery after analysis

Alternative

Filestack API

File upload and transformation service with similar CDN delivery but different transformation pipeline

Choose Filestack when you need a unified file picker widget or document-specific transformations that Cloudinary does not support

Alternative

Sirv API

Image CDN and optimization service with spin and zoom features for e-commerce product imagery

Choose Sirv when the primary use case is e-commerce product imagery with 360-degree spin views and deep zoom

FAQs

Specific to using Cloudinary Upload API API through Jentic.

Why is there no official OpenAPI spec for Cloudinary Upload API?

Cloudinary does not publish an OpenAPI specification. Jentic generates and maintains this spec so that AI agents and developers can call Cloudinary Upload API via structured tooling. It is validated against the live API and kept up to date. Get started at https://app.jentic.com/sign-up.

What authentication does the Cloudinary Upload API use?

The Cloudinary Upload API uses HTTP Basic Authentication where the username is your API Key and the password is your API Secret. Alternatively, uploads can use signature-based authentication where you generate a SHA-1 signature from the upload parameters and your API secret. Through Jentic, these credentials are stored encrypted in the MAXsystem vault — agents receive scoped access without your API secret entering their context.

Can I upload videos and raw files, not just images?

Yes. The upload endpoint accepts a resource_type path parameter that can be 'image', 'video', or 'raw'. Each resource type supports the full lifecycle: upload, explicit transformations, tagging, renaming, and deletion. The same endpoint structure applies to all three types.

What are the rate limits for the Cloudinary Upload API?

The Cloudinary Upload API is rate-unlimited for upload operations according to the API documentation. There is no per-second or per-minute throttle on upload calls. However, your account's storage quota and bandwidth limits still apply based on your Cloudinary plan tier.

How do I upload an image through Jentic with an AI agent?

Install the Jentic SDK with pip install jentic, then search for 'upload image to cloudinary'. Jentic returns the POST /{resource_type}/upload operation schema with required parameters (file, api_key, timestamp, signature). The agent constructs the multipart request and executes it — Jentic handles credential injection so the API secret never appears in the agent's context.

Can I apply transformations to an already-uploaded asset without re-uploading it?

Yes. Use the POST /{resource_type}/explicit endpoint with the public_id of the existing asset and an eager array specifying the transformations you want (resize, crop, format change, quality adjustment). Cloudinary generates the derivatives and caches them on CDN without requiring a new upload.

How do I organize assets with tags via the API?

Use POST /{resource_type}/tags with a JSON body containing the command (add, remove, or replace), the tag value, and an array of public_ids. You can tag multiple assets in a single call. Tags serve as the primary mechanism for filtering and retrieving assets from your media library.