Visual Layer Documentation: Visual Intelligence, At Scale

How This Helps

The Task Manager API gives you programmatic access to all dataset operations — creation, enrichment, re-indexing, snapshot operations, and more. Monitor progress, abort long-running tasks, and retry failed ones without switching to the UI.

Prerequisites

A Visual Layer Cloud account with API access.
A valid JWT token. See Authentication.

List Tasks

Retrieve a paginated list of tasks across all datasets you have access to.

GET /api/v1/tasks
Authorization: Bearer <jwt>

Query Parameters

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
`dataset_id`	UUID	No	Filter by dataset ID.
`dataset_name`	string	No	Filter by dataset name.
`task_type`	string	No	Filter by task type. See Task Types for valid values.
`task_status`	string	No	Filter by status. See Task Statuses for valid values.
`created_by`	string	No	Filter by the email address of the user who initiated the task.
`start_time_from`	datetime	No	Return tasks initiated on or after this timestamp (ISO 8601).
`start_time_to`	datetime	No	Return tasks initiated on or before this timestamp (ISO 8601).
`sort_by`	string	No	Sort field: `start_time`, `status`, `task_type`, `dataset_name`, `dataset_id`, or `created_by`.
`sort_order`	string	No	`asc` or `desc` (default: `desc`).
`page`	integer	No	Page number, 1-based (default: `1`).
`page_size`	integer	No	Results per page, 5–50 (default: `20`).

Example

curl -H "Authorization: Bearer <jwt>" \
  "https://app.visual-layer.com/api/v1/tasks?task_status=FAILED&start_time_from=2026-03-01T00:00:00Z"

Response

{
  "tasks": [
    {
      "task_id": "a1b2c3d4-5678-90ab-cdef-1234567890ab",
      "dataset_id": "b1a39406-123d-11f1-9353-fa39f6ed1f22",
      "dataset_name": "Product Images Q1",
      "dataset_status": "READY",
      "created_by": "rachel@visual-layer.com",
      "task_type": "ENRICHMENT",
      "status": "FAILED",
      "status_message": "Enrichment failed",
      "progress_percentage": 45,
      "error_message": "Model timeout after 300s",
      "start_time": "2026-03-01T14:30:00Z",
      "end_time": "2026-03-01T14:35:12Z"
    }
  ],
  "total": 1,
  "page": 1,
  "page_size": 20
}

Task Object Fields

Field	Description
`task_id`	Unique identifier for the task.
`dataset_id`	The dataset this task operates on.
`dataset_name`	Display name of the dataset.
`dataset_status`	Current dataset status (`READY`, `READ_ONLY`, `PARTIAL_INDEX`).
`created_by`	Email address of the user who initiated the task.
`task_type`	The operation type. See Task Types.
`status`	Current task status. See Task Statuses.
`status_message`	Short description of the current state.
`progress_percentage`	Completion percentage (0–100), or `null` if not available.
`error_message`	Error details if the task failed, otherwise `null`.
`start_time`	ISO 8601 timestamp when the task started.
`end_time`	ISO 8601 timestamp when the task reached a final state, or `null` if still running.

Retrieve the available values for each filter field. Use this to populate filter dropdowns in custom integrations.

GET /api/v1/tasks/filters
Authorization: Bearer <jwt>

Query Parameters

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
`start_time_from`	datetime	No	Scope filter options to tasks from this timestamp onward.
`start_time_to`	datetime	No	Scope filter options to tasks before this timestamp.

Example

curl -H "Authorization: Bearer <jwt>" \
  "https://app.visual-layer.com/api/v1/tasks/filters"

Response

{
  "dataset_names": ["Product Images Q1", "Training Set v2"],
  "dataset_ids": ["b1a39406-123d-11f1-9353-fa39f6ed1f22"],
  "task_types": ["DATASET_CREATION", "ENRICHMENT", "REINDEX"],
  "created_by": ["rachel@visual-layer.com", "alex@visual-layer.com"]
}

Abort a Task

Cancel a running dataset creation task. The task stops processing and its status changes to ABORTED.

POST /api/v1/tasks/{task_id}/abort
Authorization: Bearer <jwt>

Path Parameters

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
`task_id`	UUID	Yes	The ID of the task to abort.

Example

curl -X POST \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer <jwt>" \
  "https://app.visual-layer.com/api/v1/tasks/<task_id>/abort"

Response

Returns the updated task object with status set to ABORTED.

Only Dataset Creation tasks can be aborted. Tasks in the final commit phase or in a completed state (COMPLETED, FAILED, ABORTED) cannot be aborted and return a 409 Conflict response.

Retry a Task

Restart a failed or aborted dataset creation task. The task resets to INITIALIZING and re-triggers the processing pipeline with the same configuration.

POST /api/v1/tasks/{task_id}/retry
Authorization: Bearer <jwt>

Path Parameters

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
`task_id`	UUID	Yes	The ID of the task to retry.

Example

curl -X POST \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer <jwt>" \
  "https://app.visual-layer.com/api/v1/tasks/<task_id>/retry"

Response

Returns the updated task object with status set to INITIALIZING.

Only Dataset Creation tasks in FAILED or ABORTED status can be retried. All previously uploaded media is preserved and reprocessed. A 400 Bad Request is returned if the task is not in a retryable state.

Task Types

The following task types appear in the task_type field:

Task Type	Description
`DATASET_CREATION`	Creating a new dataset from uploaded media.
`MEDIA_ADDITION`	Adding new images or videos to an existing dataset.
`REINDEX`	Re-indexing a dataset after media addition to incorporate new items into the dataset index.
`ENRICHMENT`	Running an AI enrichment model on the dataset.
`CUSTOM_METADATA`	Importing or updating custom metadata fields.
`SNAPSHOT_RESTORE`	Restoring a dataset to a previously saved snapshot state.
`SNAPSHOT_CLONE`	Creating a new independent dataset from a snapshot.

Task Statuses

The following values appear in the status field:

Status	Description
`INITIALIZING`	The task is performing initial setup and validation.
`RUNNING`	The task is actively processing. `progress_percentage` reflects completion.
`COMPLETED`	The task finished successfully.
`FAILED`	The task encountered an error. Check `error_message` for details.
`ABORTED`	The task was manually cancelled by a user.

Python Example

import requests
import time

VL_BASE_URL = "https://app.visual-layer.com"
JWT_TOKEN = "<your-jwt-token>"

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

# List all failed tasks from the past week
resp = requests.get(
    f"{VL_BASE_URL}/api/v1/tasks",
    headers=headers,
    params={
        "task_status": "FAILED",
        "start_time_from": "2026-02-24T00:00:00Z",
        "sort_by": "start_time",
        "sort_order": "desc",
    },
)
resp.raise_for_status()
data = resp.json()
print(f"Found {data['total']} failed tasks")

for task in data["tasks"]:
    print(f"  {task['task_type']} on {task['dataset_name']}: {task['error_message']}")

    # Retry failed dataset creation tasks
    if task["task_type"] == "DATASET_CREATION":
        retry_resp = requests.post(
            f"{VL_BASE_URL}/api/v1/tasks/{task['task_id']}/retry",
            headers=headers,
        )
        retry_resp.raise_for_status()
        print(f"    Retried task {task['task_id']}")

Response Codes

See Error Handling for the error response format and Python handling patterns.

HTTP Code	Meaning
200	Request successful.
400	Bad request — task is not in a retryable state (retry endpoint).
401	Unauthorized — check your JWT token.
404	Task or dataset not found.
409	Conflict — task cannot be aborted (already completed, failed, or in commit phase).
500	Internal Server Error — contact support if this persists.

Task Manager (UI)

Monitor and manage tasks from the Visual Layer interface.

Retrieve Dataset Status

Check the current processing state of a dataset.

How This Helps

​Prerequisites

​List Tasks

​Query Parameters

​Example

​Response

​Task Object Fields

​Get Filter Options

​Query Parameters

​Example

​Response

​Abort a Task

​Path Parameters

​Example

​Response

​Retry a Task

​Path Parameters

​Example

​Response

​Task Types

​Task Statuses

​Python Example

​Response Codes

​Related Resources

Task Manager (UI)

Retrieve Dataset Status

Prerequisites

List Tasks

Query Parameters

Example

Response

Task Object Fields

Get Filter Options

Query Parameters

Example

Response

Abort a Task

Path Parameters

Example

Response

Retry a Task

Path Parameters

Example

Response

Task Types

Task Statuses

Python Example

Response Codes

Related Resources