Build a Custom Ring Builder with Claude or ChatGPT on the Pencil API
The Pencil API is now open, and with it Pencil can run in headless mode.
You build a ring, pendant or stud builder for your customers, on your own website and in your own design. Pencil runs behind it and handles the CAD, the 3D preview, the pricing and the production file.
If you already build your website with Claude or ChatGPT, you can ask the same AI to build your jewelry builder.
What headless mode means
Until now, putting Pencil on your website meant using one of our builders, such as Ring Builder or Step-by-Step Ring Builder. You chose the options and the pricing, and we supplied the interface.
Headless mode removes our interface. Your page sends each customer choice to Pencil through the API, and Pencil returns the updated design. The layout, the steps, the wording and the look are yours.
The engine behind it is the same parametric CAD that runs the rest of Pencil. Every design a customer makes on your page is a real CAD model with real geometry. That is why the price is calculated from the piece itself, and why each order has a production file behind it.
What you can build
You can build a ring builder, a pendant builder, a nameplate builder, or a builder that our standard pages do not cover. Because your AI builds the page, there is no template to work around. You can ask for a step-by-step flow that starts with the stone, a single page with the 3D viewer on the left, or a phone-first design with three options and a buy button.
Through the API, your page can do the following.
- Start a design from one of your published templates, or from a blank ring, pendant or nameplate.
- Change the band, the metal, and the shape, type, carat weight and placement of each stone.
- Show a live 3D preview of the piece, embedded in your page.
- Price the design with the pricing rules you have already set in Pencil Shop.
- Send the finished design to your cart on Shopify, Wix or Squarespace.
Checkout and payment stay with your store. Production files come through your normal Pencil order workflow, so nothing changes in how you manufacture.
How to build one with your own AI
- Create an access token. In Pencil, go to Platform Settings, then API, then Access tokens. Create a token with the Read designs and Write designs scopes, and copy it when it is shown.
- Give your AI the API description. Paste this link into Claude or ChatGPT:
https://api.pencildesign.co/public-api/v1/openapi.json. That one file describes the whole API in a format your AI can read. - Describe the builder you want. For example: "Build me a pendant builder for my website. Customers pick the style, metal and stone, see it in 3D, see the price update, and add it to cart. Keep my API token on the server."
- Keep going in plain English. Ask it to move the viewer, add an option or restyle the page. It can read the API description and work out which part of the API to use.
The full documentation and seven integration guides are on our API and Developers page. They cover tokens, templates, editing, the live preview, pricing and cart, and design variants.
Using Pencil AI through the API
The API can also pass a request to the Pencil AI designer, so a design can be changed by describing the change instead of setting each option. This is switched off by default. Contact us and we will enable it for your account.
Plans and getting started
API access is included in Pencil Shop, Pencil Shop Pro and Enterprise. If you are on one of those plans, you can create a token today.
Brands that need custom parametric designs or their own manufacturing specifications should look at Enterprise.
If you are new to Pencil, start a free trial or book a demo and we will walk you through your first builder.