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1. Register and get a token

Produces: a PRISM API key in mlc_… format, scoped to MLPerf Endpoints.

Before you begin

  • You have read Membership, PRISM and eligibility
  • You have an organisation email address
  • You know whether your organisation needs MLCommons membership — see the warning below

What you'll do

  • Sign the MLCommons CLA as the individual who will submit
  • Create a PRISM account at MLCommons Member Central
  • Mint an API key with Service Scope MLPerf Endpoints
  • Put the key in your environment

Start this first

Every other step is work you control. This one waits on MLCommons granting API-creation access and emailing you. No turnaround time is published. Do it before you schedule accelerator time, not after.

Steps

1. Sign the CLA

The individual making the submission must have signed the relevant MLCommons CLA. It is not required that everyone in your organisation has signed. All code you submit is made under the CLA and will be Apache-2-compatible.

2. Create your PRISM account

Create your account at MLCommons Member Central using your organisation email address, not a personal one. Once the account exists you are granted API-creation access and notified by email.

URL not published

The Member Central and PRISM URLs do not appear in any rules document, CLI documentation, or public MLCommons page. Ask via the support channels. Tracked as A3 in Open questions.

3. Create the API key

Sign in, open the API Keys dashboard, and create a key with Service Scope: MLPerf Endpoints. The key looks like mlc_….

4. Put the key in your environment

# Add to ~/.zshrc, ~/.bashrc or equivalent
export PRISM_USER_API_TOKEN=mlc_your_token_here

endpoints-submission-cli runs list --token mlc_your_token_here

Both forms work on every command. --token wins when both are set.

Treat the token as a credential

It authenticates every action against your organisation's submissions, including withdrawal. Do not commit it, do not paste it into an issue, and note that report directories written by the reference client contain a sanitized config.yaml with secrets replaced by <redacted>, which means a config copied back out of a report directory will not work until you restore them.

Verify

endpoints-submission-cli runs list
  • A table (possibly empty) — authentication works. Proceed.
  • An authentication error — the token is missing, mistyped, or not scoped to MLPerf Endpoints.
  • A connection error — check MLPERF_API_BASE_URL is unset; it defaults to https://api.mlcommons.org and should only be overridden for dev or staging.

Next

→ 2. Install the tools

Problems? See Troubleshooting.