Freight Without the Portal

What is headless freight?

Headless commerce changed e-commerce by separating the shopping experience from the backend. Shopify's storefront API, Stripe's payment API, and Twilio's communication API all follow this pattern. The infrastructure is accessed through APIs. The experience is whatever you build on top. Teams are using this approach to build their own shipping platforms and white-label freight solutions.

Freight has been stuck in the portal era. Want a rate? Log into a carrier portal. Want to book? Fill out a web form. Want to track? Check another portal. Every carrier has their own UI. None of them talk to your systems natively. Your team spends hours per day copying data between portals and your TMS, ERP, or WMS.

Headless freight eliminates the portal. Warp's entire freight network (20,000+ local 3rd-party carriers, 50+ cross-dock facilities, all modes) is accessible through a REST API and CLI. No portal login. No web form. No copy-paste. Your systems call the API directly. AI agents call the CLI directly. The freight portal becomes optional, not required. You can even embed freight quoting directly into your own platform.

How headless freight works

Embed freight into any system

// E-commerce checkout: add shipping quotes to cart
const quotes = await fetch('https://api.wearewarp.com/api/v1/freights/quote', {
  method: 'POST',
  headers: { 'apikey': process.env.WARP_API_KEY, 'Content-Type': 'application/json' },
  body: JSON.stringify({
    pickupInfo: { zipCode: warehouse.zip },
    deliveryInfo: { zipCode: customer.zip },
    listItems: cart.items.map(toFreightItem),
    pickupDate: [nextBusinessDay()]
  })
});

// Display rates in your checkout UI
const { data } = await quotes.json();
renderShippingOptions(data);

# Warehouse automation: auto-ship when order is packed
warp quote \
  --pickup 90001 \
  --delivery 85001 \
  --item "Pallet,48x40x48in,800lb" \
  --format json | jq '.quoteId' | \
xargs -I {} warp book --quote-id {}

# Triggered by your WMS "packed" webhook
# Zero human intervention from pack to pickup

# AI agent: natural language freight booking
# Claude Code, GPT, or any LLM with tool use

User: "Ship 2 pallets from LA to Phoenix, standard LTL"

Agent calls: POST /freights/quote
Agent calls: POST /freights/booking
Agent calls: POST /freights/tracking

# Every response is structured JSON.
# No portal navigation. No form filling.
# The agent handles the entire workflow.

// Internal tool: custom shipping dashboard
import { WarpClient } from './warp-client';

const warp = new WarpClient(process.env.WARP_API_KEY);

// Build your own UI on top of Warp's network
const shipments = await warp.listShipments({ page: 1, pageSize: 50 });
const tracking = await warp.track(shipments.map(s => s.trackingNumber));
const invoices = await warp.getInvoices(shipments.map(s => s.orderId));

// Render in your own dashboard, your own way
renderDashboard({ shipments, tracking, invoices });

Why headless matters

• -Build the experience you want. Not the one a carrier portal gives you.
• -Integrate freight into your existing workflow. Not a separate tab in a separate browser.
• -Let AI agents handle freight. They can call APIs. They cannot navigate portals.
• -Scale without adding portal logins. One API integration serves unlimited volume.
• -Test and iterate. Mock the API in development. Ship real freight in production. Same code path.

Go headless

Who uses headless freight

The Warp network underneath

Headless freight is only as good as the network behind the API. Warp operates 50+ cross-dock facilities across the United States, connecting 20,000+ local 3rd-party carriers into a single programmable network. Our AI backbone, Orbit, handles carrier matching, route optimization, exception management, and real time tracking across every shipment. The result: when your code calls the Warp API, it reaches the same physical infrastructure, the same carrier network, and the same AI routing engine that powers every Warp shipment.

Modes available through the API include LTL (1 to 12 pallets through the cross-dock network), truckload (dry van, reefer, flatbed for dedicated capacity), box truck (26 foot with liftgate for mid-size freight and white glove delivery), and cargo van (cartons, cases, parcels, or up to 3 pallets for same-day and next-day). Every mode, every carrier, every facility is accessible through the same API endpoints.

Frequently asked questions