Play with the Cat

Chatting with the Cat: the Admin Portal playground

The Cat is an API-first framework, and it doesn't provide a ready-to-use UI for the end user. It is your responsibility to implement this UI. However, the Cat offers a playground that you can use to quickly test the AI you are implementing.

To access playground, go to the Admin Portal at localhost:1865/admin, and click on the Home tab. This tab serves as the playground for chatting with the Cat.

Try to ask something about socks, e.g. "what do you know about socks?". The Cat will give a generic answer. Afterward, we will expand this general knowledge with more specific information.

You have learned how to use the playground to test your AI via the Admin Portal.

Chatting with the Cat: API interaction

The Cat is an API-first framework, you can chat with it using the WebSocket protocol.

First, set the API key by creating a file named .env in the same folder as the compose.yml file with the following content. Then, restart the Cat with docker compose down followed by docker compose up.

CCAT_API_KEY_WS=meow_secret

Here is an example of how to use it in Python:

import asyncio
import json

from websockets.asyncio.client import connect


async def cat_chat():
    # Creating a websocket connection
    async with connect("ws://localhost:1865/ws?token=meow_secret") as websocket:

        # Taking user input and sending it through the websocket
        user_input = input("Human: ")
        await websocket.send(json.dumps({"text": user_input}))

        # Receiving and printing the cat's response
        async for message in websocket:
            cat_response = json.loads(message)

            if cat_response["type"] == "chat":
                print("Cheshire Cat:", cat_response["content"])
                break


# Running the function until completion
asyncio.run(cat_chat())

Run it and ask what do you know about socks? again, the output in the terminal should looks like:

❯ python main.py
Human: what do you know about socks?
Cheshire Cat: Socks, my dear, are like the hidden wonders of the wardrobe! They can be plain or patterned, warm or cool, and often seem to vanish into thin air. Do you have a favorite pair?

More Info

This example explains the Raw use of the Cat APIs, however there are convenient and ready-made libraries available for various languages! Production → Client Libraries

For more methods of authentication look at Production → Authentication

Next Step

In the next step, you will learn how to load information into the Cat by uploading documents.