Your Chatbotty chatbot already answers questions on your website through its widget. But what if you wanted your AI chatbot to live somewhere else too — inside your own mobile app, a customer portal, or an internal tool your team uses every day? That is exactly what an **API** is for. This guide explains what an API is in plain English, how the Chatbotty API works, what you can build with it, and how to create your first API key. No computer science degree required — just a clear picture of how the pieces fit together. This is the first article in a series. Here we cover the big picture; later articles dive into each part of the API in detail. ## What is an API, exactly? API stands for *Application Programming Interface*. That sounds technical, but the idea is simple: an API is a way for two pieces of software to talk to each other directly, without a human clicking buttons in between. Think of it like ordering at a restaurant. You don't walk into the kitchen and cook your own meal. You tell the waiter what you want, the waiter passes your order to the kitchen, and the food comes back to your table. The waiter is the API — a messenger that takes your request, delivers it to the system that does the work, and brings back the answer. With Chatbotty, the "kitchen" is your AI chatbot and its knowledge base. The API is the messenger your software talks to. Your app sends a question, the chatbot figures out the answer, and the API sends that answer straight back to your app — all in a fraction of a second. ## Why connect your chatbot to an API? The chat widget is perfect for your website. But an API opens up everything else: - **Build a chatbot into your own app.** Put your AI assistant inside a mobile app or a custom web app, with your own design around it. - **Connect your chatbot to other tools.** Feed answers into a help desk, a Slack channel, or an internal dashboard. - **Automate your knowledge base.** Upload new documents to your chatbot automatically whenever your product information changes. - **Pull your own reports.** Read conversation history and analytics into your systems instead of checking the dashboard by hand. In short: the widget is the ready-made front door, and the API is the set of keys that lets you build your own doors wherever you need them. ## What you can do with the Chatbotty API The Chatbotty API is organized into five areas. You'll find ready-to-copy code examples for each one right inside your dashboard, under **API Integration**. - **Chat API** — send a message to your chatbot and get the AI answer back, the same brain that powers your widget. - **Documents API** — upload, list, and remove the documents that make up your chatbot's knowledge base. - **Conversations API** — read past conversations and their messages. - **Analytics API** — pull aggregated statistics like total questions and success rate. - **Tickets API** — list support tickets, change their status, and add internal notes. Don't worry about the details yet. Each of these gets its own dedicated article. For now, just know that almost everything you can see in the dashboard, you can also reach through the API. ## How API keys keep your chatbot secure Software can't log in with an email and password the way you do. Instead, it proves who it is with an **API key** — a long, secret string of characters. Every request your app sends includes this key so Chatbotty knows the request is really coming from you and which chatbot it belongs to. The key is sent in a part of the request called the *Authorization header*, as something called a **Bearer token**. You don't need to memorize those terms — the code examples in your dashboard already include them. Just replace the placeholder `YOUR_API_KEY` with your real key and you're done. A key is tied to one specific chatbot. You never have to send a chatbot ID — Chatbotty figures out which chatbot you mean from the key itself. An API key is like a password for your chatbot. Anyone who has it can talk to your chatbot and read its data. Never paste it into public code, a website's front-end, or a shared document — keep it on your own secure server. ## How to create your first API key Creating a key takes about ten seconds. Here's the whole process. 1. Open your dashboard and go to **API Integration** in the left menu. 2. Find the chatbot you want to connect. Each chatbot has its own **API Keys** section. 3. Click **Create new API key**. 4. Give the key a name you'll recognize later, such as *Production website* or *Mobile app*. The name is just for you — it helps you remember where each key is used. 5. Click **Create**. Your brand-new key appears right away. Copy your key now and store it somewhere safe. For security, the full key is shown only once. After you close this window the dashboard only displays the first few characters. If you ever lose it, just delete the old key and create a new one. You can create several keys per chatbot — a handy way to give each app its own key. You can switch a key off at any time without deleting it, or remove it for good when it's no longer needed. ## Your first API request Once you have a key, talking to your chatbot is one simple request. Here's the smallest possible example using cURL, a basic command-line tool: ```bash curl -X POST "https://www.chatbotty.ai/api/v1/chat" \ -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \ -H "Content-Type: application/json" \ -d '{"message": "What are your opening hours?"}' ``` Your chatbot reads the message, searches its knowledge base, and replies — exactly as it would in the widget. The very first chat request also creates a *conversation*, and you can pass its ID back on the next request to keep the conversation going with full context. Prefer JavaScript, Python, or Node.js? Every example in the dashboard is available in those languages too, ready to copy. ## Who can use the API? The Chatbotty API is available on the **Evaluation**, **Elite**, and **Enterprise** plans. If your current plan doesn't include API access yet, the API Integration page will show you the upgrade options. Chat requests sent through the API count toward your monthly message quota, just like chats from the widget — the other areas, such as analytics and conversations, don't use up messages. ## Ready to start building? That's the whole picture: an API lets your own software talk to your chatbot directly, an API key keeps that connection secure, and the dashboard hands you working code for every part of it. Open the API Integration page, create your first key, and try a single chat request — once you see your chatbot answer through the API, the rest will click into place. Keep an eye out for the next articles in this series, where we'll explore the Chat, Documents, Conversations, Analytics, and Tickets APIs one by one.