# Introduction

## Authentication

The ChatofAI API uses API keys for authentication. Visit your API keys page to retrieve the API key you'll use in your requests.

**Remember that your API key is a secret!** Do not share it with others or expose it in any client-side code (browsers, apps). Production requests must be routed through your own backend server where your API key can be securely loaded from an environment variable or key management service.

All API requests should include your API key in an Authorization HTTP header as follows:

```
Authorization: Bearer CHATOFAI_API_KEY
```

Example curl command:

```
curl https://chatof.ai/api/v1/backend\
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $CHATOFAI_API_KEY"
```

Example with python

```
import requests
url = "https://chatof.ai/api/v1/backend"
headers = {
    "Authorization": f"Bearer {CHATOFAI_API_KEY}"
}
resp = requests.get(url, headers=headers)
```

## Return

Normally, we use HTTP status codes to represent whether a request is permitted. When the HTTP status code is 200, it means that the request is legal. We use 'code' to indicate whether the request is successful. Only when 'code' equals 0 does it mean that the request is successful.

### HTTP Status

**200** This request is valid, we will return a JSON string in the request body.\
**401** Authentication failed, please check if you have included the API\_KEY in the header, or verify if your API\_KEY has been deleted by the administrator.\
**403** You do not have permission to access this interface. **404** The request path was not found, please check if your request path is correct.\
**500** There is an internal server error while processing the request.

### Structure of the returned data

The structure of the returned data typically follows a standard format. Here's an example:

```python
{
    "code": 0,  # 0 means success, other values indicate different types of errors
    "message": "Success",  # A message describing the result
    "data": {
        # The actual data returned by the API
    },
    "request_id": "892bf29e-07e5-4ac1-8120-040c8268cb5b" # The unique identifier for this request.
}
```

This structure allows the client to easily understand the status of the request and handle the returned data appropriately.


---

# Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation

If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question.

Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter:

```
GET https://docs.chatof.ai/api-reference/introduction.md?ask=<question>
```

The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language.
The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation.

Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.