# Chat API

Pico AI Homelab supports the following OpenAI and Ollama-compatible endpoints for chat:

* `v1/chat/`completions OpenAI-compatible chat API
* `api/chat` Ollama-compatible chat API
* `api/generate` Ollama-compatible completion API

These endpoints are conform OpenAI and Ollama. Pico supports message content types `text`, `image_url`, and `video_url`.

Pico supports both LLM and VLM models. To discover which models have been downloaded and are available to clients, use the [models API](/homelab/basics/models-api.md).

### Request

<mark style="color:green;">`POST`</mark> `/v1/chat`

<mark style="color:green;">`POST`</mark> `/api/chat`

<mark style="color:green;">`POST`</mark> `/api/generate`

<table><thead><tr><th width="221">Name</th><th width="159">Type</th><th>Description</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td><code>model</code></td><td>String</td><td>Name of the embeddings model, e.g. <code>all-MiniLM-L6-v2</code></td></tr><tr><td><code>messages</code></td><td>Array of messages</td><td>String or strings to embed</td></tr><tr><td><code>stream</code></td><td>Optional boolean</td><td>If true or nil, the response will be streamed to the client per token</td></tr><tr><td><code>reasoning</code></td><td>Optional enum</td><td>See reasoning</td></tr><tr><td><code>chat_template_kwargs</code></td><td>Optional dictionary</td><td>See reasoning</td></tr><tr><td><code>max_tokens</code></td><td>Optional integer</td><td>Deprecated, use <code>max_completion_tokens</code> instead.</td></tr><tr><td><code>max_completion_tokens</code></td><td>Optional integer</td><td>Upper bound for the number of tokens that can be generated for a completion, including visible output tokens and reasoning tokens</td></tr><tr><td><code>temperature</code></td><td>Optional float</td><td>What sampling temperature to use</td></tr><tr><td><code>frequency_penalty</code></td><td>Optional float</td><td></td></tr><tr><td><code>top_p</code></td><td>Optional float</td><td></td></tr><tr><td><code>user</code></td><td>Optional string</td><td>Ignored by Pico</td></tr><tr><td><code>format</code></td><td>Optional string</td><td>Ignored by Pico</td></tr><tr><td><code>options</code></td><td>Optional object</td><td>See Ollama options</td></tr><tr><td><code>think</code></td><td>Optional boolean</td><td>Enables or disables reasoning (conform Ollama API). Available from 1.1.18</td></tr></tbody></table>

#### Reasoning

Pico supports the OpenAI, vLLM, and Ollama way of enabling and disabling reasoning. The `reasoning` (OpenAI API-compatible) and `enable_thinking` options (vLLM API-compatible) are supported in Pico 1.1.14 and later, the `think` option (Ollama API-compatible) from 1.1.18.

{% hint style="info" %}
Note that setting the reasoning options is optional. If no reasoning option is supplied, the model will use its default settings, which is often reasnoning enabled.
{% endhint %}

#### OpenAI-compatible Reasoning

Unlike OpenAI, Pico does not implement reasoning levels (`low`, `medium`, `high`); only binary ON or OFF states are supported. Requests specifying `low` will be interpreted by Pico as Reasoning = Off. Note that Pico also supports non-OpenAI standard values `on`, `off`, and `none` .

| Name      | Type            | Description              |
| --------- | --------------- | ------------------------ |
| `effort`  | Enum            | See below                |
| `summary` | Optional string | This property is ignored |

<table><thead><tr><th width="142">Name</th><th>Description</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td><code>low</code></td><td>Pico interprets this condition as: Reasoning mode disabled</td></tr><tr><td><code>medium</code></td><td>Pico interprets this condition as: Reasoning mode enabled</td></tr><tr><td><code>high</code></td><td>Pico interprets this condition as: Reasoning mode enabled</td></tr><tr><td><code>on</code></td><td>Reasoning mode enabled</td></tr><tr><td><code>off</code></td><td>Reasoning mode disabled</td></tr><tr><td><code>none</code></td><td>Reasoning mode disabled</td></tr></tbody></table>

#### vLLM-compatible Reasoning

Alternatively, use the vLLM API by setting key `enable_thinking` to `true` or `false` in `chat_template_kwargs`&#x20;

#### Ollama-compatible Reasoning

`think` is an optional boolean.&#x20;

{% hint style="info" %}
As of Pico AI Server 1.1.18, the `thinking` field in the response is **not** supported yet, meaning that thinking responses will be streamed as a regular response.
{% endhint %}


---

# 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://pico-1.gitbook.io/homelab/basics/chat-api.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.