---
title: "Overview"
method: GET
path: "/guides/api-overview"
tags: ["Overview"]
---

# Overview

`GET /guides/api-overview`

## Request

- Base URL: `https://developers.chatway.app/api/v1`
- URL: `https://developers.chatway.app/api/v1/guides/api-overview`
- Auth: none required

# Overview

Connect Chatway to your application or AI assistant. Use the REST API to read and update workspace data, webhooks to react to new activity, or MCP to work with your inbox through an AI assistant.

## What's in these docs

- **Getting Started** — Create an API key, send your first request, and learn about testing, rate limits, errors, and support.
- **API Reference** — Browse every REST endpoint with request and response schemas. Use **Try It** to send live requests from the browser.
- **MCP** — Connect an AI assistant, choose what it can access, and use tools to find conversations, prepare replies, and manage your inbox. Start with the [MCP overview](https://developers.chatway.app/mcp/guides.mcp_overview).
- **Webhook docs** — Subscribe to real-time events such as new messages, conversation updates, and contact changes.

If you are new to Chatway, start with **Quickstart**. If you already have an API key, jump to any endpoint in the sidebar.

## REST API

The Chatway REST API lets you read and update Chatway data programmatically using standard HTTP methods and JSON.

The Chatway REST API is available on all plans, including the Free plan.

### Base URL

```
https://developers.chatway.app/api/v1
```

### Authentication

Authenticate REST resource requests with your API key in the `X-API-KEY` header. Create the key in your Chatway dashboard and use it from your server or a trusted terminal. See **Quickstart** for setup and a first read-only request.

### Response format

Successful responses return JSON. List endpoints are paginated with `page` and `limit` query parameters. See **Pagination** for defaults, limits, response shape, and sort order.

Errors use conventional HTTP status codes with a JSON `message` field. Validation failures include an `errors` object. See **Errors** for response bodies, `401` vs `403`, and `429` / `Retry-After` behavior.

## Resources

| Tag | What you can do |
|---|---|
| **Widgets** | List chat widgets in your workspace. |
| **Contacts** | List, retrieve, update, and initialize visitor contacts. |
| **Conversations** | List conversations, read messages, and resolve conversations. |
| **Messages** | Send new messages into a conversation. |
| **Agents** | List agents, retrieve agent details, and invite new agents. |

Choose the message operation that matches your workflow:

- Reply to a known conversation with **Create Message**: `POST /messages` requires `conversation_id`.
- Send as a visitor with **Create Visitor Message**: `POST /conversations` requires `widget_id` and `content`, and selects or creates the contact and conversation.
- Initialize a contact without using the visitor-message workflow with `POST /contacts/initialize`. This operation spells the widget parameter `widgetId`.

Select a tag in the sidebar to see every operation, request schema, and response example.

## Real-time events

For push notifications when something happens in Chatway (new messages, conversation updates, and more), use **Webhook docs** in the sidebar instead of polling these endpoints.

The most common pattern is documented step-by-step in **Quickstart → Receive a message and send a reply**: subscribe to `message.received`, read `data.conversation.id` from the webhook, and call **POST /messages** to reply.

## Next steps

- **Quickstart**: account, API key, and first request.
- **Pagination**: list endpoints, page sizes, and sort order.
- **Errors**: response bodies and status code reference.
- **Testing the API**: Try It, curl, and webhook testing tips.
- **Rate limits**: per-key limits and retry behavior.

## Response `200`

Documentation.

---

[API](https://skmtc.dev/chatway/apis/chatway-developer-docs.md) · [All operations](https://skmtc.dev/chatway/apis/chatway-developer-docs/llms.txt) · [OpenAPI document](https://skmtc.dev/chatway/apis/chatway-developer-docs/revisions/ca1a1da291cc?raw)