Chat through the OpenAI-compatible interface

After uploading files to an assistant, you can chat with the assistant.

This page shows you how to chat with an assistant using the OpenAI-compatible chat interface. This interface is based on the OpenAI Chat Completion API, a commonly used and adopted API. It is useful if you need inline citations or OpenAI-compatible responses, but has limited functionality compared to the standard chat interface.

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Chat with an assistant

The OpenAI-compatible chat interface can return responses in two different formats:

• Default response: The assistant returns a response in a single string field, which includes citation information.
• Streaming response: The assistant returns the response as a text stream.

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Default response

The following example sends a message and requests a response in the default format:

# To use the Python SDK, install the plugin:
# pip install --upgrade pinecone pinecone-plugin-assistant

from pinecone import Pinecone
from pinecone_plugins.assistant.models.chat import Message

pc = Pinecone(api_key="YOUR_API_KEY")

# Get your assistant.
assistant = pc.assistant.Assistant(
    assistant_name="example-assistant", 
)

# Chat with the assistant.
chat_context = [Message(role="user", content='What is the maximum height of a red pine?')]
response = assistant.chat_completions(messages=chat_context)

The example above returns a result like the following:

{"chat_completion":
  {
    "id":"chatcmpl-9OtJCcR0SJQdgbCDc9JfRZy8g7VJR",
    "choices":[
      {
        "finish_reason":"stop",
        "index":0,
        "message":{
          "role":"assistant",
          "content":"The maximum height of a red pine (Pinus resinosa) is up to 25 meters."
        }
      }
    ],
    "model":"my_assistant"
  }
}

​

Streaming response

The following example sends a messages and requests a streaming response:

# To use the Python SDK, install the plugin:
# pip install --upgrade pinecone pinecone-plugin-assistant

from pinecone import Pinecone
from pinecone_plugins.assistant.models.chat import Message

pc = Pinecone(api_key="YOUR_API_KEY")

# Get your assistant.
assistant = pc.assistant.Assistant(
    assistant_name="example-assistant" 
)

# Streaming chat with the Assistant.
chat_context = [Message(role="user", content="What is the maximum height of a red pine?")]
response = assistant.chat_completions(messages=[chat_context], stream=True, model="gpt-4o")

for data in response:
    if data:
        print(data)

The example above returns a result like the following:

{
  'id': '000000000000000009de65aa87adbcf0', 
  'choices': [
      {
      'index': 0, 
      'delta': 
        {
        'role': 'assistant', 
        'content': 'The'
        }, 
      'finish_reason': None
      }
    ], 
  'model': 'gpt-4o-2024-05-13'
}

...

{
  'id': '00000000000000007a927260910f5839',
  'choices': [
      {
      'index': 0,
      'delta':
        {
          'role': '', 
          'content': 'The'
        }, 
      'finish_reason': None
      }
    ], 
  'model': 'gpt-4o-2024-05-13'
}

...

{
  'id': '00000000000000007a927260910f5839', 
  'choices': [
    {
      'index': 0, 
      'delta': 
        {
        'role': None, 
        'content': None
        }, 
      'finish_reason': 'stop'
      }
    ], 
  'model': 'gpt-4o-2024-05-13'
}

There are three types of messages in a chat completion response:

• Message start: Includes "role":"assistant", which indicates that the assistant is responding to the user’s message.
• Content: Includes a value in the content field (e.g., "content":"The"), which is part of the assistant’s streamed response to the user’s message.
• Message end: Includes "finish_reason":"stop", which indicates that the assistant has finished responding to the user’s message.

​

Extract the response content

The assistant’s response is returned in a JSON response object along with other information. The message string is contained in the following JSON object:

• choices.[0].message.content for the default chat response
• choices[0].delta.content for the streaming chat response

You can extract the message content and print it to the console:

import sys

# Print the assistant's response to the console.
print(str(response.choices[0].message.content))

A red pine, scientifically known as *Pinus resinosa*, is a medium-sized tree that can grow up to 25 meters high and 75 centimeters in diameter. [1, pp. 1]

import sys

# Print the assistant's response to the console.
print(str(response.choices[0].message.content))

A red pine, scientifically known as *Pinus resinosa*, is a medium-sized tree that can grow up to 25 meters high and 75 centimeters in diameter. [1, pp. 1]

import sys

# Store streaming response.
response = assistant.chat_completions(messages=chat_context, stream=True)

for data in response:
    if data:
        print(str(data.choices[0].delta.content))

The
 maximum
 height
 of
 a
 red
 pine
 (
Pin
us
 resin
osa
)
 is
 up
 to
 twenty
-five
 meters

 [1, pp. 1]
.