# Katara

> Katara Cortex serves inference in the OpenAI Chat Completions, OpenAI Responses and Anthropic Messages formats, paid per reply with account credits or USDC. Every request, whatever model it names, is served by Cortex from independent GPU providers in Katara Community and Katara's own models. Katara Synapse runs agents and holds their knowledge; Katara Locus decides what an agent may do: its tools, budgets and the approvals people give. All three share one account and one API.

Every page below is plain Markdown at a `.txt` address; the same page with navigation is at that address without `.txt`. A Synapse or Locus guide says what an operation does; whether its service is switched on where you call it is something the API answers, so read the availability page before integrating.

## Start here

- What Katara is: three products on one account: [Katara](https://docs.katara.com/index.txt)
- Call models through the OpenAI-compatible API: [Use the API](https://docs.katara.com/start/api.txt), [Katara Cortex](https://docs.katara.com/concepts/cortex.txt)
- Point Claude Code, Cursor or an OpenAI or Anthropic SDK at Katara: [Use the API](https://docs.katara.com/start/api.txt), [Messages API](https://docs.katara.com/developers/messages.txt), [Responses](https://docs.katara.com/developers/responses.txt)
- Check what is switched on where you call it before integrating: [Product availability](https://docs.katara.com/products/availability.txt)
- Build a managed Synapse agent: [Tutorial: run a managed agent](https://docs.katara.com/products/tutorial-managed-agent.txt), [Define, test and inspect an agent](https://docs.katara.com/products/runs.txt), [Set up a first agent](https://docs.katara.com/start/first-agent.txt)
- Use Locus from an agent runtime you host: [Tutorial: act from your own runtime](https://docs.katara.com/products/tutorial-external-agent.txt), [Agent identities](https://docs.katara.com/products/agent-identities.txt)
- Knowledge and memory: [Content, collections and memory](https://docs.katara.com/products/knowledge.txt)
- Tools, budgets and approvals: [Tools, policies and approvals](https://docs.katara.com/products/tools-and-approvals.txt), [Connect a tool account](https://docs.katara.com/products/tool-credentials.txt)
- Scheduling and events: [Schedule agent runs](https://docs.katara.com/products/schedules.txt), [Signed event sources](https://docs.katara.com/products/event-sources.txt), [Watching a run](https://docs.katara.com/products/run-events.txt)
- Evaluation and promotion: [Evaluation datasets, rubrics and assessments](https://docs.katara.com/products/evaluations.txt), [Human approval for Test-to-Live promotion](https://docs.katara.com/products/promotion-evidence.txt), [Roll back a Live agent configuration](https://docs.katara.com/products/agent-rollback.txt)
- Keys, permissions and safe retries: [Access and API keys](https://docs.katara.com/products/access.txt), [Product SDK examples](https://docs.katara.com/products/sdks.txt), [The product API with curl](https://docs.katara.com/products/curl.txt)

## Start

- [Start chatting](https://docs.katara.com/start/chat.txt): Sign up, chat on your signup credit, and set up a wallet if you want to pay in USDC.
- [Use the API](https://docs.katara.com/start/api.txt): Create a key in the portal and send an OpenAI-compatible request.
- [Set up a first agent](https://docs.katara.com/start/first-agent.txt): Create a working agent in the Test environment and watch its first run.

## How it works

- [Models and bundles](https://docs.katara.com/concepts/models.txt): A model on Katara is a pinned bundle that every provider serves byte-for-byte.
- [Pricing and fees](https://docs.katara.com/concepts/pricing.txt): Pay per reply with account credits or USDC. Credit prices are listed per model; in USDC, providers set prices and a 2% fee applies.
- [Katara Cortex](https://docs.katara.com/concepts/cortex.txt): One model id that picks the right model for each request and keeps answering when a provider goes away.
- [Wallet and spending approval](https://docs.katara.com/concepts/wallet.txt): Your funds sit in a wallet only your passkey can sign for. You approve a cap; replies pull their exact cost.

## Synapse and Locus

- [Synapse and Locus](https://docs.katara.com/products/overview.txt): How agents, knowledge, tools and inference fit together in Katara.
- [Product availability](https://docs.katara.com/products/availability.txt): Tell what is switched on where you call it, using checks the API already has.
- [Tutorial: run a managed agent](https://docs.katara.com/products/tutorial-managed-agent.txt): Register an agent, publish its definition and run it once as a free Test simulation, with the TypeScript or Python client.
- [Tutorial: act from your own runtime](https://docs.katara.com/products/tutorial-external-agent.txt): Let an agent you host call one tool through Locus, under a grant, a budget and a policy, with the TypeScript or Python client.
- [Access and API keys](https://docs.katara.com/products/access.txt): Select an organization and environment, then grant explicit product permissions.
- [Service accounts](https://docs.katara.com/products/service-accounts.txt): Give a server application its own identity and manage its current authority.
- [Agent identities](https://docs.katara.com/products/agent-identities.txt): Register managed or external agents and review changes to their authority.
- [Define, test and inspect an agent](https://docs.katara.com/products/runs.txt): Publish a version, admit a bounded run and inspect verified outputs.
- [Watching a run](https://docs.katara.com/products/run-events.txt): Resume a run's event stream from the last event you saw, without replaying or skipping.
- [Content, collections and memory](https://docs.katara.com/products/knowledge.txt): Store approved sources, group exact versions and review memory facts.
- [Tools, policies and approvals](https://docs.katara.com/products/tools-and-approvals.txt): Publish exact tool versions and review the actions agents request.
- [Connect a tool account](https://docs.katara.com/products/tool-credentials.txt): Review account identity, connect a credential and manage its exact version.
- [Authorize a tool account](https://docs.katara.com/products/tool-oauth.txt): Use an enrolled OAuth provider, review the verified account and activate its connection.
- [Schedule agent runs](https://docs.katara.com/products/schedules.txt): Publish exact run configuration and review schedule activation separately.
- [Signed event sources](https://docs.katara.com/products/event-sources.txt): Publish a public signing key and exact agent run configuration, then review activation separately.
- [Evaluation datasets, rubrics and assessments](https://docs.katara.com/products/evaluations.txt): Publish fixed evaluation cases and review the criteria used to judge a result.
- [Human approval for Test-to-Live promotion](https://docs.katara.com/products/promotion-evidence.txt): Declare quality thresholds, verify every held-out output and approve an exact promotion proposal.
- [Roll back a Live agent configuration](https://docs.katara.com/products/agent-rollback.txt): Review an exact prior approved version and restore its definition as a new immutable publication.
- [Product SDK examples](https://docs.katara.com/products/sdks.txt): Call the same Synapse and Locus API from TypeScript and Python.
- [The product API with curl](https://docs.katara.com/products/curl.txt): Find your organization and Test environment, register an agent identity, retry a change safely and read errors, with curl.
- [Notifications](https://docs.katara.com/products/notifications.txt): Read the shared inbox, change preferences and inspect delivery outcomes.
- [Organization statements](https://docs.katara.com/products/billing-statements.txt): Read what an organization was charged in a period, checked against the digest it arrived with.
- [Support access](https://docs.katara.com/products/support-access.txt): Read which Katara staff were given access to your environment, why, and end it.
- [Closing an organization](https://docs.katara.com/products/closing-an-organization.txt): Close an organization, follow the closure while its runs stop and its execution environments are removed, and resolve the runs that need a person's decision.
- [Pay for runs from your wallet](https://docs.katara.com/products/wallet-budgets.txt): Fund a Synapse or Locus budget from your wallet's USDC instead of credits, and see each charge collected with its transaction.

## Using Katara

- [The chat app](https://docs.katara.com/customers/chat-app.txt): Katara Cortex in the browser, attachments, pictures, web search, paying with credits or USDC, and the wallet panel.
- [Referral rewards](https://docs.katara.com/customers/referrals.txt): Invite people with your link and earn USDC from what Katara makes on their paid use, five steps deep, paid once a day.

## Providing inference

- [Providing inference](https://docs.katara.com/providers/overview.txt): Run approved models on your own hardware and earn USDC per reply.
- [Hardware Compatibility](https://docs.katara.com/providers/hardware.txt): Which GPUs and Macs can serve which bundles, and how the node decides.
- [Running a node](https://docs.katara.com/providers/node.txt): Install, check your hardware against a bundle, create the node's key, and register.
- [Linux and Windows setup](https://docs.katara.com/providers/linux-windows.txt): Check an NVIDIA GPU, prepare Ubuntu, and install the node on Linux or Windows through WSL2.
- [Networking](https://docs.katara.com/providers/networking.txt): Your node connects out to Katara. No public address, port or certificate is needed.
- [Native Windows](https://docs.katara.com/providers/windows-native.txt): Install the Windows provider and test NVIDIA models without virtualization.

## Developers

- [Usage and cost](https://docs.katara.com/developers/usage.txt): Where the settled price shows up, and how to reconcile your own accounting with it.
- [Errors](https://docs.katara.com/developers/errors.txt): The error envelope, the stable codes, and what to do about each.
- [Tool calling](https://docs.katara.com/developers/tools.txt): What a tool call from Katara looks like, which tool settings Cortex honours, web search, and what happens when a model gets a call wrong.
- [Messages API](https://docs.katara.com/developers/messages.txt): Point an Anthropic client or Claude Code at Katara and send Messages requests, tools, images and documents included.
- [Pay per request with x402](https://docs.katara.com/developers/x402.txt): Call chat completions, Messages, the Responses API, embeddings or images without an account or key, paying for each reply with a signed USDC authorization from your wallet.
- [Embeddings](https://docs.katara.com/developers/embeddings.txt): Turn text into vectors with POST /v1/embeddings, paid with a key or per request with x402.
- [Responses](https://docs.katara.com/developers/responses.txt): Send text, images, files and tools through the Responses API, and continue stored responses for 30 days.
- [Images](https://docs.katara.com/developers/images.txt): Generate and edit images with POST /v1/images/generations and /v1/images/edits, paid with a key or per request with x402.
- [Images, audio, video and PDFs](https://docs.katara.com/developers/media.txt): Send pictures, recordings, video and PDF documents in a chat message, which models read them, the limits and how they are priced.
- [Long conversations](https://docs.katara.com/developers/context.txt): Send files once, let Katara summarise old turns and clear old tool results, and keep the start of each request the same so it is read from cache.

## About

- [What Katara does not do](https://docs.katara.com/about/trust/): Where your money is held, what the marketplace records, and what providers never learn about you.
- [Networks](https://docs.katara.com/about/networks.txt): Test and Live in one account. Each settles on its own network, and the API key decides which one a request uses.

## Reference

- [Inference API operations](https://docs.katara.com/api.txt): the OpenAI-compatible endpoints; spec at https://docs.katara.com/katara-public.yaml
- [Product API operations](https://docs.katara.com/product-api.txt): Synapse, Locus and account operations by group, with the credential each takes; spec at https://docs.katara.com/katara-products.yaml
- [Every guide in one file](https://docs.katara.com/llms-full.txt): large; prefer the pages above