---
title: "Developers"
description: "Build on Chat Thing with the REST API, webhooks, the JavaScript SDK for the website widget, and WebMCP."
canonical_url: "https://chatthing.ai/docs/developers"
last_updated: "2026-09-25"
---

# Developers

Connect Chat Thing to your own code. Use the REST API to chat with a bot from your app or backend and to manage its knowledge, webhooks to react to events such as new conversations and hand-offs, and the JavaScript SDK to control the website widget and give the bot actions on your page.

Want to build and manage bots from an AI assistant instead of writing code? See [AI assistants (MCP)](https://chatthing.ai/docs/mcp).

## Most common tasks

- [Get your API keys and make your first request](https://chatthing.ai/docs/developers/api-overview)
- [Send messages to a bot and stream replies](https://chatthing.ai/docs/developers/chat-api)
- [Keep a bot's knowledge in sync from your system](https://chatthing.ai/docs/developers/data-sources-api)
- [Get notified when a conversation starts or is escalated](https://chatthing.ai/docs/developers/webhooks)
- [Open the widget, identify users and add actions from your page](https://chatthing.ai/docs/developers/javascript-sdk)

## In this section

- [API overview](https://chatthing.ai/docs/developers/api-overview): Base URL, API keys, authentication headers, versions, error codes and usage limits for the Chat Thing REST API.
- [Chat API](https://chatthing.ai/docs/developers/chat-api): Start conversations, send messages, stream replies, pass user data and read conversation history with the Chat Thing REST API.
- [Data sources API](https://chatthing.ai/docs/developers/data-sources-api): Create, update, sync and delete a bot's manual data sources and their entries with the Chat Thing REST API, to keep its knowledge in step with your system.
- [Webhooks](https://chatthing.ai/docs/developers/webhooks): Send Chat Thing events such as new conversations, escalations and syncs to your own systems, Slack or Discord, and trigger data source syncs from a URL.
- [JavaScript SDK](https://chatthing.ai/docs/developers/javascript-sdk): Control the Chat Thing website widget with window.chatThing - open it, send messages, identify users, add page context and client-side power-ups.
- [Connect WebMCP tools to your bot](https://chatthing.ai/docs/developers/webmcp): Let your Chat Thing bot use the WebMCP tools your web page already exposes through document.modelContext, as client-side power-ups.

## Related

- [Use Chat Thing from your AI assistant](https://chatthing.ai/docs/mcp): Connect Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor or another AI assistant to Chat Thing and build, test and manage your bots by chatting with it.