# Katara

> Katara Cortex serves OpenAI-compatible inference, paid per reply with account credits or USDC. Requests paid with account credits run on Katara's own models; requests paid in USDC can also run on independent GPU providers in Katara Community. 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)
- 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): Models, cost per reply, paying with credits or USDC, and the wallet panel in the web, desktop and mobile apps.
- [The command line](https://docs.katara.com/customers/cli.txt): Sign in, manage the wallet, and code with the same models and payment method from a terminal.

## 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, what each model is certified for, and what happens when a model gets it wrong.
- [Pay per request with x402](https://docs.katara.com/developers/x402.txt): Call chat completions, the Responses API or embeddings 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.
- [Images](https://docs.katara.com/developers/images.txt): Generate an image from a text prompt with POST /v1/images/generations, paid with a key or per request with x402.

## 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