jan/docs/docs/specs/engineering/messages.md

title	slug	description	keywords
Messages	/specs/messages	Jan is a ChatGPT-alternative that runs on your own computer, with a local API server.	Jan AI Jan ChatGPT alternative local AI private AI conversational AI no-subscription fee large language model

:::caution

This is currently under development.

:::

Overview

Messages capture a conversation's content. This can include the content from LLM responses and other metadata from chat completions.

• Users and assistants can send multimedia messages.
• An OpenAI Message API compatible endpoint at localhost:1337/v1/messages.

Folder Structure

Messages are saved in the /threads/{thread_id} folder in messages.jsonl files

jan/
    threads/
        assistant_name_unix_timestamp/
            thread.json                   # Thread metadata
            messages.jsonl                # Messages are stored in jsonl format

message.jsonl

Individual messages are saved in jsonl format for indexing purposes.

{...message_2}
{...message_1}
{...message_0}

Examples

Here's a standard example message sent from a user.

"id": "0",                            // Sequential or UUID
"object": "thread.message",           // Defaults to "thread.message"
"created_at": 1698983503,
"thread_id": "thread_asdf",           // Defaults to parent thread
"assistant_id": "jan",                // Defaults to parent thread
"role": "user",                       // From either "user" or "assistant"
"content": [
  {
    "type": "text",
    "text": {
      "value": "Hi!?",
      "annotations": []
    }
  }
],
"metadata": {},                       // Defaults to {}

Here's an example message response from an assistant.

"id": "0",                            // Sequential or UUID
"object": "thread.message",           // Defaults to "thread.message"
"created_at": 1698983503,
"thread_id": "thread_asdf",           // Defaults to parent thread
"assistant_id": "jan",                // Defaults to parent thread
"role": "assistant",                  // From either "user" or "assistant"
"content": [                          // Usually from Chat Completion obj
  {
    "type": "text",
    "text": {
      "value": "Hi! How can I help you today?",
      "annotations": []
    }
  }
],
"metadata": {},                       // Defaults to {}
"usage": {}                           // Save chat completion properties https://platform.openai.com/docs/api-reference/chat/object

API Reference

Jan's messages API is compatible with OpenAI's Messages API, with additional methods for managing messages locally.

See Jan Messages API.