Quickstart

1. Create an API key. Sign in to the VOL app, open Developer → API keys and click New key. Copy it now: the full key (vol_live_…) is shown only once.

2. Check the API is up (public endpoint, no key needed):

   curl https://vol.example.com/api/v1/health
   # {"status":"ok","ragflow":true,"version":"1.0.0"}

3. List the available cases (corpora):

   curl https://vol.example.com/api/v1/cases

4. Ask a question. Pick a case with "available": true:

   cURL

   curl https://vol.example.com/api/v1/chat \
     -H "X-API-Key: $VOL_API_KEY" \
     -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
     -d '{"case":"papers","question":"Which methods combine knowledge graphs with LLMs?"}'

   TypeScript

   import { VolClient } from "@vol/sdk";
   
   const vol = new VolClient({ baseUrl: "https://vol.example.com/api", apiKey: process.env.VOL_API_KEY });
   const res = await vol.chat({ case: "papers", question: "Which methods combine knowledge graphs with LLMs?" });
   console.log(res.answer, res.citations);

   Python

   import os, requests
   
   r = requests.post(
       "https://vol.example.com/api/v1/chat",
       headers={"X-API-Key": os.environ["VOL_API_KEY"]},
       json={"case": "papers", "question": "Which methods combine knowledge graphs with LLMs?"},
       timeout=120,
   )
   r.raise_for_status()
   print(r.json()["answer"])

5. Read the response. answer contains markers like [1]; each one maps to citations[0], and each citation has a nodeIndex you can use to locate it on the map.

Tip

Replace https://vol.example.com with your deployment. When you self-host, the API is also reachable directly at http://localhost:8010/v1 (no /api prefix). See Self-hosting.

Where to go next

• Stream tokens as they are generated: Chat & streaming.
• Add a chat to your React app in 10 lines: React atoms.
• Add a chat to any website: Embedding VOL.