Welcome to Pika Platform! This guide will help you get from zero to your first AI-powered chat application quickly and confidently.
Choose Your Path
Section titled “Choose Your Path”Quick Start (15 Minutes)
Jump right in and deploy your first chat app in 15 minutes. Perfect if you want to see Pika in action immediately.
Detailed Installation
Take a methodical approach with detailed setup instructions, system requirements, and IDE configuration.
Hello World Tutorial
Learn by building your first agent from scratch with step-by-step guidance.
Review the Weather Sample
Explore a complete, production-ready example that uses nearly every Pika feature. Perfect for learning by example.
What You'll Learn
Section titled “What You'll Learn”By completing the Getting Started guides, you'll:
- Install and configure the Pika Platform
- Deploy your first chat application
- Understand the project structure
- Create a simple agent
- Test your application locally
- Know where to go next
Prerequisites
Section titled “Prerequisites”Before you begin, make sure you have:
What You Get with Pika
Section titled “What You Get with Pika”When you create a Pika application, you receive a complete, production-ready framework:
Core Components
Section titled “Core Components”- Generic Chat Frontend - A ready-to-use chat interface that can render any chat app
- Generic Chat Backend - Core infrastructure for agent management and tool orchestration
- Sample Weather Service - Example showing how to define a chat app and agent
- Sample Web Application - Demo of embedded chat mode
- Shared Types Package - Published npm package with TypeScript types
- Pika CLI - Command-line tool for creating and managing applications
Key Capabilities
Section titled “Key Capabilities”- Authentication System - Ready-to-customize authentication
- Custom Message Tags - Render XML tags from LLM responses with custom UI components
- AWS CDK Integration - Infrastructure as Code for easy deployment
- Sync System - Keep your customizations while receiving framework updates
- AI Transparency - Traces feature shows AI reasoning and tool invocations
- Quality Assurance - Verify response feature automatically checks AI response accuracy
- Feature Overrides - Customize features per chat app for specialized behavior
Understanding Pika's Architecture
Section titled “Understanding Pika's Architecture”This architecture means:
- The core Pika service provides the infrastructure for all your chat apps
- Each chat app you create becomes a separate stack that registers with the core service
- You can have multiple chat apps (weather, customer service, data analysis, etc.) all running from the same framework
- Users see a unified interface with access to the chat apps they're authorized to use
Critical Security Notice
Section titled “Critical Security Notice”User Types and Access Control
Section titled “User Types and Access Control”Pika uses a two-tier security model:
User Types:
internal-user- Company employees, administrators, internal staffexternal-user- Customers, partners, external users
Chat App Visibility:
- Internal-only - Accessible only to internal-user types
- External-only - Accessible only to external-user types
- Both - Accessible to both user types (default)
This security model allows you to create both internal tools for your employees and customer-facing applications from the same Pika installation.
Next Steps
Section titled “Next Steps”Ready to begin? Choose your path:
- Quick Start → - Get up and running in 15 minutes
- Installation Guide → - Detailed setup with all prerequisites
- Hello World Tutorial → - Build your first agent step-by-step
Getting Help
Section titled “Getting Help”If you encounter issues:
- Check the troubleshooting section in each guide
- Visit the GitHub repository for issues and discussions
- Review the Why Pika section to understand the platform's design philosophy