> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.vouchmark.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Start new chat

> Create or return the Vouch AI chat for a company.

Returns the Vouch AI chat for a company, creating it if one does not yet exist. Each user has a single persistent chat per company. No first message is sent here — use [Send message](/api-reference/vouch-ai/send-message) to talk to the AI.

<Note>
  Vouch AI requires a positive wallet balance and is metered per AI request. Conversation turns are billed at ₦100 per 1,000 tokens. Requests are rejected if the wallet balance is not positive, and rate limited to 10 AI requests per minute.
</Note>

## Body

<ParamField body="companyId" type="string" required>
  The company the chat is scoped to.
</ParamField>

<RequestExample>
  ```bash cURL theme={null}
  curl -X POST https://api.vouchmark.com/v1/chat/new \
    -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" \
    -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
    -d '{"companyId": "cmp_aBcD..."}'
  ```
</RequestExample>

<ResponseExample>
  ```json theme={null}
  {
    "message": "Chat created successfully",
    "chat": {
      "id": "chat_aBcD...",
      "title": "TEKCIFY TECHNOLOGIES LTD - 6/27/2026",
      "companyId": "cmp_aBcD...",
      "messages": []
    }
  }
  ```
</ResponseExample>

A brand-new chat returns `201 Created` with an empty `messages` array. If a chat already exists for the company, the response is `200 OK` and includes the existing messages plus a top-level `chatId`:

```json theme={null}
{
  "success": true,
  "message": "A chat already exists for this company",
  "chat": {
    "id": "chat_aBcD...",
    "title": "TEKCIFY TECHNOLOGIES LTD - 6/27/2026",
    "companyId": "cmp_aBcD...",
    "messages": [
      {
        "id": "msg_aBcD...",
        "chatId": "chat_aBcD...",
        "sender": "user",
        "content": "What are my compliance risks?",
        "timestampAt": "2026-06-27T10:00:00Z",
        "groundingSources": null
      }
    ]
  },
  "chatId": "chat_aBcD..."
}
```