Chat Agent — Interview Starter

A chat agent with tool-calling capabilities, built with FastAPI, PostgreSQL, and the OpenAI SDK.

Prerequisites

• Docker & Docker Compose
• Node.js 24+ and pnpm (auto-installed if missing)
• uv (auto-installed if missing)

Quick Setup

./start.sh

This single command checks prerequisites (offering to install node and uv if missing), prompts for your API key, starts Docker, and launches the backend + frontend.

Windows

From PowerShell, run:

.\start.ps1

This validates WSL2, Docker, and distro setup, then launches start.sh inside WSL automatically. For best performance, clone the repo inside WSL (~/bootstrap-agentic) rather than on your Windows drive (/mnt/c/...).

Open http://localhost:3000 to verify the chat interface loads. Press Ctrl+C to stop everything.

Run tests

uv run pytest

Note: 2 of 4 tests currently pass. This is expected — you'll address the failing tests during the interview.

Project Structure

├── backend/
│   ├── main.py              # FastAPI application
│   ├── config.py             # Settings (env vars)
│   ├── db.py                 # Database session setup
│   ├── models/               # SQLAlchemy models
│   ├── schemas/              # Pydantic request/response schemas
│   ├── routers/              # API endpoints
│   ├── agent/
│   │   ├── loop.py           # Agent loop (LLM <> tool execution)
│   │   ├── prompts.py        # System prompts
│   │   └── tools/            # Tool registry & implementations
│   └── services/
│       └── llm.py            # LLM client configuration
├── frontend/                 # React/TypeScript chat UI
├── tests/                    # Test suite
├── docker-compose.yml        # Postgres + Redis
├── start.sh                  # One-command setup & run (macOS/Linux/WSL)
├── start.ps1                 # Windows launcher (validates WSL, runs start.sh)
└── pyproject.toml            # Python dependencies

Troubleshooting

• Docker not starting? Make sure the ports in .env (POSTGRES_PORT, REDIS_PORT) are free on your machine.
• Backend won't start? Check that .env exists and docker compose ps shows healthy services.
• Frontend not loading? Make sure the backend is running on port 8000 (the frontend proxies API calls to it).
• Tests failing? 2 of 4 tests are expected to fail. If all 4 fail, check your Python environment (uv sync --all-extras).