Simple Chat

Simple Chat is a user-friendly web interface that facilitates and optimizes the integration of LLMs into online experiments. Simple Chat offers three core benefits:

1. An embeddable chat interface that eliminates the need for custom API coding,
2. a consistent interface across survey platforms, and
3. streaming responses that maintain conversational flow and reduce participant dropout.

Below are diagrams illustrating the architecture and chat interface:

Architecture

Architecture

Chat interface

Chat interface

Requirements

• Install Docker version 24.0.5, build ced0996 or newer
• Install Docker Compose plugin version v2.20.2-desktop.1 or newer
• Define secrets

  • Create .env file in the backend directory by copying the env.example file:

    cp backend/env.example backend/.env

    All variables defined in settings.py must be set in the .env file. AZURE_OPENAI_BASE_URL and AZURE_OPENAI_API_KEY can be left empty if not using Azure OpenAI.

  • Create .env file in the frontend directory by copying the env.example file:

    cp frontend/env.example frontend/.env

    The default values can be used for local development.

Installation

• Refer to the deployment documentation for first-time installation.
• Refer to the contributing documentation to set up a development environment for modifying the code.

Usage

Refer to the documentation folder for usage instructions.

Citation

If you use Simple Chat in your research, please cite as follows:

• BibTeX:

  @misc{schettino2025facilitatingintegrationllmsonline,
        title={Facilitating the Integration of LLMs Into Online Experiments With Simple Chat},
        author={R. Bermudez Schettino and A. Dasmeh and L. Brinkmann},
        year={2025},
        eprint={2511.19123},
        archivePrefix={arXiv},
        primaryClass={cs.HC},
        url={https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.19123},
  }
  

• APA:

  Bermudez Schettino, R., Dasmeh, A., & Brinkmann, L. (2025). Facilitating the Integration of LLMs Into Online Experiments With Simple Chat. arXiv. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2511.19123

Related

• Qualtrics example - Download.

  This Qualtrics template is a modified version of Costello's Qualtrics template.

• oTree example - simple-chat-otree-walter-2025

• Readme template - minimal-readme

• Format for script directory - Shell Style Guide

• See healthcheck Docker Compose file - docker-compose-healthchecks

License

CC BY 4.0