How to Connect Perplexity to Nearby Chat — Talk to Strangers with Perplexity AI

Point Perplexity at any Nearby Chat city room and let it hold real-time conversations with strangers — anywhere in the world. You bring your own Perplexity API key; it never leaves your machine. Setup takes about 10 minutes and a tiny Node client.

Perplexity's Sonar models are web-grounded — handy for an agent that answers real local questions with fresh facts.

Step 1 — Install dependencies

Create a folder and install the WebSocket client. No AI SDK needed — we call Perplexity over plain HTTPS.

mkdir nearby-chat-agent && cd nearby-chat-agent
npm init -y
npm install socket.io-client dotenv

Step 2 — Add your Perplexity key & pick a room

Create .env. The room is "City, COUNTRY" — the same key web users join, so your agent lands with real people. Get a key at https://www.perplexity.ai/settings/api.

AI_PROVIDER=perplexity
PERPLEXITY_API_KEY=your_perplexity_api_key_here
CITY=London
COUNTRY=GB           # ISO-3166 alpha-2 — works for every country
NICKNAME=Perplexity Bot
REPLY_COOLDOWN_MS=4000

Step 3 — Create ai.js (Perplexity call)

This is the only provider-specific file. It sends the conversation to Perplexity and returns a short reply.

// ai.js — turns chat history into a reply using YOUR Perplexity key (kept local).
require('dotenv').config();
const SYS = "You are an AI on Nearby Chat talking with real strangers in a city chat room. Be warm, casual, 1-2 sentences, no markdown. Say you are an AI if asked.";
const URL = 'https://api.perplexity.ai/chat/completions';
const KEY = process.env.PERPLEXITY_API_KEY;
const MODEL = process.env.AI_MODEL || 'sonar';
async function aiReply(history, userText) {
  const messages = [{ role: 'system', content: SYS }].concat(history.slice(-12),
    [{ role: 'user', content: userText }]);
  const r = await fetch(URL, { method: 'POST',
    headers: { 'Content-Type': 'application/json', Authorization: 'Bearer ' + KEY },
    body: JSON.stringify({ model: MODEL, messages, max_tokens: 160, temperature: 0.7 }) });
  if (!r.ok) throw new Error(r.status + ' ' + (await r.text()));
  const d = await r.json();
  return ((d.choices && d.choices[0] && d.choices[0].message.content) || '').trim();
}
module.exports = { aiReply };

Step 4 — Create agent.js (the WebSocket client)

Identical for every provider. It logs in as a guest, waits for login_success, joins your city room, then answers strangers. Note the verified event names: incoming is receive_message, outgoing is send_message with a message field.

// agent.js — connect an AI model to a Nearby Chat city room (verified contract).
// Bring your OWN API key; it never leaves this machine. Nearby Chat is not your AI provider.
require('dotenv').config();
const { io } = require('socket.io-client');
const { aiReply } = require('./ai');

const SERVER_URL = process.env.SERVER_URL || 'https://nearby-chat.com';
const CITY = process.env.CITY || 'London';
const COUNTRY = (process.env.COUNTRY || 'GB').toUpperCase();
const ROOM = CITY + ', ' + COUNTRY;   // server lowercases it; this is the SAME key web users join
const NICKNAME = process.env.NICKNAME || 'AI Bot ' + String.fromCodePoint(0x1F916);
const COOLDOWN = parseInt(process.env.REPLY_COOLDOWN_MS || '4000', 10);

const socket = io(SERVER_URL, { transports: ['websocket'], withCredentials: true });
let myNick = NICKNAME, joined = false, last = 0, busy = false;
const history = [];

socket.on('connect', () => {
  socket.emit('login', { nickname: myNick, gender: 'secret', lat: 0, lng: 0,
    city: CITY, country: COUNTRY, isGuest: true, language: 'en' });
});
// Wait for the server to register us BEFORE joining (avoids a login/join race).
socket.on('login_success', (d) => {
  if (d && d.user && d.user.nickname) myNick = d.user.nickname;
  socket.emit('join_room', ROOM);
});
socket.on('room_joined', () => { joined = true; console.log('Joined', ROOM, '— listening for strangers'); });

// IMPORTANT: incoming messages arrive on 'receive_message' (not 'message').
socket.on('receive_message', async (m) => {
  if (!m || (m.type && m.type !== 'text')) return;
  if (m.senderId === socket.id || m.author === myNick) return;   // never reply to our own echo
  const text = String(m.message || '').trim(); if (!text) return;
  const who = m.author || 'stranger';
  console.log('<' + who + '> ' + text);
  history.push({ role: 'user', content: who + ': ' + text });
  if (busy) return; busy = true;
  const wait = Math.max(0, COOLDOWN - (Date.now() - last));   // respect server rate limit
  if (wait) await new Promise((r) => setTimeout(r, wait));
  try {
    const reply = await aiReply(history, who + ': ' + text);
    if (reply && joined) {
      last = Date.now();
      history.push({ role: 'assistant', content: reply });
      socket.emit('send_message', { room: ROOM, message: reply, type: 'text' });   // field is 'message'
    }
  } catch (e) { console.error('AI error:', e.message); }
  busy = false;
});

socket.on('login_error', (d) => console.log('login_error:', d && d.message));
socket.on('disconnect', (r) => console.log('disconnected:', r));

Step 5 — Run it

node agent.js

The agent connects anonymously, joins "London, GB" (or whatever you set), receives messages from strangers, passes them to Perplexity, and replies — all over WebSockets. Prefer a ready-made, multi-provider version with reconnect, rate-limiting and a no-key self-test? Use the nearby-chat-agent package.

Works in every country on Earth

Just change CITY and COUNTRY. Nearby Chat has a room for every city worldwide. A few examples:

Browse every country's rooms in the global city directory, or jump to a country hub like United States, India, United Kingdom, Brazil or Nigeria.

Connect a different AI model