diff --git a/go.mod b/go.mod
index 02b53a6..00bec40 100644
--- a/go.mod
+++ b/go.mod
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ go 1.19
 
 require (
 	github.com/pkoukk/tiktoken-go v0.1.6
+	github.com/sashabaranov/go-openai v1.17.9
 	zombiezen.com/go/sqlite v0.13.1
 )
 
diff --git a/go.sum b/go.sum
index 6efb74d..fda8a2a 100644
--- a/go.sum
+++ b/go.sum
@@ -14,6 +14,8 @@ github.com/pmezard/go-difflib v1.0.0 h1:4DBwDE0NGyQoBHbLQYPwSUPoCMWR5BEzIk/f1lZb
 github.com/remyoudompheng/bigfft v0.0.0-20200410134404-eec4a21b6bb0/go.mod h1:qqbHyh8v60DhA7CoWK5oRCqLrMHRGoxYCSS9EjAz6Eo=
 github.com/remyoudompheng/bigfft v0.0.0-20230129092748-24d4a6f8daec h1:W09IVJc94icq4NjY3clb7Lk8O1qJ8BdBEF8z0ibU0rE=
 github.com/remyoudompheng/bigfft v0.0.0-20230129092748-24d4a6f8daec/go.mod h1:qqbHyh8v60DhA7CoWK5oRCqLrMHRGoxYCSS9EjAz6Eo=
+github.com/sashabaranov/go-openai v1.17.9 h1:QEoBiGKWW68W79YIfXWEFZ7l5cEgZBV4/Ow3uy+5hNY=
+github.com/sashabaranov/go-openai v1.17.9/go.mod h1:lj5b/K+zjTSFxVLijLSTDZuP7adOgerWeFyZLUhAKRg=
 github.com/stretchr/testify v1.8.2 h1:+h33VjcLVPDHtOdpUCuF+7gSuG3yGIftsP1YvFihtJ8=
 golang.org/x/sys v0.0.0-20220811171246-fbc7d0a398ab/go.mod h1:oPkhp1MJrh7nUepCBck5+mAzfO9JrbApNNgaTdGDITg=
 golang.org/x/sys v0.5.0 h1:MUK/U/4lj1t1oPg0HfuXDN/Z1wv31ZJ/YcPiGccS4DU=
diff --git a/main.go b/main.go
index bc05717..8085026 100644
--- a/main.go
+++ b/main.go
@@ -5,12 +5,17 @@ import (
 	"context"
 	"ctxGPT/database"
 	"fmt"
+	"os"
+	"strings"
 	"text/template"
+	"time"
 
 	"github.com/pkoukk/tiktoken-go"
+	"github.com/sashabaranov/go-openai"
 )
 
 const encodingName = "gpt-4"
+const model = openai.GPT4TurboPreview
 
 func main() {
 
@@ -67,3 +72,46 @@ func GetTokenCount(input string) (int, error) {
 	token := tke.Encode(input, nil, nil)
 	return len(token), nil
 }
+
+// SinglePromptInteraction calls openai chat endpoint with just a system prompt and a user prompt and returns the response
+func SinglePromptInteraction(systemPrompt, prompt string) (openai.ChatCompletionResponse, error) {
+	return singlePromptInteraction(systemPrompt, prompt, 5)
+}
+
+// singlePromptInteraction calls openai chat endpoint with just a system prompt and a user prompt and returns the response
+// it also attempts 5 retries spaced 5 seconds apart in the case of rate limiting errors
+func singlePromptInteraction(systemPrompt, prompt string, retries int) (openai.ChatCompletionResponse, error) {
+
+	client := openai.NewClient(os.Getenv("OPENAI_API_KEY"))
+	messages := []openai.ChatCompletionMessage{
+		{
+			Role:    openai.ChatMessageRoleSystem,
+			Content: systemPrompt,
+		},
+		{
+			Role:    openai.ChatMessageRoleUser,
+			Content: prompt,
+		},
+	}
+
+	resp, err := client.CreateChatCompletion(
+		context.Background(),
+		openai.ChatCompletionRequest{
+			Model:       model, // switch to the configured Model
+			Messages:    messages,
+			MaxTokens:   256,
+			Temperature: 0,
+		},
+	)
+	if err != nil {
+		// if 429, wait and try again
+		if strings.Contains(err.Error(), "429") && retries > 0 {
+			fmt.Println("429 error, waiting 5 seconds...")
+			time.Sleep(5 * time.Second)
+			return singlePromptInteraction(systemPrompt, prompt, retries-1) // TODO: establish base case to prevent forever retrying
+		}
+		return openai.ChatCompletionResponse{}, fmt.Errorf("ChatCompletion request error: %w", err)
+	}
+
+	return resp, nil
+}