diff --git a/kitchen/bin/rh-chat.sh b/kitchen/bin/rh-chat.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..c32c0de
--- /dev/null
+++ b/kitchen/bin/rh-chat.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,45 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+# rabbithole chat helper — talkative defaults (temperature 1.05)
+set -euo pipefail
+MODEL="${1:?model}"
+SYSTEM_FILE="${2:?system file or -}"
+USER_MSG="${3:?user message}"
+OUT="${4:?out path}"
+TEMP="${TEMP:-1.05}"
+TOP_P="${TOP_P:-0.95}"
+NUM_PREDICT="${NUM_PREDICT:-900}"
+BASE="${OLLAMA_HOST:-http://127.0.0.1:11436}"
+
+if [[ "$SYSTEM_FILE" == "-" ]]; then
+  SYS=$(cat)
+else
+  SYS=$(cat "$SYSTEM_FILE")
+fi
+
+python3 - "$MODEL" "$SYS" "$USER_MSG" "$OUT" "$TEMP" "$TOP_P" "$NUM_PREDICT" "$BASE" <<'PY'
+import json, sys, urllib.request
+model, system, user, out, temp, top_p, num_predict, base = sys.argv[1:9]
+body = {
+  "model": model,
+  "stream": False,
+  "options": {
+    "temperature": float(temp),
+    "top_p": float(top_p),
+    "num_predict": int(num_predict),
+  },
+  "messages": [
+    {"role": "system", "content": system},
+    {"role": "user", "content": user},
+  ],
+}
+req = urllib.request.Request(
+  base.rstrip("/") + "/api/chat",
+  data=json.dumps(body).encode(),
+  headers={"Content-Type": "application/json"},
+  method="POST",
+)
+with urllib.request.urlopen(req, timeout=300) as r:
+  text = (json.load(r).get("message") or {}).get("content") or ""
+open(out, "w").write(text.strip() + "\n")
+print("ok", out, "chars", len(text), "temp", temp)
+PY