diff --git a/common/chaton.hpp b/common/chaton.hpp
index 7ea7b1932..d74dc08de 100644
--- a/common/chaton.hpp
+++ b/common/chaton.hpp
@@ -165,11 +165,27 @@ public:
 };
 
 inline bool chaton_meta_load(std::string &fname) {
+    if (conMeta != nullptr) {
+        LOGXLN("WARN:%s:ChatOn Meta: overwriting???", __func__);
+    }
     std::ifstream f(fname);
     conMeta = json::parse(f);
     return true;
 }
 
+inline bool chaton_tmpl_exists(const std::string &tmpl) {
+    if (conMeta == nullptr) {
+        LOG_TEELN("ERRR:%s:ChatOnMeta: Not loaded yet...", __func__);
+        return false;
+    }
+    try {
+        auto tmplData = conMeta[tmpl];
+        return true;
+    } catch (json::exception &err) {
+        LOG_TEELN("WARN:%s:ChatOnMeta: tmpl[%s] not found...", __func__, tmpl.c_str());
+        return false;
+    }
+}
 
 inline std::string chaton_tmpl_role_kv(const std::string &tmpl, const std::string &role, const std::vector<std::string> &keys) {
     std::string got = "";
@@ -230,12 +246,50 @@ inline bool chaton_tmpl_apply_single_ex(
 }
 
 // Return user-prefix + msg + user-suffix, types string and lens vector wrt the parts that make up the returned string
-inline std::string chaton_tmpl_apply_single(const std::string &tmpl, const std::string &role, const std::string &content) {
-    std::string tagged;
+inline size_t chaton_tmpl_apply_single(
+        const std::string &tmpl,
+        const std::string &role,
+        const std::string &content,
+        std::string &tagged
+        ) {
+    if (!chaton_tmpl_exists(tmpl)) {
+        return -1;
+    }
     std::string types;
     std::vector<int> lens;
     chaton_tmpl_apply_single_ex(tmpl, role, content, tagged, types, lens);
-    return tagged;
+    return tagged.size();
+}
+
+/**
+ * Apply chat-handshake-template for the specified template standard and role.
+ * If the passed char array is smaller that that required for the tagged message,
+ * * part of the tagged message which fits within dest buffer is copied
+ * * the returned value, indicates the size of the tagged message
+ * NOTE:
+ * * the passed char array should be able to fit the tagged message+0|null char.
+ * * if the return value from this function is larger than or equal to destLength,
+ *   then you will have to increase the size of the dest buffer, and call this
+ *   function a second time, to ensure that one gets the full tagged message.
+ */
+inline size_t chat_tmpl_apply_single_capi(
+        const char *tmpl,
+        const char *role,
+        const char *content,
+        char *dest,
+        const size_t destLength
+        ) {
+    std::string tagged;
+    std::string types;
+    std::vector<int> lens;
+    auto taggedLength = chaton_tmpl_apply_single(tmpl, role, content, tagged);
+    if (taggedLength <= 0) {
+        return taggedLength;
+    }
+    if (dest && (destLength > 0)) {
+        strlcpy(dest, tagged.c_str(), destLength);
+    }
+    return taggedLength;
 }
 
 // global-begin + [[role-begin] + [role-prefix] + msg + role-suffix] + global-end
diff --git a/examples/main/main.cpp b/examples/main/main.cpp
index 074db4598..2a41c8e1e 100644
--- a/examples/main/main.cpp
+++ b/examples/main/main.cpp
@@ -264,7 +264,7 @@ int main(int argc, char ** argv) {
             params.prompt = "<|im_start|>system\n" + params.prompt + "<|im_end|>";
         }
         if (params.chaton) {
-            params.prompt = chaton_tmpl_apply_single(params.chaton_template_id, K_SYSTEM, params.prompt);
+            chaton_tmpl_apply_single(params.chaton_template_id, K_SYSTEM, params.prompt, params.prompt);
         }
         embd_inp = ::llama_tokenize(ctx, params.prompt, true, true);
     } else {