diff --git a/common/chaton.hpp b/common/chaton.hpp
index a9af7a565..c62ab146e 100644
--- a/common/chaton.hpp
+++ b/common/chaton.hpp
@@ -50,3 +50,20 @@ inline void chaton_meta_dump() {
     }
     LOG_TEELN("\n\nINFO:%s:ChatOn Meta\n%s", __func__, conMeta.dump(4).c_str());
 }
+
+inline std::string chaton_tmpl_apply(const std::string &tmpl, const std::string &role, const std::string &content) {
+    std::stringstream ss;
+    ss << conMeta[tmpl]["global"]["prefix"];
+    ss << conMeta[tmpl][role]["prefix"] << content << conMeta[tmpl][role]["suffix"];
+    ss << conMeta[tmpl]["global"]["suffix"];
+    std::string taggedStr = ss.str();
+    return taggedStr;
+}
+
+inline std::string chaton_tmpl_role_part(const std::string &tmpl, const std::string &role, const std::string &part) {
+    return conMeta[tmpl][role][part];
+}
+
+inline std::string chaton_tmpl_part(const std::string &tmpl, const std::string &part) {
+    return conMeta[tmpl][part];
+}
diff --git a/examples/main/main.cpp b/examples/main/main.cpp
index 3432cb9f1..f58888e99 100644
--- a/examples/main/main.cpp
+++ b/examples/main/main.cpp
@@ -256,11 +256,14 @@ int main(int argc, char ** argv) {
 
     std::vector<llama_token> embd_inp;
 
-    if (params.interactive_first || params.instruct || params.chatml || !params.prompt.empty() || session_tokens.empty()) {
+    if (params.interactive_first || params.instruct || params.chatml || params.chaton || !params.prompt.empty() || session_tokens.empty()) {
         LOG("tokenize the prompt\n");
         if (params.chatml) {
             params.prompt = "<|im_start|>system\n" + params.prompt + "<|im_end|>";
         }
+        if (params.chaton) {
+            params.prompt = chaton_tmpl_apply(params.chaton_template_id, "system", params.prompt);
+        }
         embd_inp = ::llama_tokenize(ctx, params.prompt, true, true);
     } else {
         LOG("use session tokens\n");
@@ -338,7 +341,7 @@ int main(int argc, char ** argv) {
     }
 
     // number of tokens to keep when resetting context
-    if (params.n_keep < 0 || params.n_keep > (int) embd_inp.size() || params.instruct || params.chatml) {
+    if (params.n_keep < 0 || params.n_keep > (int) embd_inp.size() || params.instruct || params.chatml || params.chaton) {
         params.n_keep = (int)embd_inp.size();
     } else {
         params.n_keep += add_bos; // always keep the BOS token
@@ -369,6 +372,16 @@ int main(int argc, char ** argv) {
         params.antiprompt.emplace_back("<|im_start|>user\n");
     }
 
+    // chaton mode
+    const auto chaton_assitant_prefix = ::llama_tokenize(ctx, chaton_tmpl_role_part(params.chaton_template_id, "assistant", "prefix"), false, true);
+    if (params.chaton) {
+        params.interactive = true; // may remove later, by requiring user to explicitly request interactive mode
+        params.interactive_first = true;
+        params.input_prefix = chaton_tmpl_role_part(params.chaton_template_id, "user", "prefix");
+        params.input_suffix = chaton_tmpl_role_part(params.chaton_template_id, "user", "suffix");
+        params.antiprompt.emplace_back(chaton_tmpl_part(params.chaton_template_id, "reverse-prompt"));
+    }
+
     // enable interactive mode if interactive start is specified
     if (params.interactive_first) {
         params.interactive = true;
@@ -822,7 +835,7 @@ int main(int argc, char ** argv) {
             if (n_past > 0 && is_interacting) {
                 LOG("waiting for user input\n");
 
-                if (params.instruct || params.chatml) {
+                if (params.instruct || params.chatml || params.chaton) {
                     printf("\n> ");
                 }
 
@@ -901,6 +914,11 @@ int main(int argc, char ** argv) {
                         LOG("inserting chatml suffix\n");
                         embd_inp.insert(embd_inp.end(), cml_sfx.begin(), cml_sfx.end());
                     }
+                    // chaton mode: insert assistant prefix
+                    if (params.chaton) {
+                        LOG("inserting chaton assistant prefix\n");
+                        embd_inp.insert(embd_inp.end(), chaton_assitant_prefix.begin(), chaton_assitant_prefix.end());
+                    }
 
                     for (size_t i = original_size; i < embd_inp.size(); ++i) {
                         const llama_token token = embd_inp[i];