Elon petting Elon’s API Cat — the black cat in a white collar and red tie

WRITE-ONLY API · 200 OK

Elon API Cat

$PEPITO

Pépito is Elon’s API cat — the distinguished French black cat with over 1 million followers and 28,000+ documented passages through his cat flap. Elon saw it, replied, and opened a free API so he could stay.

1M+ Followers

28,000+ Documented passages

Buy $PEPITO Read the story

Reach

1M+ Followers worldwide

The cat who posted every time he left — and every time he came home.

Pépito was born on September 4, 2007, a distinguished black cat from France. In 2011 his human, Clément, wired a camera and motion sensor to the cat flap. Every passage became a photo. Then a tweet. Then a global feed: “Pépito is out.” “Pépito is in.”

That simple loop made him the world’s first IoT cat — years before IoT was a buzzword — and built a community of over 1 million followers. The archive now holds 28,000+ documented passages through the same French flap.

When a paid API was about to kill the account in 2023, the community rallied. Elon answered Pépito in public and opened a free write-only API for good content. $PEPITO is that cat, on Solana: Elon’s API cat.

Official story on pepitothecat.xyz →

The story

From a French cat flap
to Elon’s API.

One black cat. One automated flap. Over 1 million followers and 28,000+ documented passages — then a public reply from Elon that kept him on the timeline.

2007

The early years

Born September 4, 2007 in France. A distinguished black cat with an adventurous spirit — and, later, a white collar and red tie.
2011

The revolutionary cat flap

Clément installed a camera and motion sensor on the flap. Every time Pépito passed through, a photo was captured. The world’s first automated cat-documentation system — an IoT cat before IoT was mainstream.
2012

Twitter stardom

The system posted to @PepitoTheCat: “Pépito is out.” “Pépito is in.” People got invested. If he stayed out late, thousands worried. The personality in every photo did the rest.
2016

International fame

VICE, Daily Dot, BuzzFeed News, France 24 — the French cat became a cultural icon: fan art, merch, a community that treated each passage like news.
2023

Elon Musk bends

When Twitter’s API was going paid, the prospect of losing the flap updates sparked outrage. French media called it “Pépito the Cat Made Elon Musk Bend.” Elon replied in public, then opened a free write-only API for bots that post good content. Pépito stayed.
2025

A living legend — now $PEPITO

At 18, with over 1 million followers and 28,000+ documented passages, Pépito is still writing history one flap at a time. Same cat. Same reply. Now a ticker on Solana.

Why $PEPITO exists

Elon kept the cat
on the timeline.

February 2023. Elon answered Pépito in public. Two days later he opened a free write-only API for bots that actually post good content — so Elon’s API cat could stay.

Feb 3, 2023 · Reply

I guess we could give all Verified users access to the API for posts like this
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 3, 2023

Feb 5, 2023 · Policy

Responding to feedback, Twitter will enable a light, write-only API for bots providing good content that is free
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 5, 2023