assistant-ui
React and TypeScript primitives for building production AI chat interfaces with streaming and generative UI.
About
Composable primitives rather than a monolithic chat widget are the core idea of assistant-ui, a TypeScript and React library for building production AI chat apps. Developers scaffold a Next.js project with npx assistant-ui@latest create or add components to an existing app with init, pull pre-styled shadcn/ui theme components from the CLI, and get streaming, auto-scroll, retries, attachments, markdown rendering, code highlighting, and keyboard shortcuts handled out of the box through Thread, Message, Composer, and ActionBar primitives. Generative UI maps tool calls and JSON to custom React components, collects inline human approvals, and exposes safe frontend actions to the model. Backend integrations cover the Vercel AI SDK, LangGraph, LangChain, Google ADK, and custom data-stream endpoints, which makes it work with OpenAI, Anthropic, Google Gemini, AWS Bedrock, and local models through Ollama. The MIT-licensed library is free to self-host; an optional Assistant Cloud service adds managed thread history and storage. Backed by Y Combinator and holding 11.3k GitHub stars, it runs in production at Mastra, LangChain, and Helicone.
Should you use assistant-ui?
Pick it when
Pick assistant-ui when you are shipping a chat feature inside a React or Next.js product and want control over every pixel through shadcn-style primitives, while streaming, retries, attachments, and auto-scroll are already handled.
Look elsewhere when
Skip it if your team is not on React, where the Vercel AI SDK hooks also cover Vue, Svelte, and Angular, or if agents must share app state beyond a chat thread, where CopilotKit fits. For a no-code internal chat app, deploy LibreChat or Open WebUI.
Alternatives to assistant-ui
- CopilotKit
Broader agent-in-app scope with shared state, CopilotTextarea, and Angular and Vue coverage, but more framework to learn when you only need a styled chat thread.
- Vercel AI SDK
Lower level streaming and chat hooks that also cover Vue, Svelte, and Angular; assistant-ui can sit on top of it, adding the Thread, Composer, and auto-scroll layer you would otherwise build.
- Chainlit
Python decorators and a prebuilt frontend mean no React work at all, but far less control over the look and behavior of the chat UI.
- AG-UI
A protocol rather than components; use it under your own UI when portability across agent backends matters more than ready-made widgets.
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Details
- Category
- UI & Chat Interfaces
- Price
- Freemium
- Platform
- Hybrid
- Difficulty
- Intermediate (3/5)
- License
- MIT
- Added
- Jul 29, 2026