Overview | Chat SDK by Vercel

The Chat SDK is an open-source template built to help you quickly create powerful chatbot apps without the hassle of starting from scratch. Whether you're launching a small side project or a full-scale enterprise solution, the Chat SDK provides the scaffolding you need, allowing you to jump straight into building unique chatbot experiences.

Features

Next.js App Router

Build on top of the framework that achieves the best performance on the web.

AI SDK

Choose specific models and providers for different parts of your application.

Generative User Interfaces

Go beyond text and enhance your chat responses with user interfaces.

Artifacts

Create custom artifacts that are specific to your workflows and activities.

Code Execution

Run code snippets directly on the browser and display their outputs in either text or images.

Multimodal

Attach files, images, and all the different kinds of media your models support to your chat.

Built-in Authentication

Use email/password authentication to allow your users to register accounts and sign in.

Sharing

Allow your users to share their chats by letting them control their visibilities.

Motivation

Ever since ChatGPT launched in November 2022, chatbots have exploded in popularity. Developers everywhere began exploring new ideas using APIs from companies like xAI, OpenAI, and Anthropic. It quickly became clear that chatbots aren't just trendy—they're changing how businesses and people interact every day.

Initially, we noticed that developers faced a lot of challenges when building chatbot apps, often getting bogged down with setup and details that distracted from creativity. We created our chatbot template alongside our AI SDK to remove these barriers, making it simple, powerful, and flexible. As more developers used and customized this template, it became a popular starting point for new projects.

We launched the Chat SDK not only to continuously improve the template but also to better communicate changes to the community and provide clear, practical guides. This includes implementing popular patterns like retrieval-augmented generation, agents, and other advanced chatbot capabilities, helping developers create innovative and sophisticated applications more easily.