ai README

The project's README from github.com/vercel/ai. As one markdown file: README.md.

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AI SDK

The AI SDK is a provider-agnostic TypeScript toolkit designed to help you build AI-powered applications and agents using popular UI frameworks like Next.js, React, Svelte, Vue, Angular, and runtimes like Node.js.

To learn more about how to use the AI SDK, check out our API Reference and Documentation.

Installation

You will need Node.js 22+ and npm (or another package manager) installed on your local development machine.

npm install ai

Skill for Coding Agents

If you use coding agents such as Claude Code or Cursor, we highly recommend adding the AI SDK skill to your repository:

npx skills add vercel/ai

Unified Provider Architecture

The AI SDK provides a unified API to interact with model providers like OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and more.

By default, the AI SDK uses the Vercel AI Gateway to give you access to all major providers out of the box. Just pass a model string for any supported model:

const result = await generateText({
  model: 'anthropic/claude-opus-4.6', // or 'openai/gpt-5.4', 'google/gemini-3-flash', etc.
  prompt: 'Hello!',
});

You can also connect to providers directly using their SDK packages:

npm install @ai-sdk/openai @ai-sdk/anthropic @ai-sdk/google

import { anthropic } from '@ai-sdk/anthropic';

const result = await generateText({
  model: anthropic('claude-opus-4-6'), // or openai('gpt-5.4'), google('gemini-3-flash'), etc.
  prompt: 'Hello!',
});

Usage

Generating Text

import { generateText } from 'ai';

const { text } = await generateText({
  model: 'openai/gpt-5.4', // use Vercel AI Gateway
  prompt: 'What is an agent?',
});

Generating Structured Data

import { generateText, Output } from 'ai';
import { z } from 'zod';

const { output } = await generateText({
  model: 'openai/gpt-5.4',
  output: Output.object({
    schema: z.object({
      recipe: z.object({
        name: z.string(),
        ingredients: z.array(
          z.object({ name: z.string(), amount: z.string() }),
        ),
        steps: z.array(z.string()),
      }),
    }),
  }),
  prompt: 'Generate a lasagna recipe.',
});

Agents

import { ToolLoopAgent } from 'ai';

const sandboxAgent = new ToolLoopAgent({
  model: 'openai/gpt-5.4',
  system: 'You are an agent with access to a shell environment.',
  tools: {
    shell: openai.tools.localShell({
      execute: async ({ action }) => {
        const [cmd, ...args] = action.command;
        const sandbox = await getSandbox(); // Vercel Sandbox
        const command = await sandbox.runCommand({ cmd, args });
        return { output: await command.stdout() };
      },
    }),
  },
});

UI Integration

The AI SDK UI module provides a set of hooks that help you build chatbots and generative user interfaces. These hooks are framework agnostic, so they can be used in Next.js, React, Svelte, and Vue.

You need to install the package for your framework, e.g.:

npm install @ai-sdk/react

Agent @/agent/image-generation-agent.ts

import { openai } from '@ai-sdk/openai';
import { ToolLoopAgent, InferAgentUIMessage } from 'ai';

export const imageGenerationAgent = new ToolLoopAgent({
  model: 'openai/gpt-5.4',
  tools: {
    generateImage: openai.tools.imageGeneration({
      partialImages: 3,
    }),
  },
});

export type ImageGenerationAgentMessage = InferAgentUIMessage<
  typeof imageGenerationAgent
>;

Route (Next.js App Router) @/app/api/chat/route.ts

import { imageGenerationAgent } from '@/agent/image-generation-agent';
import { createAgentUIStreamResponse } from 'ai';

export async function POST(req: Request) {
  const { messages } = await req.json();

  return createAgentUIStreamResponse({
    agent: imageGenerationAgent,
    messages,
  });
}

UI Component for Tool @/component/image-generation-view.tsx

import { openai } from '@ai-sdk/openai';
import { UIToolInvocation } from 'ai';

export default function ImageGenerationView({
  invocation,
}: {
  invocation: UIToolInvocation<ReturnType<typeof openai.tools.imageGeneration>>;
}) {
  switch (invocation.state) {
    case 'input-available':
      return <div>Generating image...</div>;
    case 'output-available':
      return <img src={`data:image/png;base64,${invocation.output.result}`} />;
  }
}

Page @/app/page.tsx

'use client';

import { ImageGenerationAgentMessage } from '@/agent/image-generation-agent';
import ImageGenerationView from '@/component/image-generation-view';
import { useChat } from '@ai-sdk/react';

export default function Page() {
  const { messages, status, sendMessage } =
    useChat<ImageGenerationAgentMessage>();

  const [input, setInput] = useState('');
  const handleSubmit = e => {
    e.preventDefault();
    sendMessage({ text: input });
    setInput('');
  };

  return (
    <div>
      {messages.map(message => (
        <div key={message.id}>
          <strong>{`${message.role}: `}</strong>
          {message.parts.map((part, index) => {
            switch (part.type) {
              case 'text':
                return <div key={index}>{part.text}</div>;
              case 'tool-generateImage':
                return <ImageGenerationView key={index} invocation={part} />;
            }
          })}
        </div>
      ))}

      <form onSubmit={handleSubmit}>
        <input
          value={input}
          onChange={e => setInput(e.target.value)}
          disabled={status !== 'ready'}
        />
      </form>
    </div>
  );
}

Templates

We've built templates that include AI SDK integrations for different use cases, providers, and frameworks. You can use these templates to get started with your AI-powered application.

Community

The AI SDK community can be found on the Vercel Community where you can ask questions, voice ideas, and share your projects with other people.

Contributing

Contributions to the AI SDK are welcome and highly appreciated. However, before you jump right into it, we would like you to review our Contribution Guidelines to make sure you have smooth experience contributing to AI SDK.

Authors

This library is created by Vercel and Next.js team members, with contributions from the Open Source Community.

ai (vercel/ai)

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27.4K ·GitHub
Ai
What is this?It's the AI SDK — a free, open-source TypeScript toolkit from Vercel (the Next.js team) for building AI-powered applications and agents with Next.js, React, Svelte, Vue, Angular and Node.js.
Is the AI SDK a framework I build inside, or a library I call from my own code?It's a library you install into your own TypeScript or JavaScript project rather than a standalone app; a UI module with hooks ships alongside the core package.
How do I add it to a project?You need Node.js 22+ and npm (or another package manager), then install the SDK package for your setup. If you code with Claude Code or Cursor, the team recommends adding the AI SDK skill to your repo.
Which AI providers can it talk to?OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and other major providers work through one unified API — usually you just pass a model string. Provider-specific SDK packages let you connect directly instead.
Is the Vercel AI Gateway mandatory?No — the gateway is just the default, giving access to all major providers out of the box. You can also connect to providers directly using their own SDK packages.
I use Claude Code or Cursor — is there anything in it for agent-based coding workflows?Yes. The team recommends adding the AI SDK skill to your repository when coding with agents like Claude Code or Cursor, and the SDK itself has first-class support for building agents.
Why use this instead of calling the OpenAI or Anthropic SDK directly?The provider-agnostic API means you switch models by changing a model string instead of rewriting provider-specific code, and the default Vercel AI Gateway gives access to all major providers out of the box.
What does a real app built with it look like?The README walks through an image-generation agent example: an agent file, a Next.js App Router API route, a UI component that renders the tool's output, and a page tying it all together.
What are similar projects?CopilotKit, openui, tambo, repomix, novel, boardui, OpenIntelligentUI, dyad
Which topics is it in?ai-sdk, tool-use, generative-ui, text-generation, ai-gateway, language-model, vercel, svelte, hooks, angular, nextjs, artificial-intelligence
Creator
vercel
Size
426.4 MB
Stars
27.4K
Updated
CommitOct 16Release@ai-sdk/[email protected]Oct 16
Age
3y
Commits · 90 Days