Chat SDK

Unified TypeScript SDK for building chat bots across Slack, Microsoft Teams, Google Chat, Discord, Telegram, GitHub, Linear, WhatsApp, and more. Write your bot logic once, deploy everywhere.

Installation

npm i chat

Install one or more adapters for your platforms:

npm install @chat-adapter/slack @chat-adapter/teams @chat-adapter/gchat

CLI

Scaffold a minimal Next.js bot app with create-chat-sdk:

npx create-chat-sdk@latest my-bot

The CLI generates your Chat configuration, webhook route, .env.example file, dependencies, and optional Web adapter route from the adapter catalog. See the CLI docs for options and non-interactive usage.

Usage

import { Chat } from "chat";
import { createSlackAdapter } from "@chat-adapter/slack";
import { createRedisState } from "@chat-adapter/state-redis";

const bot = new Chat({
  userName: "mybot",
  adapters: {
    slack: createSlackAdapter(),
  },
  state: createRedisState(),
});

bot.onNewMention(async (thread) => {
  await thread.subscribe();
  await thread.post("Hello! I'm listening to this thread.");
});

bot.onSubscribedMessage(async (thread, message) => {
  await thread.post(`You said: ${message.text}`);
});

See the Getting Started guide for a full walkthrough.

Adapters

Browse official, vendor-official, and community adapters on chat-sdk.dev/adapters. Learn how to build your own adapter.

Adapter catalog

@chat-adapter/catalog lists every adapter on chat-sdk.dev with its npm package, maintainer, and supported capabilities. Official and vendor-official entries also include the factory export, peer dependencies, and environment variables needed to set them up. It has no dependencies and imports no adapter code, so you can use it in websites, setup screens, build scripts, and CLIs. chat-sdk.dev and create-chat-sdk both read from it.

npm i @chat-adapter/catalog

import {
  getFeatureSupport,
  getSecretEnvVars,
  listAdapters,
} from "@chat-adapter/catalog";

const streamingAdapters = listAdapters({ type: "platform" }).filter(
  (adapter) => getFeatureSupport(adapter, "streaming").status === "yes"
);

const slackSecrets = getSecretEnvVars("slack").map((envVar) => envVar.key);

See the Adapter Catalog docs for the full API.

Features

• Event handlers — mentions, messages, reactions, button clicks, slash commands, modals
• AI streaming — stream LLM responses with native Slack streaming, Telegram private chat draft previews, and post+edit fallback
• Cards — JSX-based interactive cards (Block Kit, Adaptive Cards, Google Chat Cards)
• Actions — handle button clicks and dropdown selections
• Modals — form dialogs with text inputs, dropdowns, and validation
• Slash commands — handle /command invocations
• Emoji — type-safe, cross-platform emoji with custom emoji support
• File uploads — send and receive file attachments
• Direct messages — initiate DMs programmatically
• Ephemeral messages — user-only visible messages with DM fallback
• Overlapping messages - burst, queue, debounce, drop, or process concurrent messages on the same thread

AI Coding Agents

If you use an AI coding agent such as OpenAI Codex, Claude Code, or Cursor, install the Chat SDK skill so it knows the SDK APIs, adapter patterns, and project conventions before writing code.

npx skills add vercel/chat

The skill references bundled documentation in node_modules/chat/docs, plus adapter guides and starter templates in the published package.

You can also install the Vercel Plugin for a broader agent toolkit. It includes the Chat SDK skill alongside specialist agents, slash commands, and more:

npx plugins add vercel/vercel-plugin

For agent-readable documentation, see chat-sdk.dev/llms.txt (page index) or chat-sdk.dev/llms-full.txt (full text).

Documentation

Full documentation is available at chat-sdk.dev/docs and guides are available in the Vercel Knowledge Base.

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md for guidance on contributing to Chat SDK.

Support

For help or questions, see SUPPORT.md.

To report a security vulnerability, see SECURITY.md.

License

MIT