Reactive hooks for accessing runtime state in React Ink.
State Hooks
useAuiState
The primary hook for accessing reactive state. It accepts a selector function for fine-grained re-renders — the component only re-renders when the selected value changes (shallow equality).
import { useAuiState } from "@assistant-ui/react-ink";
// Thread state
const messages = useAuiState((s) => s.thread.messages);
const isRunning = useAuiState((s) => s.thread.isRunning);
const isEmpty = useAuiState((s) => s.thread.isEmpty);
// Composer state
const text = useAuiState((s) => s.composer.text);
const composerIsEmpty = useAuiState((s) => s.composer.isEmpty);
const attachments = useAuiState((s) => s.composer.attachments);
// Message state (inside a message context)
const role = useAuiState((s) => s.message.role);
const isLast = useAuiState((s) => s.message.isLast);
// Thread list item state
const threadId = useAuiState((s) => s.threadListItem.id);
const title = useAuiState((s) => s.threadListItem.title);useAui
Access the store methods for imperative actions.
import { useAui } from "@assistant-ui/react-ink";
const aui = useAui();
// Composer actions
aui.composer().setText("Hello");
aui.composer().send();
// Thread actions
aui.thread().cancelRun();useAuiEvent
Subscribe to events without causing re-renders.
import { useAuiEvent } from "@assistant-ui/react-ink";
useAuiEvent("thread.runStart", (payload) => {
console.log("Run started:", payload);
});useNotification
Ring the terminal bell and emit an OSC desktop notification when the assistant finishes a run, stops with an error, or pauses for human approval.
import { useNotification } from "@assistant-ui/react-ink";
useNotification();Defaults:
task-complete: bell + OSC 9task-incomplete: bellneeds-input(assistant message inrequires-actionwithreason: "interrupt"): bell
Pass false to suppress one trigger, or a NotificationHandler to override it:
useNotification({
onTaskComplete: { osc: "osc99" },
onTaskIncomplete: false,
onNeedsInput: {
custom: (event) => myLogger.log(event),
},
});| Option | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
enabled | boolean | Master switch. Defaults to true. |
onTaskComplete | NotificationHandler<"task-complete"> | false | Fired when the latest assistant message status flips to complete after a run was observed. |
onTaskIncomplete | NotificationHandler<"task-incomplete"> | false | Fired when the latest assistant message status flips to incomplete after a run was observed. |
onNeedsInput | NotificationHandler<"needs-input"> | false | Fired when the latest assistant message enters requires-action with reason: "interrupt". Tool-call pauses are skipped. |
NotificationHandler<T> fields (all optional, any combination):
| Field | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
bell | boolean | Ring the terminal bell (\x07). |
osc | boolean | "osc9" | "osc99" | "osc777" | Send an OSC notification. true is equivalent to "osc9". |
custom | (event: Extract<NotificationEvent, { type: T }>) => void | User callback invoked with the event payload narrowed to this handler's type. |
Notifications are deduplicated per thread:message:status:reason tuple, so passing an inline config object does not produce duplicate fires. ringBell and sendOSCNotification(title, body?, variant?) are also exported for imperative use. OSC support depends on the terminal emulator.
Runtime Hooks
useLocalRuntime
Create an AssistantRuntime with a ChatModelAdapter.
import { useLocalRuntime } from "@assistant-ui/react-ink";
const runtime = useLocalRuntime(chatModel, {
initialMessages: [],
});| Option | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
initialMessages | ThreadMessageLike[] | Messages to pre-populate the thread with |
maxSteps | number | Maximum number of agentic steps before stopping |
adapters.history | ThreadHistoryAdapter | Adapter for persisting thread history |
adapters.attachments | AttachmentAdapter | Adapter for handling file attachments |
adapters.speech | SpeechSynthesisAdapter | Adapter for text-to-speech output |
adapters.dictation | DictationAdapter | Adapter for speech-to-text input |
adapters.feedback | FeedbackAdapter | Adapter for message feedback (thumbs up/down) |
adapters.suggestion | SuggestionAdapter | Adapter for suggested prompts |
cloud | AssistantCloud | Cloud instance for thread persistence via @assistant-ui/cloud |
unstable_humanToolNames | string[] | Tool names that trigger a run interruption to wait for human/external approval |
useRemoteThreadListRuntime
Create an AssistantRuntime backed by a RemoteThreadListAdapter for multi-thread persistence. The runtimeHook is called for each thread to produce the per-thread runtime (typically useLocalRuntime).
import { useRemoteThreadListRuntime, useLocalRuntime } from "@assistant-ui/react-ink";
const runtime = useRemoteThreadListRuntime({
adapter: myRemoteAdapter,
runtimeHook: () => useLocalRuntime(chatModel),
});| Option | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
runtimeHook | () => AssistantRuntime | Hook called to produce the per-thread runtime |
adapter | RemoteThreadListAdapter | Adapter implementing thread list persistence |
allowNesting | boolean | When true, becomes a no-op if nested inside another RemoteThreadListRuntime |
Model Context Hooks
Tools
Author tools with defineToolkit, the same API as on the web (Defining Tools). The tool definition is forwarded to the model; when the model calls it, the execute function runs and the render component displays the result.
An Ink app runs in a single Node process, so there is no client/server
boundary to split and no build step. defineToolkit from
@assistant-ui/react-ink runs at runtime: import it as a value, with no
"use generative" directive and no "use client" inside execute.
import { defineToolkit } from "@assistant-ui/react-ink";
import { Text } from "ink";
import { z } from "zod";
export default defineToolkit({
get_weather: {
description: "Get the current weather for a city",
parameters: z.object({ city: z.string() }),
execute: async ({ city }) => {
const res = await fetch(`https://api.weather.example/${city}`);
return res.json();
},
render: ({ args, result }) => (
<Text>
{args.city}: {result?.temperature}°F
</Text>
),
},
});import { AuiProvider, Tools, useAui } from "@assistant-ui/react-ink";
import toolkit from "./weather-toolkit";
function ToolProvider({ children }: { children: React.ReactNode }) {
const aui = useAui({ tools: Tools({ toolkit }) });
return <AuiProvider value={aui}>{children}</AuiProvider>;
}useAssistantInstructions
Register system instructions in the model context.
import { useAssistantInstructions } from "@assistant-ui/react-ink";
useAssistantInstructions("You are a helpful terminal assistant.");useAssistantDataUI
Register a UI renderer for a named data part type. When a message contains a data part with the given name, the render component is used.
import { useAssistantDataUI } from "@assistant-ui/react-ink";
import { Text } from "ink";
useAssistantDataUI({
name: "weather_card",
render: ({ data }) => (
<Text>{data.city}: {data.temperature}°F</Text>
),
});Dynamic Tool Renderers
Use a toolkit with useInlineRender when the renderer closes over changing props.
makeAssistantDataUI
Create a component that registers a data UI renderer when mounted.
import { makeAssistantDataUI } from "@assistant-ui/react-ink";
import { Text } from "ink";
const WeatherCardUI = makeAssistantDataUI({
name: "weather_card",
render: ({ data }) => (
<Text>{data.city}: {data.temperature}°F</Text>
),
});
// Mount inside AssistantRuntimeProvider to register
<WeatherCardUI />useInlineRender
Wrap a render function component so that it always uses the latest version without re-creating a stable reference. Useful when passing a render prop inline and the function closes over changing state.
import { defineToolkit, useInlineRender } from "@assistant-ui/react-ink";
import { Text } from "ink";
import { useMemo } from "react";
export function useWeatherToolkit() {
const render = useInlineRender(({ args, result }) => (
<Text>{args.city}: {result?.temperature}°F</Text>
));
return useMemo(
() =>
defineToolkit({
get_weather: {
type: "backend",
render,
},
}),
[render],
);
}Import the toolkit hook, pass its result to useAui({ tools: Tools({ toolkit }) }), and provide the returned aui with AuiProvider, as shown in the Tools section above.
Runtime Providers
AssistantRuntimeProvider
Connects an AssistantRuntime to the React tree. All primitives and hooks must be used inside this provider.
import { AssistantRuntimeProvider, useLocalRuntime } from "@assistant-ui/react-ink";
const runtime = useLocalRuntime(chatModel);
<AssistantRuntimeProvider runtime={runtime}>
{/* app content */}
</AssistantRuntimeProvider>| Prop | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
runtime | AssistantRuntime | The runtime instance to provide |
Context Providers
These low-level providers are used to set up scoped contexts for rendering primitives outside of the standard ThreadPrimitive.Messages / MessagePrimitive.Parts hierarchy.
MessageByIndexProvider
Sets up the message context for a given message index in the thread. Used internally by ThreadPrimitive.Messages.
import { MessageByIndexProvider } from "@assistant-ui/react-ink";
<MessageByIndexProvider index={0}>
<MessagePrimitive.Root>...</MessagePrimitive.Root>
</MessageByIndexProvider>| Prop | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
index | number | Zero-based index of the message in the thread |
PartByIndexProvider
Sets up the part context for a given part index in the current message. Used internally by MessagePrimitive.Parts.
import { PartByIndexProvider } from "@assistant-ui/react-ink";
<PartByIndexProvider index={0}>
{/* part content */}
</PartByIndexProvider>| Prop | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
index | number | Zero-based index of the part in the message |
TextMessagePartProvider
Provides a synthetic text part context with a fixed text value. Useful for rendering text content outside of a real message part (e.g., in previews or testing).
import { TextMessagePartProvider } from "@assistant-ui/react-ink";
<TextMessagePartProvider text="Hello world" isRunning={false}>
{/* content rendered with a text part context */}
</TextMessagePartProvider>| Prop | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
text | string | The text content for the synthetic part |
isRunning | boolean | Whether the part should appear as running (default: false) |
ChainOfThoughtByIndicesProvider
Sets up a chain-of-thought context spanning a range of message parts by start and end index. Used to group consecutive reasoning parts.
import { ChainOfThoughtByIndicesProvider } from "@assistant-ui/react-ink";
<ChainOfThoughtByIndicesProvider startIndex={1} endIndex={3}>
<ChainOfThoughtPrimitive.Root>...</ChainOfThoughtPrimitive.Root>
</ChainOfThoughtByIndicesProvider>| Prop | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
startIndex | number | Index of the first part in the chain-of-thought range |
endIndex | number | Index of the last part in the chain-of-thought range |
ChainOfThoughtPartByIndexProvider
Sets up the part context for a specific part within the current chain-of-thought by index.
import { ChainOfThoughtPartByIndexProvider } from "@assistant-ui/react-ink";
<ChainOfThoughtPartByIndexProvider index={0}>
{/* chain-of-thought part content */}
</ChainOfThoughtPartByIndexProvider>| Prop | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
index | number | Zero-based index of the part within the chain-of-thought |
SuggestionByIndexProvider
Sets up the suggestion context for a given suggestion index. Used internally by ThreadPrimitive.Suggestions.
import { SuggestionByIndexProvider } from "@assistant-ui/react-ink";
<SuggestionByIndexProvider index={0}>
<SuggestionPrimitive.Title />
</SuggestionByIndexProvider>| Prop | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
index | number | Zero-based index of the suggestion |
ThreadListItemByIndexProvider
Sets up the thread list item context for a given index, differentiating between regular and archived threads.
import { ThreadListItemByIndexProvider } from "@assistant-ui/react-ink";
<ThreadListItemByIndexProvider index={0} archived={false}>
<ThreadListItemPrimitive.Root>...</ThreadListItemPrimitive.Root>
</ThreadListItemByIndexProvider>| Prop | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
index | number | Zero-based index in the thread list |
archived | boolean | Whether to index into the archived thread list |
ThreadListItemRuntimeProvider
Sets up the thread list item context from a ThreadListItemRuntime instance directly.
import { ThreadListItemRuntimeProvider } from "@assistant-ui/react-ink";
<ThreadListItemRuntimeProvider runtime={threadListItemRuntime}>
<ThreadListItemPrimitive.Root>...</ThreadListItemPrimitive.Root>
</ThreadListItemRuntimeProvider>| Prop | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
runtime | ThreadListItemRuntime | The thread list item runtime instance |
MessageAttachmentByIndexProvider
Sets up the attachment context for a specific message attachment by index.
import { MessageAttachmentByIndexProvider } from "@assistant-ui/react-ink";
<MessageAttachmentByIndexProvider index={0}>
<AttachmentPrimitive.Name />
</MessageAttachmentByIndexProvider>| Prop | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
index | number | Zero-based index of the attachment in the message |
ComposerAttachmentByIndexProvider
Sets up the attachment context for a specific composer attachment by index.
import { ComposerAttachmentByIndexProvider } from "@assistant-ui/react-ink";
<ComposerAttachmentByIndexProvider index={0}>
<AttachmentPrimitive.Name />
<AttachmentPrimitive.Remove>
<Text color="red">[x]</Text>
</AttachmentPrimitive.Remove>
</ComposerAttachmentByIndexProvider>| Prop | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
index | number | Zero-based index of the attachment in the composer |