AI Elements

AI Elements

AI Elements is a component library and custom registry built on top of shadcn/ui to help you build AI-native applications faster. It provides pre-built components like conversations, messages and more.

Components are copied into the project as source, so they are owned and editable — not a black-box dependency.

Prerequisites

• Node.js 18 or later
• A Next.js project with the AI SDK installed
• shadcn/ui in the project — running any install command sets it up if missing

Installing Components

Install AI Elements components using either the dedicated AI Elements CLI or the shadcn/ui CLI. Both achieve the same result: adding the selected component's code and any needed dependencies to the project.

AI Elements CLI

# npm
npx ai-elements@latest add message
# pnpm
pnpm dlx ai-elements@latest add message
# yarn
yarn dlx ai-elements@latest add message
# bun
bun x ai-elements@latest add message

shadcn CLI

# npm
npx shadcn@latest add @ai-elements/message
# pnpm
pnpm dlx shadcn@latest add @ai-elements/message
# yarn
yarn dlx shadcn@latest add @ai-elements/message
# bun
bun x shadcn@latest add @ai-elements/message

The CLI downloads the component's code and integrates it into the project's directory. By default, AI Elements components are added to @/components/ai-elements/ (or whatever folder is configured in components.json). After running the command, the terminal confirms which files were added — proceed to import and use the component in code.

Example

Import and compose them like any other local React component:

"use client";

import {
  Message,
  MessageContent,
  MessageResponse,
} from "@/components/ai-elements/message";
import { useChat } from "@ai-sdk/react";

const Example = () => {
  const { messages } = useChat();

  return (
    <>
      {messages.map(({ role, parts }, index) => (
        <Message from={role} key={index}>
          <MessageContent>
            {parts.map((part, i) => {
              switch (part.type) {
                case "text":
                  return (
                    <MessageResponse key={`${role}-${i}`}>
                      {part.text}
                    </MessageResponse>
                  );
              }
            })}
          </MessageContent>
        </Message>
      ))}
    </>
  );
};

export default Example;

The example above imports the Message component from the AI Elements directory and composes it with the MessageContent and MessageResponse subcomponents. Style or configure the component just as you would any local component — since the code lives in your project, the component file can be opened directly for inspection or custom modifications.

Extensibility

All AI Elements components take as many primitive attributes as possible. For example, the Message component extends HTMLAttributes<HTMLDivElement>, so you can pass any props that a div supports. This makes it easy to extend the component with your own styles or functionality.

Customization

No post-install setup is needed — the Tailwind classes and scripts ship with the component. Edit the file directly to change it. For example, to remove the rounding on Message, drop rounded-lg from components/ai-elements/message.tsx:

export const MessageContent = ({
  children,
  className,
  ...props
}: MessageContentProps) => (
  <div
    className={cn(
      "flex flex-col gap-2 text-sm text-foreground",
      "group-[.is-user]:bg-primary group-[.is-user]:text-primary-foreground group-[.is-user]:px-4 group-[.is-user]:py-3",
      className
    )}
    {...props}
  >
    <div className="is-user:dark">{children}</div>
  </div>
);

Troubleshooting

Components render unstyled

The project is missing the shadcn/ui base layer. Tailwind 4 is CSS-first — there is no tailwind.config.js; globals.css must @import "tailwindcss" and define the shadcn theme tokens in an @theme inline block.

The CLI ran but nothing was added

Run it from the directory holding package.json, and pass both @latest and a component name — a bare ai-elements@latest with no subcommand does not add a single component.

Theme switching stays in light mode

shadcn/ui toggles class="dark" (or a data-theme attribute) on <html>. In Tailwind 4 the matching selector is declared in CSS with @custom-variant dark, not in a config file. Confirm the toggle actually mutates <html> before suspecting the components.

Imports fail with "module not found"

Check the file exists, then check the @/ path alias in tsconfig.json:

{
  "compilerOptions": {
    "baseUrl": ".",
    "paths": {
      "@/*": ["./*"]
    }
  }
}

Match the alias to whatever components.json declares — it is not always @/.

Anything else: open an issue.

Available Components

See the references/ folder for detailed documentation on each component.