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Ai Elements

  • 48 installs
  • vercel-labs/vercel-skills

This is a copy of ai-elements by vercel - installs and ranking accrue to the original listing.

Scaffold new AI chat UI pieces for the ai-elements registry so your Next.js app matches shadcn/ui and Vercel AI SDK patterns without guessing folder structure.

About

AI Elements is a Vercel-maintained agent skill for solo builders extending the ai-elements component library—the shadcn/ui-based registry for AI-native UIs built on the Vercel AI SDK. Invoke it when you need a new chat-related component in packages/elements/src or when you ask the agent to add a component to ai-elements. The skill encodes composable patterns, registry layout, and install paths (CLI or shadcn) so generated code stays consistent with existing elements like conversations and messages. It fits indie SaaS and agent-product teams already on Next.js 18+ who want faster iteration on streaming chat UX without re-reading the full docs each time. Prerequisites are a Next.js project with AI SDK and shadcn/ui; the workflow emphasizes alignment with Vercel AI Gateway for keys and routing. Use during Build when the interface is the bottleneck, not during idea validation or post-launch growth tooling.

  • Guides adding components under packages/elements/src with ai-elements + shadcn/ui conventions
  • Assumes Next.js, AI SDK, and shadcn/ui (install commands can bootstrap shadcn if missing)
  • Covers conversations, messages, and related AI-native UI patterns from the npm ai-elements package
  • Recommends Vercel AI Gateway and AI_GATEWAY_API_KEY for production API routing
  • Supports dedicated ai-elements CLI or standard shadcn/ui registry workflow

Ai Elements by the numbers

  • 48 all-time installs (skills.sh)
  • Security screen: CRITICAL risk (skills.sh audit)
  • Data as of Jul 7, 2026 (Skillselion catalog sync)
npx skills add https://github.com/vercel-labs/vercel-skills --skill ai-elements

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Installs48
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Repositoryvercel-labs/vercel-skills

What it does

Scaffold new AI chat UI pieces for the ai-elements registry so your Next.js app matches shadcn/ui and Vercel AI SDK patterns without guessing folder structure.

Files

SKILL.mdMarkdownGitHub ↗

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.

Installing AI Elements is straightforward and can be done in a couple of ways. You can use the dedicated CLI command for the fastest setup, or integrate via the standard shadcn/ui CLI if you've already adopted shadcn's workflow.

Quick Start

Here are some basic examples of what you can achieve using components from AI Elements.

Prerequisites

Before installing AI Elements, make sure your environment meets the following requirements:

  • Node.js, version 18 or later
  • A Next.js project with the AI SDK installed.
  • shadcn/ui installed in your project. If you don't have it installed, running any install command will automatically install it for you.
  • We also highly recommend using the AI Gateway and adding AI_GATEWAY_API_KEY to your env.local so you don't have to use an API key from every provider. AI Gateway also gives $5 in usage per month so you can experiment with models. You can obtain an API key here.

Installing Components

You can install AI Elements components using either the AI Elements CLI or the shadcn/ui CLI. Both achieve the same result: adding the selected component’s code and any needed dependencies to your project.

The CLI will download the component’s code and integrate it into your project’s directory (usually under your components folder). By default, AI Elements components are added to the @/components/ai-elements/ directory (or whatever folder you’ve configured in your shadcn components settings).

After running the command, you should see a confirmation in your terminal that the files were added. You can then proceed to use the component in your code.

Usage

Once an AI Elements component is installed, you can import it and use it in your application like any other React component. The components are added as part of your codebase (not hidden in a library), so the usage feels very natural.

Example

After installing AI Elements components, you can use them in your application like any other React component. For example:

```tsx title="conversation.tsx" "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;


In the example above, we import the `Message` component from our AI Elements directory and include it in our JSX. Then, we compose the component with the `MessageContent` and `MessageResponse` subcomponents. You can style or configure the component just as you would if you wrote it yourself – since the code lives in your project, you can even open the component file to see how it works or make 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



After installation, no additional setup is needed. The component’s styles (Tailwind CSS classes) and scripts are already integrated. You can start interacting with the component in your app immediately.

For example, if you'd like to remove the rounding on `Message`, you can go to `components/ai-elements/message.tsx` and remove `rounded-lg` as follows:

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

## Why are my components not styled?

Make sure your project is configured correctly for shadcn/ui in Tailwind 4 - this means having a `globals.css` file that imports Tailwind and includes the shadcn/ui base styles.

## I ran the AI Elements CLI but nothing was added to my project

Double-check that:

- Your current working directory is the root of your project (where `package.json` lives).
- Your components.json file (if using shadcn-style config) is set up correctly.
- You’re using the latest version of the AI Elements CLI:

npx ai-elements@latest


If all else fails, feel free to open an [issue on GitHub](https://github.com/vercel/ai-elements/issues).

## Theme switching doesn’t work — my app stays in light mode

Ensure your app is using the same data-theme system that shadcn/ui and AI Elements expect. The default implementation toggles a data-theme attribute on the `<html>` element. Make sure your tailwind.config.js is using class or data- selectors accordingly:

## The component imports fail with “module not found”

Check the file exists. If it does, make sure your `tsconfig.json` has a proper paths alias for `@/` i.e.

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


## My AI coding assistant can't access AI Elements components

1. Verify your config file syntax is valid JSON.
2. Check that the file path is correct for your AI tool.
3. Restart your coding assistant after making changes.
4. Ensure you have a stable internet connection.

## Still stuck?

If none of these answers help, open an [issue on GitHub](https://github.com/vercel/ai-elements/issues) and someone will be happy to assist.

## Available Components

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

Related skills

FAQ

Is Ai Elements safe to install?

skills.sh reports 2 of 3 security scanners passed. Review the Security Audits panel on this page before installing in production.

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