Chat SDK

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

Critical: Read the bundled docs

The chat package ships with full documentation in node_modules/chat/docs/ and TypeScript source types. Always read these before writing code:

node_modules/chat/docs/           # Full documentation (MDX files)
node_modules/chat/dist/           # Built types (.d.ts files)

Key docs to read based on task:

• docs/getting-started.mdx — setup guides
• docs/usage.mdx — event handlers, threads, messages, channels
• docs/streaming.mdx — AI streaming with AI SDK
• docs/cards.mdx — JSX interactive cards
• docs/actions.mdx — button/dropdown handlers
• docs/modals.mdx — form dialogs (Slack only)
• docs/adapters.mdx — platform-specific adapter setup
• docs/state.mdx — state adapter config (Redis, ioredis, PostgreSQL, memory)

Also read the TypeScript types from node_modules/chat/dist/ to understand the full API surface.

Quick start

typescript
1import { Chat } from "chat";
2import { createSlackAdapter } from "@chat-adapter/slack";
3import { createRedisState } from "@chat-adapter/state-redis";
4
5const bot = new Chat({
6  userName: "mybot",
7  adapters: {
8    slack: createSlackAdapter({
9      botToken: process.env.SLACK_BOT_TOKEN!,
10      signingSecret: process.env.SLACK_SIGNING_SECRET!,
11    }),
12  },
13  state: createRedisState({ url: process.env.REDIS_URL! }),
14});
15
16bot.onNewMention(async (thread) => {
17  await thread.subscribe();
18  await thread.post("Hello! I'm listening to this thread.");
19});
20
21bot.onSubscribedMessage(async (thread, message) => {
22  await thread.post(`You said: ${message.text}`);
23});

Core concepts

• Chat — main entry point, coordinates adapters and routes events
• Adapters — platform-specific (Slack, Teams, GChat, Discord, GitHub, Linear)
• State — pluggable persistence (Redis or PostgreSQL for prod, memory for dev)
• Thread — conversation thread with post(), schedule(), subscribe(), startTyping()
• Message — normalized format with text, formatted (mdast AST), raw
• Channel — container for threads, supports listing and posting

Event handlers

Streaming

Pass any AsyncIterable<string> to thread.post(). Works with AI SDK's textStream:

typescript
1import { ToolLoopAgent } from "ai";
2const agent = new ToolLoopAgent({ model: "anthropic/claude-4.5-sonnet" });
3
4bot.onNewMention(async (thread, message) => {
5  const result = await agent.stream({ prompt: message.text });
6  await thread.post(result.textStream);
7});

Cards (JSX)

Set jsxImportSource: "chat" in tsconfig. Components: Card, CardText, Button, Actions, Fields, Field, Select, SelectOption, Image, Divider, LinkButton, Section, RadioSelect.

tsx
1await thread.post(
2  <Card title="Order #1234">
3    <CardText>Your order has been received!</CardText>
4    <Actions>
5      <Button id="approve" style="primary">Approve</Button>
6      <Button id="reject" style="danger">Reject</Button>
7    </Actions>
8  </Card>
9);

Packages

Changesets (Release Flow)

This monorepo uses Changesets for versioning and changelogs. Every PR that changes a package's behavior must include a changeset.

bash
1pnpm changeset
2# → select affected package(s) (e.g. @chat-adapter/slack, chat)
3# → choose bump type: patch (fixes), minor (features), major (breaking)
4# → write a short summary for the CHANGELOG

This creates a file in .changeset/ — commit it with the PR. When merged to main, the Changesets GitHub Action opens a "Version Packages" PR to bump versions and update CHANGELOGs. Merging that PR publishes to npm.

Building a custom adapter

To create a community or vendor adapter, implement the Adapter interface from chat and read:

• docs/contributing/building.mdx — full step-by-step guide (uses a Matrix adapter as example)
• docs/contributing/testing.mdx — testing your adapter
• docs/contributing/publishing.mdx — npm naming conventions and publishing

The adapter must implement handleWebhook, parseMessage, postMessage, editMessage, deleteMessage, thread ID encoding/decoding, and a FormatConverter (extend BaseFormatConverter from chat). Use @chat-adapter/shared for error classes and message utilities.

Webhook setup

Each adapter exposes a webhook handler via bot.webhooks.{platform}. Wire these to your HTTP framework's routes (e.g. Next.js API routes, Hono, Express).