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SKILL

skills/react-core/SKILL.md

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CopilotKit React Core

@copilotkit/react-core is the React frontend half of CopilotKit: it mounts a provider, speaks AG-UI over SSE to a runtime (or directly to CopilotKit Cloud in SPA mode), and exposes hooks for every interaction surface.

This SKILL.md is the index. Read the reference under references/ that matches your task — do not try to absorb the whole package from this file.

Mental model — three shells you compose

  1. Provider shellCopilotKitProvider at or near the root (inside "use client" for Next.js App Router). Carries runtimeUrl (or publicLicenseKey for SPA), headers, credentials, properties, onError, debug, showDevConsole.
  2. Chat shellCopilotChat / CopilotPopup / CopilotSidebar or a composed CopilotChatView + slot primitives (CopilotChatInput, CopilotChatMessageView, etc.). All chat components ship from @copilotkit/react-core/v2. CopilotPanel does not exist — it's a common hallucination.
  3. Hook shell — inside any component under the provider, call useAgent, useFrontendTool, useRenderTool, etc. Every hook takes optional { agentId } for agent-scoped registration.

When to load which reference

TaskReference
Mount CopilotKitProvider, pick runtimeUrl vs publicLicenseKey, RSC boundary rulesreferences/provider-setup.md
Drop in CopilotChat / CopilotPopup / CopilotSidebar, compose CopilotChatView with slot primitivesreferences/chat-components.md
File / image attachments via useAttachments — drag-drop, click, paste, custom uploadreferences/attachments.md
Client-side debug tooling — showDevConsole, debug prop, lazy-loaded web inspectorreferences/debug-mode.md
Read / subscribe to an agent (useAgent) and push global context (useAgentContext)references/agent-access.md
Feature-gate UI on declared agent capabilities (useCapabilities)references/capabilities.md
Build a multi-agent UI (per-panel useAgent, agent-scoped tools, key-remount pattern)references/switching-agents.md (+ switching-agents-recipes.md for concrete layouts)
List / rename / archive / delete durable Intelligence threads (useThreads)references/threads.md (requires runtime Intelligence mode)
Register browser-side tools (useFrontendTool)references/client-side-tools.md
Render per-tool UI (useRenderTool, useComponent, useDefaultRenderTool, useRenderToolCall)references/rendering-tool-calls.md
Gate tool execution behind user approval (useHumanInTheLoop)references/human-in-the-loop.md
Configure dynamic or static suggestion pills (useConfigureSuggestions, useSuggestions)references/suggestions.md
Render non-chat activity messages (useRenderActivityMessage)references/rendering-activity-messages.md
Inject custom UI before/after specific messages (useRenderCustomMessages)references/custom-message-renderers.md

Invariants and gotchas (load-once, before any reference)

  • publicLicenseKey is canonical. publicApiKey is a deprecated alias — expect it in legacy code.
  • agents__unsafe_dev_only and selfManagedAgents are dev-only aliases of each other. Not production-safe. See packages/a2ui-renderer or the spa-without-runtime lifecycle skill for the supported SPA path.
  • CopilotPanel does not exist. v2 chat components ship from react-core/v2not react-ui (v2 react-ui is CSS-only).
  • No useAgents() hook exists. Discover agents via copilotkit.subscribe({ onAgentsChanged }).
  • useRenderToolCall is a resolver (for custom chat surfaces), not a registration hook. Register with useRenderTool / useComponent / useDefaultRenderTool.
  • UI-kit detection rule — any render or tool-call UI MUST reuse the consumer's shadcn / MUI / Chakra / Ant / Mantine primitives before writing raw JSX. This applies across client-side-tools, rendering-tool-calls, and human-in-the-loop.
  • Tool-call status values are camelCase: 'inProgress' | 'executing' | 'complete'. In-progress args are Partial<T>.
  • useHumanInTheLoop synthesized handler MUST call respond(result) (including reject paths), otherwise the agent run hangs. respond is undefined outside Executing status. Unmounting mid-Executing abandons the run.
  • useThreads errors with 'Runtime URL is not configured' outside Intelligence mode.
  • v1 → v2 migration renames: useCopilotActionuseFrontendTool + useHumanInTheLoop; imageUploadsEnabledattachments. See the v1-to-v2-migration lifecycle skill.

Reading order for a first-time reader

  1. provider-setup — mount the provider.
  2. chat-components — wire a chat surface.
  3. agent-access — talk to agents.
  4. client-side-tools + rendering-tool-calls — add tool-call UI.
  5. Anything else as your feature requires.