Open a live chat application in the browser

Create a simple Shiny app for live chatting using an ellmer::Chat object. Note that these functions will mutate the input client object as you chat because your turns will be appended to the history.

The app created by chat_app() is suitable for interactive use by a single user. For multi-user Shiny apps, use the Shiny module chat functions – chat_mod_ui() and chat_mod_server() – and be sure to create a new chat client for each user session.

Usage

chat_app(client, ..., bookmark_store = "url")

chat_mod_ui(id, ..., client = deprecated(), messages = NULL)

chat_mod_server(
  id,
  client,
  bookmark_on_input = TRUE,
  bookmark_on_response = TRUE
)

Arguments

client: A chat object created by ellmer, e.g. ellmer::chat_openai() and friends. This argument is deprecated in chat_mod_ui() because the client state is now managed by chat_mod_server().
...: In chat_app(), additional arguments are passed to shiny::shinyApp(). In chat_mod_ui(), additional arguments are passed to chat_ui().
bookmark_store: The bookmarking store to use for the app. Passed to enable_bookmarking in shiny::shinyApp(). Defaults to "url", which uses the URL to store the chat state. URL-based bookmarking is limited in size; use "server" to store the state on the server side without size limitations; or disable bookmarking by setting this to "disable".
id: The chat module ID.
messages: Initial messages shown in the chat, used only when client (in chat_mod_ui()) doesn't already contain turns. Passed to messages in chat_ui().
bookmark_on_input: A logical value determines if the bookmark should be updated when the user submits a message. Default is TRUE.
bookmark_on_response: A logical value determines if the bookmark should be updated when the response stream completes. Default is TRUE.

Value

chat_app() returns a shiny::shinyApp() object.
chat_mod_ui() returns the UI for a shinychat module.
chat_mod_server() includes the shinychat module server logic, and returns a list containing:
- last_input: A reactive value containing the last user input.
- last_turn: A reactive value containing the last assistant turn.
- update_user_input(): A function to update the chat input or submit a new user input. Takes the same arguments as update_chat_user_input(), except for id and session, which are supplied automatically.
- append(): A function to append a new message to the chat UI. Takes the same arguments as chat_append(), except for id and session, which are supplied automatically.
- clear(): A function to clear the chat history and the chat UI. clear() takes an optional list of messages used to initialize the chat after clearing. messages should be a list of messages, where each message is a list with role and content fields. The client_history argument controls how the chat client's history is updated after clearing. It can be one of: "clear" the chat history; "set" the chat history to messages; "append" messages to the existing chat history; or "keep" the existing chat history.
- client: The chat client object, which is mutated as you chat.

Functions

chat_app(): A simple Shiny app for live chatting. Note that this app is suitable for interactive use by a single user; do not use chat_app() in a multi-user Shiny app context.
chat_mod_ui(): A simple chat app module UI.
chat_mod_server(): A simple chat app module server.

Examples

if (FALSE) { # \dontrun{
# Interactive in the console ----
client <- ellmer::chat_anthropic()
chat_app(client)

# Inside a Shiny app ----
library(shiny)
library(bslib)
library(shinychat)

ui <- page_fillable(
  titlePanel("shinychat example"),

  layout_columns(
    card(
      card_header("Chat with Claude"),
      chat_mod_ui(
        "claude",
        messages = list(
          "Hi! Use this chat interface to chat with Anthropic's `claude-3-5-sonnet`."
        )
      )
    ),
    card(
      card_header("Chat with ChatGPT"),
      chat_mod_ui(
        "openai",
        messages = list(
          "Hi! Use this chat interface to chat with OpenAI's `gpt-4o`."
        )
      )
    )
  )
)

server <- function(input, output, session) {
  claude <- ellmer::chat_anthropic(model = "claude-3-5-sonnet-latest") # Requires ANTHROPIC_API_KEY
  openai <- ellmer::chat_openai(model = "gpt-4o") # Requires OPENAI_API_KEY

  chat_mod_server("claude", claude)
  chat_mod_server("openai", openai)
}

shinyApp(ui, server)
} # }