HextaUI and AI Elements

Two things called AI Elements

AI Elements started at Vercel as a component library for the AI SDK. Its repository now says it will be deprecated at the end of November 2026 and replaced by AI Elements from shadcn/ui, a set of patterns you copy into your project with no package to install. This page covers both, because people searching for one usually find the other.

The short answer

Use AI Elements when you want free building blocks and plan to design the screens and their failure states yourself. Use HextaUI when you want the chat thread, the composer, the tool calls and the settings pages already built, with errors, retries, stops and approvals worked out. Both put their source in your project and share the shadcn/ui theme tokens, so you can mix them.

At a glance

Pieces or screens

A chat looks simple until something goes wrong. The reply fails halfway. The person stops it, edits an earlier message or sends another one while the model is still writing. A tool needs approval in the middle of a stream. An upload fails, or the model sends half a table. AI Elements gives you the parts to build each of those, and leaves the decisions to you. Its own Message example, for instance, shows Retry as an action you connect to regenerate() yourself.

HextaUI blocks are those decisions, already made and tested:

• Chat Thread: failed replies offer Try again, stopped replies say so, and edits and retries become versions you can switch between. Your question pins to the top while the answer streams, and older history loads without the view jumping.
• Prompt Input: Enter never interrupts Japanese, Chinese or Korean input, uploads show progress and retry, messages typed during a reply wait in a queue, and drafts survive a reload. It is free.
• Tool Calls: every AI SDK tool state has its own look, including approvals, with “Tell it what to do instead” to send a reason back to the model.
• Markdown and Streaming: replies never show half-typed syntax, and bursty chunks are revealed at a steady pace instead of stuttering.
• Artifact: an edit that can’t be applied fails with a reason and keeps the last good version, previews swap in without a white flash, and runtime errors come with a Fix it action.
• Chat Sidebar: delete with undo, rename in place, chats that are still replying, and thousands of chats that open instantly.

HextaAI puts every block together into a complete chat app you can open and try before you install anything.

Piece by piece

Most AI Elements pieces have a HextaUI counterpart. The names below are from both AI Elements docs.

HextaUI also has screens AI Elements doesn’t cover, such as Chat Sidebar and settings pages for an AI product like Models, API keys and Billing.

When AI Elements is the better choice

• You want everything free and open source. Most of HextaUI’s AI blocks are paid.
• You only need a few pieces and want to design the screens, and how they fail, yourself.
• You need a workflow canvas with nodes and edges. Vercel’s version has one, and HextaUI doesn’t.
• You want Radix primitives. HextaUI is built on Base UI only, while the shadcn/ui version offers both.
• You want code maintained by shadcn/ui itself, with its community and examples behind it.

Moving off Vercel’s AI Elements

Nothing breaks at the end of November. The components are already source in your repository, and shadcn/ui says existing users don’t need to migrate. When you do touch those screens again, you have three options: keep the code and maintain it yourself, move to the shadcn/ui patterns, or replace a screen with a HextaUI block.

HextaUI blocks read the same message parts that useChat returns, so your route handler and data stay as they are. Start with the composer, since Prompt Input is free, then swap the thread and the tool calls when you need what they handle.

Questions

More comparisons

• HextaUI vs assistant-ui
• HextaUI vs prompt-kit
• HextaUI vs shadcn/ui
• shadcn AI chat templates