# Welcome to the assistant-ui ink web demo 👋

This app runs the [`@assistant-ui/react-ink`](https://www.assistant-ui.com/docs/ink) terminal chat in the browser against a real LLM. It powers the live demo embedded at [assistant-ui.com/ink](https://www.assistant-ui.com/ink) and is deployed at [assistant-ui-ink.vercel.app](https://assistant-ui-ink.vercel.app).

## Get started

1. Install dependencies

   ```bash
   pnpm install
   ```

2. Start the docs app, which serves the chat endpoint on [localhost:3000](http://localhost:3000)

   ```bash
   pnpm --filter @assistant-ui/docs dev
   ```

3. Start the app

   ```bash
   pnpm dev
   ```

The terminal opens on [localhost:8081](http://localhost:8081), and the docs app embeds this URL on its `/ink` page in development.

## How it works

Ink has no official web target, so this app renders the real `@assistant-ui/react-ink` component tree through [ink-web](https://github.com/cjroth/ink-web)'s browser build of Ink, bridged to a [wterm](https://github.com/vercel-labs/wterm) terminal. wterm renders to the DOM, so text selection, copy, find, and screen readers work natively.

Chat requests go to the assistant-ui docs site's `/api/chat`, the same pattern as the React Native demo at [assistant-ui-expo.vercel.app](https://assistant-ui-expo.vercel.app). This app holds no API keys; set `NEXT_PUBLIC_CHAT_ENDPOINT_URL` to point at a different endpoint.

## Learn more

- [assistant-ui ink documentation](https://www.assistant-ui.com/docs/ink): primitives, hooks, and adapters for terminal UIs.
- [with-react-ink](../with-react-ink): the real terminal version of this example. Start there if you are building an Ink app.