Vercel AI Playground - AI Toolkit for TypeScript

VISIT VERCEL AI PLAYGROUND

Vercel AI Playground Brief Overview

Vercel AI Playground is a TypeScript-first toolkit for adding AI features to modern web and app projects. It’s designed to make it easier to connect your app to popular AI models (from different providers) without writing a lot of provider-specific “glue code.” Instead of manually handling streaming responses, message formatting, tool/function calling, and UI state, you use a consistent set of functions and hooks.

It’s especially common in apps built with frameworks like Next.js and React, but it also supports other environments (including server-side Node.js workflows). You can use it to build chatbots, writing assistants, internal tools, agent-style workflows, and AI-powered interfaces where the model streams output as it generates it.

Simple How-to-Use

1. Install the SDK
   • Core package:
     • npm i ai
   • If you’re building a UI in React, also add:
     • npm i @ai-sdk/react
   • Add a provider package for the model you want (examples: OpenAI, Anthropic, etc.).
2. Add your API key
   • Store your provider key in environment variables (for example, in .env.local) so it stays server-side.
3. Create a server endpoint
   • In Next.js, this is commonly an API route that receives chat messages and returns a streaming response.
4. Connect a UI hook
   • On the frontend, use a hook like useChat() to send messages to your endpoint and render the streamed replies.

Example (simplified Next.js-style approach):

// app/api/chat/route.ts
import { streamText } from "ai";
import { openai } from "@ai-sdk/openai";
export async function POST(req: Request) {
  const { messages } = await req.json();
  const result = streamText({
    model: openai("gpt-4o-mini"),
    messages,
  });
  return result.toDataStreamResponse();
}

// app/page.tsx
"use client";
import { useChat } from "@ai-sdk/react";
export default function Chat() {
  const { messages, input, handleInputChange, handleSubmit } = useChat({ api: "/api/chat" });
  return (
    <div>
      {messages.map(m => <div key={m.id}><strong>{m.role}:</strong> {m.content}</div>)}
      <form onSubmit={handleSubmit}>
        <input value={input} onChange={handleInputChange} placeholder="Type a message..." />
        <button type="submit">Send</button>
      </form>
    </div>
  );
}

Vercel AI Playground Key Features and Functions

• AI SDK Core (backend logic)
  • generateText() for one-shot responses (get a complete result).
  • streamText() for streaming responses (ideal for chat and live “typing” output).
  • Tool calling + multi-step flows so models can call functions/tools and continue reasoning with the results (useful for “agent-like” behavior).
  • Structured outputs (generate predictable JSON-like results using schemas), helpful for extraction, classification, and automation.
  • Extra capabilities in the Core API include embeddings, image generation, and experimental features like speech and transcription.
• AI SDK UI (frontend helpers)
  • Framework-friendly hooks such as useChat() (chat UI), useCompletion() (prompt → completion), and assistant-style integrations.
  • Built-in support for streaming protocols, so your UI updates smoothly as tokens arrive.
  • Chat tool patterns, including server-executed tools, client tools, and tools that can require user interaction/approval.
• Agents and debugging
  • Agent patterns that run tools in a loop to complete tasks (useful for workflows that require multiple steps).
  • Optional DevTools for inspecting requests, responses, tool calls, and multi-step behavior during local development.

Pricing

• Vercel AI SDK cost: The SDK itself is free and open-source, so there is no direct license fee to use the library.
• Model usage costs (most important): You typically pay for the AI model you call (OpenAI, Anthropic, etc.) based on that provider’s pricing (often tied to tokens or other usage metrics). The SDK helps you integrate models, but it doesn’t remove provider usage charges.
• Optional Vercel AI Gateway pricing: If you choose to route requests through Vercel’s AI Gateway, it uses AI Gateway Credits and is designed to charge based on provider list rates (with no markup). Vercel also offers a free tier that includes $5 of free usage per month per Vercel team account (starting after your first AI Gateway request). If you move to paid by purchasing credits, it becomes pay-as-you-go and you no longer receive the monthly $5 credit.
• Hosting/deployment: If you deploy on Vercel, that’s separate from the SDK and depends on the Vercel plan you choose.

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