Chatbot UI is an open-source, customizable AI chat application designed for broad accessibility and integration with various AI models. It provides a user-friendly interface for interacting with large language models, targeting developers and power users who want to deploy or customize their own AI chat experiences.

How It Works

The application leverages Next.js for its frontend framework and Supabase as its backend, utilizing PostgreSQL for data storage. This architecture choice offers a robust, scalable, and open-source solution for managing user data and application state. Supabase's features, including authentication and database management, simplify deployment and development. The optional integration with Ollama allows for local model execution, enhancing privacy and offline capabilities.

Quick Start & Requirements

• Local: git clone, npm install, supabase start, cp .env.local.example .env.local, npm run chat.
• Prerequisites: Node.js (v18 recommended), Docker, Supabase CLI. Ollama is optional for local models.
• Setup: Local setup involves cloning, installing dependencies, starting Supabase, configuring environment variables, and running the app. A video tutorial is available.
• Hosted: Requires setting up a Supabase project, linking it via Supabase CLI, and deploying to Vercel with configured environment variables.
• Docs: https://github.com/mckaywrigley/chatbot-ui

Highlighted Details

• Supports multiple AI models (OpenAI, Azure OpenAI, and local models via Ollama).
• Backend powered by Supabase (PostgreSQL) for data persistence and scalability.
• Frontend built with Next.js, offering a modern and responsive user interface.
• Includes features like conversation history, model selection, and prompt management.

Maintenance & Community

The project is actively maintained by Mckay Wrigley, with a call for community participation via the Discussions tab. Updates are ongoing, with a focus on improving deployment and backend compatibility. Contact is available via Twitter/X.

Licensing & Compatibility

The project is licensed under the MIT License, permitting commercial use and integration with closed-source applications.

Limitations & Caveats

The project is undergoing significant updates (version 2.0), and the README notes that "Issues" are restricted to codebase-related problems, directing other queries to the "Discussions" tab. Some setup steps require manual configuration of environment variables and SQL migrations.