CopilotKit review

Q: How do I install CopilotKit?

Run npx --yes copilotkit@latest onboard start. The install section above has the other options from the project's README.

CopilotKit is an open-source framework that connects apps to AI agents with chat, generative UI, shared state, and human approvals.

Updated Nov 1, 2026. Review written Oct 25, 2026 from the project's own sources; usage data refreshed every Monday.

TL;DR

CopilotKit is an open-source SDK for building agentic applications, generative UI, and chat apps. It is for developers who want one agent backend to serve React, Angular, Vue, React Native, Slack, and Microsoft Teams. The team behind it also makes the AG-UI Protocol, which handles the wire protocol between agents and UIs.

38.4kGitHub stars
+234new stars, week of Oct 25
~653.6kdownloads a week, +8% vs 4-week avg
#16in Agent frameworks this week

CopilotKit at a glance

Category: Agent frameworks
Maintained by: CopilotKit (organization, @CopilotKit on GitHub)
License: MIT
Language: TypeScript, Python, MDX
Repository: github.com/CopilotKit/CopilotKit
Website: docs.copilotkit.ai
npm package: @copilotkit/react-core 1.80.0
Latest release: v1.80.0 on GitHub, Oct 24, 2026
First published: Jun 19, 2023

What CopilotKit does

CopilotKit provides a customizable chat UI that supports message streaming, tool calls, and agent responses.
CopilotKit lets agents generate and update UI components at runtime based on user intent and agent state.
CopilotKit offers a shared state layer that agents and UI components can both read and write in real time.
CopilotKit supports human-in-the-loop workflows where agents pause to request user input, confirmation, or edits.
CopilotKit renders UI components returned by backend tools directly in the client.
CopilotKit's Channels SDK puts an existing agent into Slack and Microsoft Teams with the same tools and shared state.
CopilotKit's useAgent hook gives programmatic control over the agent connection on top of AG-UI.

How it works

CopilotKit connects your UI, agents, and tools into one interaction loop. AG-UI handles the wire protocol, and CopilotKit handles the UI layer for each framework and channel. You pick an agent backend such as LangChain, Mastra, CrewAI, PydanticAI, Google ADK, AWS Strands, or the Claude Agent SDK. The agent logic stays the same across web, mobile, and chat platforms.

How to install and start using CopilotKit

Onboard with your coding agent

npx --yes copilotkit@latest onboard start

Start a new project

npx copilotkit@latest create

Install agent skills

npx copilotkit@latest skills install

Requirements

An agent backend, such as the built-in agent or a framework like LangChain, Mastra, or CrewAI.

First steps

Open your coding agent in your project folder, or in an empty folder for a new app.
Give the coding agent the README prompt, which runs the onboard command from the project root.
For a fresh app, run the create command. It scaffolds a project in its own directory without modifying existing apps.

Who CopilotKit is for

React and Next.js developers adding agent chat and generative UI to an existing app.
Teams that want one agent across web, mobile, Slack, and Microsoft Teams.
Developers building workflows that need human approval before an agent continues.

Limitations to know

React and Next.js support is GA. Angular, Vue, and React Native are listed as supported, and Vue's quickstart is still coming.
Discord and WhatsApp work through a Channels SDK adapter. Managed connections are not yet available.
Google Chat, iMessage, and SMS are on the roadmap, not yet supported.
Rich threads, user memories, and automatic learning are part of CopilotKit Intelligence, a separate platform with plans.

Is CopilotKit growing? Usage data

In the week of Oct 25–31, 2026, CopilotKit ranked #147 on the Devtoolwatch Board and #16 in Agent frameworks, with a momentum score of 53 out of 100. Its main package had about 653.6k downloads that week, +8% against its own 4-week average.

New GitHub stars per week for the last 12 weeks, from GitHub's stargazer history (today's stargazers by the week they starred).

Show the weekly numbers

New GitHub stars per week for CopilotKit
Week of	New stars
Aug 9, 2026	159
Aug 16, 2026	201
Aug 23, 2026	156
Aug 30, 2026	112
Sep 6, 2026	139
Sep 13, 2026	101
Sep 20, 2026	163
Sep 27, 2026	193
Oct 4, 2026	220
Oct 11, 2026	187
Oct 18, 2026	154
Oct 25, 2026	234

On Hacker News

Show HN: CopilotKit- Build in-app AI chatbots and AI-powered textareas, 197 points and 67 comments (Dec 6, 2023)

The Board ranks tools by four signals each week: new stars, new stars for the repo's size, added downloads and download growth beyond the market. How the ranking works.

CopilotKit alternatives

Other AI agent frameworks on the Board in the week of Oct 25–31, 2026, by momentum:

Agent frameworks ranked by momentum, the week of Oct 25–31, 2026
Rank	Tool	Stars	Downloads/wk
#1	Harness²Harness² is a Python framework from Google Research for recursive agent harnessing, refining an agent's prompts, tools, memory and…	21.7k	–
#2	HyperFramesHyperFrames is an open-source framework that turns HTML, CSS, media, and seekable animations into deterministic MP4 videos, built for AI…	76.6k	1.5M
#3	AgentScopeAgentScope is a Python agent framework with an SDK for building ReAct agents and an agent service backend with a web UI.	35k	51.4k
#4	AG-UIAG-UI is an open, event-based protocol that standardizes how AI agents connect to user-facing frontend applications.	16.9k	4.6M
#5	LangGraphLangGraph is a low-level orchestration framework and runtime for building, managing, and deploying long-running, stateful agents in…	44.2k	18.5M
#6	BifrostOpen-source, high-performance AI gateway that works as your LLM gateway, MCP gateway and agent gateway. One OpenAI-compatible API for…	9.3k	–

All AI agent frameworks, ranked

Recent CopilotKit releases

v1.80.0, Oct 24, 2026
channels/v0.11.1, Oct 16, 2026
v1.79.1, Oct 15, 2026
intelligence-mastra/v1.72.0, Oct 15, 2026
intelligence-langgraph/v1.72.0, Oct 15, 2026

CopilotKit FAQ

Is CopilotKit free and open source?

Yes. CopilotKit's source code is on GitHub (CopilotKit/CopilotKit) under the MIT license, so you can use it for free.

How do I install CopilotKit?

Run npx --yes copilotkit@latest onboard start. The install section above has the other options from the project's README.

Is CopilotKit still maintained?

Yes. The CopilotKit/CopilotKit repository was last updated on Oct 25, 2026, and the latest release, v1.80.0 on GitHub, came out on Oct 24, 2026.

How popular is CopilotKit?

CopilotKit has 38.4k GitHub stars as of Nov 1, 2026. It gained 234 new stars in the week of Oct 25–31, 2026, against a 12-week average of 168 a week. Its main package had about 653.6k downloads that week, +8% against its own 4-week average. That made it #16 among AI agent frameworks on the Devtoolwatch Board.

CopilotKit vs AG-UI: how do they compare?

CopilotKit and AG-UI are both tracked by Devtoolwatch as AI agent frameworks. CopilotKit has 38.4k GitHub stars and AG-UI has 16.9k. In the week of Oct 25–31, 2026, CopilotKit's main package had 653.6k downloads and AG-UI's had 4.6M. AG-UI is an open, event-based protocol that standardizes how AI agents connect to user-facing frontend applications. AG-UI review.

CopilotKit vs Vercel AI SDK: how do they compare?

CopilotKit and Vercel AI SDK are both tracked by Devtoolwatch as AI agent frameworks. CopilotKit has 38.4k GitHub stars and Vercel AI SDK has 27.7k. In the week of Oct 25–31, 2026, CopilotKit's main package had 653.6k downloads and Vercel AI SDK's had 42.6M. Vercel AI SDK is a provider-agnostic TypeScript toolkit for building AI-powered applications and agents with frameworks like Next.js, React, Svelte, and Vue. Vercel AI SDK review.

What are the best alternatives to CopilotKit?

Other AI agent frameworks on the Devtoolwatch Board in the week of Oct 25–31, 2026, by momentum: Harness² (#1), HyperFrames (#2), AgentScope (#3), AG-UI (#4), LangGraph (#5). The alternatives table above has their numbers.

What is CopilotKit used for?

CopilotKit is used to connect apps to AI agents. Developers use it to add chat, generative UI, shared state, and human-in-the-loop approvals to web apps, mobile apps, and Slack or Microsoft Teams.

How does CopilotKit work?

CopilotKit connects your UI, agents, and tools into a single interaction loop. The AG-UI Protocol carries messages between agent and frontend, and CopilotKit provides the UI layer for each framework and channel.

Is CopilotKit open source?

Yes. CopilotKit describes itself as an open-source framework, and the repository's source code is under the MIT License.

How is CopilotKit related to AG-UI?

CopilotKit is made by the company behind the AG-UI Protocol. AG-UI handles the wire protocol between agents and users, and CopilotKit builds the frontend layer on top of it.

What is CopilotKit Intelligence?

CopilotKit Intelligence adds rich threads, user memories, product analytics, inspection, and automatic learning to CopilotKit agents. You can use the hosted platform or self-host it in your own Kubernetes cluster or VPC.

Sources

CopilotKit README badge

Maintainers can show the tool's weekly Board rank in their README:

[![Devtoolwatch](https://index.devtoolwatch.com/badge/copilotkit.svg)](https://index.devtoolwatch.com/tools/copilotkit/)

How this page is made: Devtoolwatch writes each review from the project's README, releases, package metadata and website, with an AI model, then checks every claim against the source it cites and drops what the sources don't support. The numbers come from Devtoolwatch's daily GitHub snapshots, GitHub's stargazer history, and the npm and PyPI download APIs. Spotted an error? Email [email protected].