Genkit, Google's open-source full-stack AI framework, just shipped its Agents API in preview for TypeScript and Go. The pitch is simple: stop rebuilding the same scaffolding for every conversational AI feature you ship. Message history, the tool loop, streaming, session persistence, a client wire protocol -- all of it is now behind a single chat() interface.
The most compelling AI features are conversational -- a support assistant that remembers the ticket, a copilot that works across several turns. Each needs more than a single generate() call, and building one today means wiring up message history, the tool loop, streaming, persistence, and a frontend protocol by hand. That plumbing repeats on every project and has little to do with what makes your app distinct.
One interface, server to browser
Genkit solves this with the Agents API, which packages all of that behind one interface. You define an agent on the server, then drive it with the same chat() API whether it runs in process or behind an HTTP endpoint.
The JavaScript client mirrors that same interface, so the code you use in backend tests is the same code you use from the browser -- no separate request/response protocol to design.
If you already have apps that use the Vercel AI SDK UI library, the @genkit-ai/vercel-ai package provides an adapter for its useChat hook. The GenkitChatTransport adapter connects useChat to your Genkit agent, so you can assemble the interface from Vercel's AI Elements components while getting all the benefits of Genkit on the backend.
State that lives where you want it
One of the more thoughtful design decisions here is how state ownership works. You choose whether the server or the client holds the conversation state, and the API adapts accordingly.
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