Chat UI

by Hugging FaceAppGet organised

Gives you your own HuggingChat-style chat page for the AI models you choose

About Chat UI

Hugging Face's open-source chat app, the code behind HuggingChat. You run it on your computer or server, point it at an AI model service and chat in your browser, with history saved in a database and optional tools.

For Small teamsPeople running local modelsSelf-hosting hobbyists

Made by Hugging Face

Hugging Face is an AI community platform where people share models, datasets and apps. It also makes HuggingChat, and its GitHub profile lists New York and Paris.

Stars: ★ 11k
License: Apache-2.0
Cost: Usage-based
Platforms: Mac · Win · Linux
Runs: Local · Self-hosted

Screenshots

From the project's own repository.

The Chat UI start screen on a phone, with an Ask anything box and the Omni model picker — Image: Hugging Face (Apache-2.0). Original file

Overview

Chat UI is Hugging Face's open-source chat app, the code behind HuggingChat. You run it on your computer or server, point it at a model service that uses the OpenAI format, such as Hugging Face Inference Providers, OpenRouter or Ollama on your own machine, and open it in your browser to chat. It keeps your chat history in a database, can call tools from MCP servers you add, and lets you rename the app. It suits people and small teams who want a chat page they run and control.

It is the same code that runs HuggingChat, and it works with any model service that uses the OpenAI format, including models on your own computer.

Try these first

Start with the first one: it is a small task you can check easily.

Explain [topic] in three sentences.First try · check history saves
Summarise this text in five bullet points: [paste text]
Use the web search tool to answer [question] and list the pages you used.uses an MCP server
Describe what is in this picture: [attach image]needs an image model

Example prompts written by Agent Flows Hub.

Features

From the creator's documentation.

Feature	What it does	Runs
Model choice	Connects to any OpenAI-compatible service, in the cloud or on your own computer	Your model service
Chat history	Saves chats, users and settings in MongoDB, with a built-in database by default	Your computer or server
MCP tools	Add MCP servers, switch them on and see each tool call and result in the chat	Servers you add
Omni routing	Picks a model per message: one for images, one for tools, one for the rest	Your model service
Per-model settings	Turn tool calling and image input on or off for each model	Your computer or server
Theming	Set your own app name and description	Your computer or server

Good to know

You want a private chat page for yourself or a small team, connected to the model service you pick. Chat UI runs on your machine or server, talks to any OpenAI-compatible API and keeps conversations in its own database.

Limits

It only talks to OpenAI-compatible APIs; provider-specific setups from older versions were removed and remain on the legacy branch.
Without a MongoDB address it uses a built-in database stored in a local db folder. Point it at your own MongoDB for a shared or long-lived install.

Notes by Agent Flows Hub (original project name: chat-ui), written from the creator's documentation, not from running it ourselves. Chat UI README: quickstart and Docker image · Chat UI documentation

Stuck setting it up?

Tell us what happened. We take a look first; if it needs paid work, you get an estimate before anything starts.

Get help

How to start

Install itPaste the install request into an AI agent you already use, or run the official command yourself or follow the official guide.macOS, Windows, Linuxgit clone https://github.com/huggingface/chat-ui cd chat-ui npm install npm run dev -- --open
macOS, Windows, Linuxdocker run \ -p 3000:3000 \ -e OPENAI_BASE_URL=https://router.huggingface.co/v1 \ -e OPENAI_API_KEY=hf_*** \ -v chat-ui-data:/data \ ghcr.io/huggingface/chat-ui-db:latest
Open itFollow the first-run steps in the app.
Give it a first taskStart it with one model service, ask a short question, then reload the page and check the conversation is saved in your history.

Steps follow the creator's instructions. The request tells your agent to read them first and wait for your OK.

Before you start

A computer with macOS, Windows or Linux.
Docker, or Git plus Node.js (the project pins version 24) with npm
A Hugging Face access token, a key for another OpenAI-compatible service, or Ollama
For the npm route: a .env.local file with your model service address and key
Pay per use. The AI service it calls charges for what you use.

Details

Made by: Hugging Face
License: Apache-2.0 Terms
Platforms: macOS, Windows, Linux
Runs on: Your computer, Self-hosted server

View source Official docs Report a problem

For AI agents

This page as a Markdown install brief:

/en/library/chat-ui/install.md

Other apps

ChatGPT Desktop Brings ChatGPT chat, Work tasks and the Codex coding agent to your desktop
ChatGPT Exporter Saves your ChatGPT conversations as Markdown, HTML, JSON, text or a screenshot
ChatGPT Telegram Workers Puts your own AI chat bot in Telegram, deployed to Cloudflare with one button
ChatGPTBox Adds an AI chat box to any web page to summarise, translate or rewrite what you read
ChatLab Turns your exported chat histories into charts and lets you ask an AI questions about them
Cherry Studio Puts many AI model providers, agents and a knowledge base in one desktop app

See all 113 apps

GitHub