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Inline Citation

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A source in the sentence that opens on hover.

Base UIReact AriaRadix UI

Next.js streams a route in chunks, so the page shows up before every request finishes.

Wrap a slow part of the page in a Suspense boundary and React sends the fallback first. When the data resolves, the finished HTML streams into the same response and replaces the fallback, with no extra request from the browser. Server Components help here, because their code never ships to the browser.

A loading.tsx file does the same for a whole route segment. It all runs over chunked transfer encoding, so there is nothing extra to set up. 

"use client"

import { Button } from "@/components/ui/button"

Inline Citation is a source that sits in the sentence it supports. It is a Hover Card on a Button.

To show a list of sources after the reply, use Sources.

Installation

Inline Citation is built with the Hover Card and Button components.

pnpm dlx shadcn@latest add hover-card button

Usage

<HoverCardTrigger delay={10} closeDelay={100}>
  <Button variant="secondary" size="xs">
    {hostname}
  </Button>
  <HoverCard className="flex w-64 flex-col gap-1">
    <div className="font-medium">{title}</div>
    <a href={url} target="_blank" rel="noreferrer">
      {hostname}
      <span className="sr-only"> (opens in a new tab)</span>
    </a>
  </HoverCard>
</HoverCardTrigger>

AI SDK

A source-url part is the citation. Set sendSources: true on toUIMessageStreamResponse(), or write the part yourself.

app/api/chat/route.ts
writer.write({
  type: "source-url",
  sourceId: "shadcn",
  url: "https://ui.shadcn.com",
  title: "shadcn/ui",
})
const sources = message.parts.filter((part) => part.type === "source-url")

title is optional. Fall back to the URL's hostname.

Migrating from AI SDK Elements

If you added Inline Citation from AI SDK Elements, your project has a components/ai-elements/inline-citation.tsx wrapper. Paste this prompt into your coding agent to rebuild it on Hover Card and Button. Every export keeps its name and props, so the code that uses it keeps working.

Prompt
Migrate components/ai-elements/inline-citation.tsx from AI SDK Elements to the shadcn/ui Hover Card and Button components.
 
Keep every export, with the same name and props, so the code that imports it keeps working. Only change how each part renders.
 
1. Install the components: npx shadcn@latest add hover-card button
2. Read https://ui.shadcn.com/docs/ai-elements/aria/inline-citation.md and build Inline Citation the same way.
3. Rebuild each part:
   - InlineCitationCard renders a HoverCardTrigger with delay and closeDelay.
   - InlineCitationCardTrigger renders a Button with variant="secondary" and size="xs" instead of a Badge, so it can take keyboard focus.
   - InlineCitationCardBody renders a HoverCard, next to the Button inside the HoverCardTrigger.
   - InlineCitationSource renders the title and a link to the URL that opens in a new tab, with "(opens in a new tab)" in an sr-only span.
   - Keep InlineCitation, InlineCitationText, InlineCitationQuote and the carousel parts as they are.
4. Remove the imports the file no longer uses.
5. Run the type checker and fix any errors.