Chain of Thought

Displays a summary that expands into the steps an agent took.

Why is the checkout deploy so slow?

Image optimization takes almost four minutes because its cache key includes the commit hash. Key it on the image directory instead.

"use client"

import * as React from "react"

Chain of Thought is a summary line that expands into the steps an agent took. The summary says what happened, like "Researched in 3 steps". The steps sit inside it, each one a line of its own.

Chain of Thought is built with Trace with a TraceCollapsible for the summary.

Installation

Chain of Thought is built with the Trace, Code Block and Badge components.


pnpm dlx shadcn@latest add trace code-block badge

Usage

import {
  Trace,
  TraceCollapsible,
  TraceCollapsibleContent,
  TraceCollapsibleTrigger,
  TraceIcon,
  TraceLine,
  TraceTitle,
} from "@/components/ui/trace"

<Trace>
  <TraceCollapsible defaultOpen>
    <TraceCollapsibleTrigger>
      <TraceLine>
        <TraceIcon>
          <CircleCheckIcon />
        </TraceIcon>
        <TraceTitle>Researched in 3 steps</TraceTitle>
      </TraceLine>
    </TraceCollapsibleTrigger>
    <TraceCollapsibleContent>
      <Trace>
        <TraceLine>
          <TraceIcon>
            <CircleCheckIcon />
          </TraceIcon>
          <TraceTitle>Read the build log for dpl_8Kx2</TraceTitle>
        </TraceLine>
        <TraceLine>
          <TraceIcon>
            <CircleCheckIcon />
          </TraceIcon>
          <TraceTitle>Searched the web for next.js image cache key</TraceTitle>
        </TraceLine>
        <TraceLine>
          <TraceIcon>
            <CircleCheckIcon />
          </TraceIcon>
          <TraceTitle>Searched the code for cacheKey</TraceTitle>
        </TraceLine>
      </Trace>
    </TraceCollapsibleContent>
  </TraceCollapsible>
</Trace>

Steps

Each step is a TraceLine. Set its status and write the title in the matching tense.

Step	`status`	Title
Running	`"running"`	Searching for …
Done, with detail	none	Searched for …
Done, links out	none	Read the Image component docs
Failed	`"error"`	Failed to search for …

Search Results

When a step runs a web search, show the results as a Badge for each hostname in the step's content.

<TraceCollapsibleContent className="flex flex-wrap gap-1.5">
  {results.map((result) => (
    <Badge key={result.url} variant="secondary">
      {new URL(result.url).hostname}
    </Badge>
  ))}
</TraceCollapsibleContent>

Render each tool part as a step. running is true while tool parts stream and before the reply starts. Set the summary's status and title from the steps. The summary opens while the steps run, as in Trace.

const [open, setOpen] = React.useState<boolean>()
const running = streaming && !answering
const failed = steps.filter((part) => part.state === "output-error").length
 
<TraceCollapsible open={open ?? running} onOpenChange={setOpen}>
  <TraceCollapsibleTrigger>
    <TraceLine status={running ? "running" : failed > 0 ? "error" : undefined}>
      <TraceTitle>
        {running ? "Researching" : `Researched in ${steps.length} steps`}
      </TraceTitle>
    </TraceLine>
  </TraceCollapsibleTrigger>
  <TraceCollapsibleContent>
    <Trace>
      {steps.map((part) => (
        <StepLine key={part.toolCallId} part={part} streaming={streaming} />
      ))}
    </Trace>
  </TraceCollapsibleContent>
</TraceCollapsible>

StepLine renders one tool part as a TraceLine, as in Tool.

Migrating from AI SDK Elements

If you added ChainOfThought from AI SDK Elements, your project has a components/ai-elements/chain-of-thought.tsx wrapper. Paste this prompt into your coding agent to rebuild it on Trace and Badge. Every export keeps its name and props, so the code that uses it keeps working.

Prompt

Migrate components/ai-elements/chain-of-thought.tsx from AI SDK Elements to the shadcn/ui Trace and Badge 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 trace badge
2. Read https://ui.shadcn.com/docs/ai-elements/radix/chain-of-thought.md and build Chain of Thought the same way.
3. Rebuild each part:
   - ChainOfThought renders a Trace with a TraceCollapsible. Pass open, defaultOpen and onOpenChange to the TraceCollapsible.
   - ChainOfThoughtHeader renders a TraceCollapsibleTrigger with a TraceLine, a TraceIcon and a TraceTitle, like "Researched in 3 steps".
   - ChainOfThoughtContent renders a TraceCollapsibleContent with a Trace for the steps.
   - ChainOfThoughtStep renders a TraceLine. Its icon goes in a TraceIcon, its label in a TraceTitle and its description in a TraceDescription. Map status "active" to "running", "pending" to "pending", and "complete" to no status.
   - ChainOfThoughtSearchResults renders a flex-wrap list, and ChainOfThoughtSearchResult a Badge with variant="secondary".
   - Keep ChainOfThoughtImage as it is.
4. Remove the imports the file no longer uses.
5. Run the type checker and fix any errors.