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V0 TemplatesAI & ChatIntermediate to customize

OpenAI & AI SDK Chatbot V0 Template: From Scaffold to Production Chatbot

The OpenAI & AI SDK Chatbot v0 template is a production-ready chat scaffold built on Next.js 14 and AI SDK v6. It ships a streaming ChatWindow, MessageBubble rendering, ModelSelector, ConversationSidebar, and StreamingCursor out of the box. Fork in five minutes, add your OPENAI_API_KEY, and use the prompt pack to wire Supabase conversation storage, Clerk multi-user auth, or OpenAI function calling.

AI & ChatIntermediate~5 minutes

Best for

Developers who want a production-ready chatbot scaffold with proper streaming, message history, and server-side AI calls

Stack

Next.js 14TypeScriptTailwind CSSshadcn/uiAI SDK v6OpenAI API

A ready-made OpenAI & AI SDK Chatbot UI you can fork, run, and customize with the prompt pack below.

What's actually inside

The honest engineer's breakdown — what the OpenAI & AI SDK Chatbottemplate does, how it's wired, and where it's opinionated.

The OpenAI & AI SDK Chatbot template is the most complete chatbot scaffold in the V0 community for developers. The ChatWindow is a scrollable message thread with auto-scroll-to-bottom powered by AI SDK v6's useChat hook, wired to a server-side route handler that calls streamText with your OpenAI key — meaning the key never touches the browser. Each message renders in a MessageBubble that differentiates user vs assistant sides with markdown support via react-markdown, and a StreamingCursor (animated blinking cursor) communicates that a response is in progress.

The template includes two quality-of-life features that most minimal chatbot demos skip: a ModelSelector dropdown that lets the user switch between gpt-4o-mini and gpt-4o at runtime, and a ConversationSidebar listing past conversation sessions. The sidebar is client-side only out of the box — sessions do not persist across page refreshes — but the Supabase prompt in the pack below wires persistence in one shot.

The honest caveats: first, the conversation history grows unbounded on the client side — after 30+ messages the context window fills up and responses degrade or the API call errors out. The sliding-window fix in the gotchas below resolves this. Second, OPENAI_API_KEY set in the V0 Vars panel only applies to Preview environment — deploying to production requires re-adding the key in Vercel Dashboard under Settings → Environment Variables, which trips up many users. Third, shadcn/ui ScrollArea used in ChatWindow may not be in your local project registry if you export the code — see the module-not-found gotcha.

Key UI components

ChatWindow

Scrollable message thread with auto-scroll-to-bottom — primary conversation view

MessageBubble

Styled user vs assistant message display with markdown — differentiates conversation sides

ChatInput

Textarea with send button and keyboard submit (Enter key) — user message composition

StreamingCursor

Animated blinking cursor during AI generation — communicates response-in-progress state

ModelSelector

Dropdown for switching between OpenAI models at runtime — gpt-4o-mini vs gpt-4o

ConversationSidebar

List of past conversation sessions — multi-session history navigation

Libraries it leans on

AI SDK v6

useChat hook drives ChatWindow streaming; streamText runs server-side in the route handler

shadcn/ui

ScrollArea in ChatWindow, Textarea in ChatInput, Select in ModelSelector — core UI primitives

react-markdown

Renders markdown in MessageBubble so code blocks, lists, and bold text format correctly

Fork it and get it running

This template is designed for developers who want a real chatbot scaffold — not just a pretty UI. The fork takes five minutes; getting to a production-quality app takes an hour with the prompt pack.

1

Open the template and fork it

Go to https://v0.dev/chat/community/XFP4VKnRE3t and click the Fork button in the top-right of the preview area. V0 opens a new chat session with the full chatbot codebase. You will see the ChatWindow, ChatInput, ModelSelector, and ConversationSidebar in the live preview on the right.

Tip: If the preview shows a connection error, it is because OPENAI_API_KEY is not set yet — that is the next step.

You should see: A new V0 chat opens with the chatbot codebase and a preview showing the full chat UI layout.

2

Add your OpenAI API key in the Vars panel

In the left sidebar, click the Vars panel icon. Click 'Add variable' and name it OPENAI_API_KEY. Paste your secret key from platform.openai.com — do not use a NEXT_PUBLIC_ prefix here. This is a server-only variable and must stay private. The key powers the streamText call in the server-side route handler.

Tip: Use a key with access to both gpt-4o-mini and gpt-4o so the ModelSelector works for both options.

You should see: OPENAI_API_KEY appears masked in Vars. The preview can now make live AI calls.

3

Send a test message to verify streaming

Type a test message in ChatInput and press Enter or click the send button. The StreamingCursor should appear immediately, then tokens should stream into the ChatWindow via a new MessageBubble. Try switching the ModelSelector to gpt-4o and sending another message to verify model switching works.

Tip: If streaming stops after the first few words, check your OpenAI usage limits at platform.openai.com/usage.

You should see: The ChatWindow streams a full AI response token by token, with the StreamingCursor disappearing when the response completes.

4

Customize the system prompt and chatbot persona

In the V0 chat, use the 'Change the chatbot persona' prompt from the pack below to update the system message with your brand voice, company name, and any response constraints. This is the fastest way to turn the generic chatbot into something product-specific. Design Mode (Option+D) can handle color and copy changes without consuming credits.

You should see: The AI responds in your custom persona and follows your tone guidelines in every MessageBubble.

5

Publish to production

Click Share in the top-right, open the Publish tab, and click 'Publish to Production'. V0 deploys to Vercel in 30–60 seconds. Important: after publishing, open Vercel Dashboard → your project → Settings → Environment Variables and re-add OPENAI_API_KEY for the Production environment. The V0 Vars panel sets the Preview environment only.

Tip: This extra step in Vercel Dashboard is the most common deployment gotcha for this template — do not skip it.

You should see: A live production URL where the chatbot works with real AI calls, separate from the V0 preview environment.

6

Connect a custom domain (optional)

In Vercel Dashboard, go to the project settings, click Domains → Add, and enter your custom domain. Vercel provides DNS records and SSL automatically. If you later add Clerk auth, remember to update the allowed redirect URLs in your Clerk dashboard to include the new domain.

You should see: Your chatbot is live at your branded domain with HTTPS.

The prompt pack

Copy-paste these straight into v0's chat to customize the OpenAI & AI SDK Chatbottemplate. Each one names this template's own components — no generic filler.

1

Set a custom chatbot persona and system prompt

Turns the generic chatbot into a branded AI assistant with consistent tone and product-specific response rules.

Quick win
Paste into v0 chat
Update the system message passed to the streamText call in the API route to: 'You are Aria, a helpful customer support assistant for [Your Company]. Always respond in a friendly, concise tone. If asked about pricing, direct users to contact@yourcompany.com. Never discuss competitors.' Replace the current system prompt wherever it appears in the route handler file.
2

Add copy-to-clipboard button on assistant MessageBubbles

Lets users copy AI responses directly — essential for a productivity chatbot where users frequently copy generated content.

Quick win
Paste into v0 chat
Add a copy icon button to each MessageBubble that appears only for assistant messages (not user messages). On click, copy the message text content to the clipboard using navigator.clipboard.writeText(). Show a brief 'Copied!' toast using shadcn/ui Toaster that disappears after 2 seconds. Position the copy button in the top-right corner of the MessageBubble on hover.
3

Wire ModelSelector to useChat and persist in localStorage

Makes the ModelSelector functional — previously just a UI element, now it actually controls which OpenAI model processes the chat.

Medium
Paste into v0 chat
Wire the ModelSelector dropdown so the selected model ID is passed to the useChat options as the model parameter. Store the selected model ID in localStorage under the key 'chatbot-model' so the choice persists across page refreshes. Default to 'gpt-4o-mini' for cost efficiency. When the user switches models in ModelSelector, update the useChat configuration immediately without requiring a page reload.
4

Save conversations to Supabase with session history in ConversationSidebar

Adds persistent conversation history so users can return to previous chat sessions from ConversationSidebar — essential for a production chatbot.

Medium
Paste into v0 chat
Create a Supabase table named 'conversations' with columns: id (uuid, primary key), session_id (text), role (text), content (text), created_at (timestamptz). After each AI response completes in the useChat onFinish callback, upsert both the user message and assistant reply to this table via a server action using SUPABASE_SERVICE_ROLE_KEY. In ConversationSidebar, fetch all distinct session_ids and display them with their first user message as the session title. Clicking a session loads its messages as initialMessages in useChat. Add SUPABASE_URL and SUPABASE_SERVICE_ROLE_KEY to the Vars panel.
5

Add Clerk auth with per-user conversation isolation in Supabase

Turns the single-user chatbot into a multi-user product where each user's conversations are isolated and protected.

Advanced
Paste into v0 chat
Add Clerk authentication: wrap the root layout with ClerkProvider, add clerkMiddleware to middleware.ts. Add a SignInButton component in the ChatWindow header for unauthenticated users. In the 'conversations' Supabase table, add a user_id (text) column. In the server action that saves messages, read userId from auth() in Clerk and include it in the insert. Add a Row Level Security policy on conversations: 'users can only SELECT and INSERT rows where user_id matches their own'. Update ConversationSidebar to filter sessions by the current user's ID. Add NEXT_PUBLIC_CLERK_PUBLISHABLE_KEY and CLERK_SECRET_KEY to the Vars panel.
6

Add weather function calling with a ToolResultBubble

Demonstrates OpenAI function calling in the chatbot — a pattern that scales to calling your own internal APIs, querying a vector database, or any structured tool integration.

Advanced
Paste into v0 chat
Add an OpenAI function tool named 'get_weather' to the streamText call. Define it using the AI SDK v6 tool() helper with a Zod schema: z.object({ city: z.string() }). The execute function should fetch weather from a public API and return temperature and condition. In ChatWindow, render tool call results in a distinct ToolResultBubble component — styled differently from regular MessageBubble — that shows the city name, temperature, and weather icon. Wire the tool in the route handler and ensure the tool result is passed back to the model for a final conversational response.

Gotchas when you extend it

The failures people actually hit when they push this template past its defaults — and the exact fix for each.

Export const metadata conflicts with build — duplicate metadata export error

Why: V0 sometimes injects a page-level metadata export into the chat page file while the root layout already has one. Next.js only allows one metadata export per route segment, so the build fails with a duplicate export error.

Fix: Remove the duplicate export const metadata from app/chat/page.tsx — keep only one metadata export per route file.

Fix prompt — paste into v0
Remove the duplicate 'export const metadata' from app/chat/page.tsx — only one metadata export is allowed per route segment
Streaming stops abruptly or errors after ~30 messages in ConversationSidebar

Why: The full conversation history is sent with every request to the streamText route handler. After 30+ messages, the accumulated tokens approach OpenAI's context limit (or the cost threshold), causing the API to return an error or truncate the response.

Fix: Implement a sliding context window — slice the messages array to the last 20 entries before passing it to the route handler.

Fix prompt — paste into v0
In the useChat messages array passed to the API route, slice to the last 20 messages: messages.slice(-20)
Module not found: Error: Can't resolve '@/components/ui/scroll-area' after GitHub export

Why: The shadcn/ui ScrollArea component used in ChatWindow may not be in your local project registry if you cloned the exported GitHub repo without running the full shadcn init flow. V0 generates the import but the component file is missing locally.

Fix: In your local project directory, run: npx shadcn@latest add scroll-area textarea to add the missing components to the project.

Fix prompt — paste into v0
Run: npx shadcn@latest add scroll-area textarea to add missing components to the local project
OPENAI_API_KEY is undefined in production but works fine in V0 preview

Why: The V0 Vars panel sets environment variables for the Preview environment only. The Production environment on Vercel is a separate scope and requires the key to be added independently in the Vercel Dashboard.

Fix: Open Vercel Dashboard → the deployed project → Settings → Environment Variables → Add New. Enter OPENAI_API_KEY and select the Production scope. Redeploy after saving.

Fix prompt — paste into v0
The OPENAI_API_KEY must be added in Vercel Dashboard under Settings → Environment Variables for the Production environment, separate from V0 Vars panel

Template vs. custom — the honest call

A forked template gets you far, fast. Here's where it holds up, and where you'll outgrow it.

The template is enough when

  • You need a working chatbot to demo a product or AI feature within a day
  • The OpenAI API is your sole backend and you do not need multi-provider support
  • A single-user or lightly authenticated chatbot meets your MVP requirements
  • You plan to refine the persona and UI in V0's Design Mode before launch

Go custom when

  • You need multi-provider support (Anthropic + OpenAI + local Ollama) with automatic fallback logic
  • You require real-time collaborative chat where multiple users share the same session
  • Your chatbot needs RAG over your own documents, vector database search, or internal API tool calls
  • You need enterprise SSO, full audit logs, per-seat billing, or conversation compliance exports

RapidDev bridges V0 chatbot prototypes to production-grade apps — adding Supabase conversation storage, Clerk multi-user auth, and custom tool integrations.

Frequently asked questions

Is this chatbot template free to use?

Yes. The V0 community template is free to fork. You need an OpenAI API key (pay-per-token at OpenAI's rates) and a Vercel account (free tier available). No fees are attached to the template code itself.

Can I use this commercially — for example in a SaaS product or client project?

Yes. V0 community templates have no commercial-use restrictions. You own the forked code and can monetize the product however you choose. If you are charging users per conversation, use the Clerk + Supabase advanced prompt to add per-user isolation and then layer Stripe billing on top.

Why does my chatbot work in V0 preview but return errors after deploying to production?

The most common cause: OPENAI_API_KEY set in the V0 Vars panel only applies to the Preview Vercel environment. Production requires a separate entry in Vercel Dashboard → your project → Settings → Environment Variables, with 'Production' scope selected. Add the key there and redeploy.

How do I connect a database so conversations are saved across sessions?

Use the 'Save conversations to Supabase' prompt from the pack above. It provides the full table schema (conversations table with session_id, role, content columns), the server action code, and the ConversationSidebar wiring. You will need SUPABASE_URL and SUPABASE_SERVICE_ROLE_KEY added to the Vars panel.

The chatbot starts giving bad answers after a long conversation — what is happening?

The template sends the full message history with every request. After 30+ messages, the accumulated token count approaches OpenAI's context window limit, which degrades response quality or causes an API error. Use the 'slice to last 20 messages' fix from the gotchas above to implement a sliding context window.

How do I swap OpenAI for Anthropic Claude in this template?

After deploying to Vercel production (not in V0 preview — esm.sh cannot resolve @ai-sdk/anthropic in the sandbox), change the import in your route handler from @ai-sdk/openai to @ai-sdk/anthropic and update the model ID to 'claude-sonnet-4-5' or your preferred Claude model. The AI SDK v6 streamText interface is identical across providers.

Can RapidDev add RAG or connect the chatbot to my internal docs?

Yes. RapidDev builds production chatbots on top of V0 scaffolds — adding pgvector-based RAG over your documentation, Supabase conversation storage, Clerk multi-user auth, and custom OpenAI tool integrations. Reach out if you need to go beyond what the prompt pack covers.

Outgrowing the template?

RapidDev turns v0 prototypes into production apps — real auth, database, and payments — at $13K–$25K.

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