Reading agent state
Read the realtime agent state in your native application.
This example demonstrates reading from shared state in the CopilotKit Feature Viewer.
What is this?
You can easily use the realtime agent state not only in the chat UI, but also in the native application UX.
When should I use this?
You can use this when you want to provide the user with feedback about your agent's state. As your agent's state updates, you can reflect these updates natively in your application.
Implementation
Run and connect your agent
You'll need to run your agent and connect it to CopilotKit before proceeding.
If you don't already have CopilotKit and your agent connected, choose one of the following options:
Define the Agent State
Create your Pydantic AI agent with a stateful structure. Here's a complete example that tracks language:
from textwrap import dedent
from pydantic import BaseModel
from pydantic_ai import Agent, RunContext
from pydantic_ai.ag_ui import StateDeps
class AgentState(BaseModel):
"""State for the agent."""
language: str = "english"
agent = Agent("openai:gpt-4o-mini", deps_type=StateDeps[AgentState])
@agent.instructions()
async def language_instructions(ctx: RunContext[StateDeps[AgentState]]) -> str:
"""Instructions for the language tracking agent.
Args:
ctx: The run context containing language state information.
Returns:
Instructions string for the language tracking agent.
"""
return dedent(
f"""
You are a helpful assistant for tracking the language.
IMPORTANT:
- ALWAYS use the lower case for the language
- ALWAYS response in the current language: {ctx.deps.state.language}
"""
)
app = agent.to_ag_ui(deps=StateDeps(AgentState()))
if __name__ == "__main__":
import uvicorn
uvicorn.run(app, host="0.0.0.0", port=8000)Use the useCoAgent Hook
With your agent connected and running all that is left is to call the useCoAgent hook, pass the agent's name, and optionally provide an initial state.
import { useCoAgent } from "@copilotkit/react-core";
// Define the agent state type, should match the actual state of your agent
type AgentState = {
language: "english" | "spanish";
}
function YourMainContent() {
const { state } = useCoAgent<AgentState>({
name: "my_agent", // MUST match the agent name in CopilotRuntime
initialState: { language: "english" } // optionally provide an initial state
});
// ...
return (
// style excluded for brevity
<div>
<h1>Your main content</h1>
<p>Language: {state.language}</p>
</div>
);
}Important
The name parameter must exactly match the agent name you defined in your CopilotRuntime configuration (e.g., my_agent from the quickstart).
The state in useCoAgent is reactive and will automatically update when the agent's state changes.
Give it a try!
As the agent state updates, your state variable will automatically update with it! In this case, you'll see the
language set to "english" as that's the initial state we set.
Rendering agent state in the chat
You can also render the agent's state in the chat UI. This is useful for informing the user about the agent's state in a more in-context way. To do this, you can use the useCoAgentStateRender hook.
import { useCoAgentStateRender } from "@copilotkit/react-core";
// Define the agent state type, should match the actual state of your agent
type AgentState = {
language: "english" | "spanish";
};
function YourMainContent() {
// ...
useCoAgentStateRender({
name: "my_agent", // MUST match the agent name in CopilotRuntime
render: ({ state }) => {
if (!state.language) return null;
return <div>Language: {state.language}</div>;
},
});
// ...
}Important
The name parameter must exactly match the agent name you defined in your CopilotRuntime configuration (e.g., my_agent from the quickstart).
The state in useCoAgentStateRender is reactive and will automatically
update when the agent's state changes.
Intermediately Stream and Render Agent State
By default, the Pydantic AI Agent state will only update between Pydantic AI Agent node transitions -- which means state updates will be discontinuous and delayed.
