App React UI

Apps can ship React panels that appear in Avi's project chat sidebar. Use panels when an app needs a focused UI for browsing, editing, or reviewing the same data its tools use.

Panels are not loaded into Avi's main React tree. Avi builds each panel as a browser bundle, serves it inside a sandboxed iframe, and exposes a small bridge for data access, tool calls, theme tokens, and notifications.

When to use a panel

Add a React panel when users need to:

• inspect app-owned records, queues, dashboards, or sync status;
• edit structured data with controls that are awkward through chat alone;
• run an app-specific workflow repeatedly;
• share state between the UI and the agent's tools.

Keep the agent-facing behavior in tools. The panel is the human interface; tools are still what the agent calls during chat and tasks.

Project shape

avi init creates a starter app with a panel:

my-app/
  app.ts
  ui/
    Dashboard.tsx
  package.json
  tsconfig.json

The panel entry lives under ui/ by convention, but any relative path inside the app directory is allowed.

Declare panels in app.ts

Declare UI panels on the same defineApp call as your tools:

import { defineApp, type AppToolContextForCapabilities } from "@avihq/apps-sdk";

const capabilities = ["data:read", "data:write"] as const;

export default defineApp({
  name: "customers",
  description: "Customer records with chat tools and a sidebar UI.",
  capabilities,
  ui: {
    panels: {
      dashboard: {
        title: "Customers",
        icon: "users",
        entry: "./ui/CustomersPanel.tsx",
      },
    },
  },
  tools: {
    "list-customers": {
      description: "List customer records.",
      inputSchema: {
        type: "object",
        properties: {},
        additionalProperties: false,
      },
      async handler(_input, context: AppToolContextForCapabilities<typeof capabilities>) {
        return {
          customers: await context.get("customers:v1"),
        };
      },
    },
  },
});

Panel ids are the keys under ui.panels. They must be kebab-case, just like app and tool names.

Panel definition

Each panel has:

Built-in icons:

bar-chart, calendar, chart, clipboard-list, database, folder, gauge,
grid, inbox, layout-dashboard, list, mail, notebook, panel-right,
settings, table, users

Custom icons are rendered as 16 px sidebar images. Use a relative SVG, PNG, JPEG, GIF, or WebP path such as ./ui/icon.svg to have the CLI bundle it into the deployed manifest, or use an HTTPS image URL for a remotely hosted icon.

An app can define up to five panels.

Write the React component

Panel code is normal React. Export a default component from the entry file and import Avi UI helpers from @avihq/apps-sdk/react:

import { useEffect, useState } from "react";
import {
  Button,
  EmptyState,
  Input,
  PanelHeader,
  Spinner,
  Table,
  Toolbar,
  useAvi,
} from "@avihq/apps-sdk/react";

interface Customer {
  id: string;
  name: string;
  owner: string;
}

const STORE_KEY = "customers:v1";

export default function CustomersPanel() {
  const avi = useAvi();
  const [customers, setCustomers] = useState<Customer[]>([]);
  const [loading, setLoading] = useState(true);
  const [name, setName] = useState("");

  async function load() {
    setLoading(true);
    const stored = await avi.data.get<Customer[]>(STORE_KEY);
    setCustomers(stored ?? []);
    setLoading(false);
  }

  async function save() {
    const next = [{ id: crypto.randomUUID(), name, owner: "Unassigned" }, ...customers];
    setCustomers(next);
    await avi.data.set(STORE_KEY, next);
    await avi.toast.show({ type: "success", message: "Customer saved" });
    setName("");
  }

  useEffect(() => {
    void load();
  }, []);

  return (
    <div>
      <PanelHeader title="Customers" description="Records owned by this app." />

      <Toolbar>
        <Input value={name} onChange={(event) => setName(event.currentTarget.value)} />
        <Button onClick={save} disabled={!name.trim()}>Save</Button>
      </Toolbar>

      {loading ? (
        <EmptyState title="Loading">
          <Spinner />
        </EmptyState>
      ) : customers.length === 0 ? (
        <EmptyState title="No customers" />
      ) : (
        <Table>
          <tbody>
            {customers.map((customer) => (
              <tr key={customer.id}>
                <td>{customer.name}</td>
                <td>{customer.owner}</td>
              </tr>
            ))}
          </tbody>
        </Table>
      )}
    </div>
  );
}

The CLI wraps your component with React's createRoot, so the entry file should export the component rather than calling createRoot itself.

SDK React exports

The React entry point exports two groups of APIs.

UI primitives:

Hooks:

These primitives are intentionally small. For custom layout, use regular React and CSS with Avi theme variables.

Bridge API

Panels cannot call Avi APIs directly. Use useAvi() to make bridge calls through the parent app:

const avi = useAvi();

Available bridge methods:

The bridge enforces the same approved capabilities as tool handlers. If a panel calls avi.data.set but the app was not approved for data:write, the call fails.

Bridge values must be JSON-compatible except file blobs, which use:

{
  data: string;
  contentType?: string;
}

Shared state with tools

Panels and tools use the same app data scopes. For app-like data, prefer declared records so panels and tools can share CRUD, filters, full-text search, and vector search.

For example, a panel can write:

await avi.records.collection("customers").create({
  name: "Northstar Labs",
  status: "active",
  notes: "Expansion candidate",
});

Then a tool in the same app can read:

const customers = await context.records.collection("customers").search({
  text: "expansion",
  vector: "accounts likely to expand",
});

Project-scoped data is isolated by project and app. Org-scoped data is isolated by org and app.

Invoking tools from a panel

Use avi.apps.invoke only when the panel needs behavior already exposed as a tool:

const result = await avi.apps.invoke("customers_list-customers", {
  status: "active",
});

Tool names use Avi's runtime format:

<app-name>_<tool-name>

The target app must be enabled for the current project, and the current app must have the apps:invoke capability approved.

Tools default to callable from both the agent and app UI. To keep a panel helper out of the agent's tool list, mark it as UI-only in app.ts:

tools: {
  "refresh-panel-data": {
    description: "Refresh dashboard data for the React panel.",
    inputSchema: { type: "object", additionalProperties: false },
    callableFrom: "ui",
    async handler() {
      return { ok: true };
    },
  },
}

Do not use tool invocation as a substitute for simple data reads and writes. Prefer avi.data for panel-local CRUD and keep tool invocation for reusable business logic or cross-app composition.

Theme and styling

Avi sends theme tokens into the iframe and keeps them updated when the user changes theme.

The SDK components use these variables automatically:

hsl(var(--background))
hsl(var(--foreground))
hsl(var(--muted-foreground))
hsl(var(--border))
hsl(var(--primary))

For custom CSS, use the same variables:

<div style={{ borderBottom: "1px solid hsl(var(--border))" }}>
  <span style={{ color: "hsl(var(--muted-foreground))" }}>Synced just now</span>
</div>

Use useTheme() if the component needs to branch on light or dark mode:

import { useTheme } from "@avihq/apps-sdk/react";

const theme = useTheme();
const isDark = theme.mode === "dark";

Panels should be compact and task-focused. They live in the project sidebar, so dense tables, filters, editors, and status summaries usually work better than landing-page layouts.

Build and deploy

avi build bundles app.ts into dist/app.mjs for the Lambda runtime and validates the panel manifest shape: ids, titles, icons, and entry paths.

avi deploy rebuilds the app, bundles each panel for the browser sandbox, uploads the Lambda deployment package, and uploads the panel bundles. Avi serves the latest panel bundle for the deployed app revision.

Run:

npm run typecheck
avi build
avi deploy

After deploy, enable the app in a project. If the app is owned by the current org and defines panels, the project chat sidebar icon rail shows the panel icons.

Security model

Panels run inside an iframe with a restrictive sandbox and content security policy:

• the iframe allows scripts and forms only;
• panel code cannot access the parent DOM;
• panel code cannot read Avi cookies, auth tokens, or local storage;
• network access from inside the iframe is blocked by CSP;
• bridge calls are handled by Avi and checked server-side.

This means panel code should treat useAvi() as its only Avi integration point.

Limits and validation

Current limits:

Build-time validation rejects:

• absolute panel entry paths;
• paths that leave the app directory;
• unsupported file extensions;
• invalid icon values, such as empty strings, very large values, absolute paths, paths outside the app directory, unsupported URL schemes, or non-image data URIs;
• Node built-in imports such as fs, path, or node:crypto;
• bundles over the size limit.

Troubleshooting

The panel icon does not appear

Confirm the app is enabled for the project, belongs to the current org, deployed successfully, and has ui.panels in app.ts.

The build fails with a Node built-in import error

Panel bundles target the browser. Move Node-only work into a tool handler or a shared API called by a tool, then let the panel use bridge APIs.

A bridge call fails with a capability error

Add the required capability to defineApp({ capabilities }), redeploy, and approve the capability when enabling the app.

The panel renders but does not share data with tools

Check that both sides use the same key and scope. avi.data corresponds to context.get / context.set; avi.records corresponds to context.records.

The iframe shows a load error

Run avi build locally first to catch manifest issues, then run avi deploy to catch browser-only bundle issues such as Node built-in imports and bundle size.

Example

The repo includes a complete example at packages/tools/customers:

• app.ts declares a customers app, a dashboard panel, and CRUD tools.
• ui/CustomersPanel.tsx renders a sidebar UI with search, editing, persistence, and toasts.
• Both the panel and tools read and write the same customers:v1 project-scoped data key.

Deploy it with:

cd packages/tools/customers
npm install
avi deploy