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affectUI vs CopilotKit

CopilotKit is a framework that connects an agent backend to your app: a chat, shared state between agent and UI, generative UI and human-in-the-loop, over its AG-UI protocol and for many agent frameworks. It is MIT-licensed, with paid hosted and Intelligence plans. affectUI is not a framework – it is finished, designed components for AI products that render the data you pass in. Use CopilotKit for the connection to the agent, affectUI for how the agent's work looks, or both together.

What each one is

  • CopilotKit – an SDK between your agents and your users: a customizable chat, tool calls that render UI, generative UI, shared state and human-in-the-loop, for React, Angular, Vue, mobile, Slack and Teams. It connects to agent frameworks such as LangChain, Mastra, CrewAI, Google ADK and the Claude and OpenAI agent SDKs through AG-UI, the protocol it created. MIT, with paid hosted plans and CopilotKit Intelligence for persistent threads, memories and analytics
  • affectUI – 126 components, screens, blocks, illustrations and motion effects for AI products, each a single .tsx file with its own CSS and motion. UI only with plain props, so it works with any backend

Where they differ

  • Kind: CopilotKit runs the loop between agent and app – messages, state, tool calls, pauses for approval; affectUI renders what you pass in and leaves the loop to you
  • Install: CopilotKit adds its npm packages and needs an agent backend or its hosted cloud; affectUI adds one .tsx file per component and needs only React 19
  • Scope: CopilotKit centers on the conversation and the UI an agent generates inside it; affectUI covers the chat parts and the views around it – agent trees, traces, lanes, inboxes, approvals, costs and app screens
  • Look: CopilotKit's chat is meant to be restyled or replaced through slots and headless hooks; affectUI ships designed states and motion in two styles
  • Price: CopilotKit's framework is MIT with paid hosted and Intelligence plans; affectUI has 40 free MIT items and a one-time Pro license

Using both together

CopilotKit lets an agent's tool calls and requests for approval render your own components – that is where affectUI fits. Show a running tool as a Tool Call Card, a pause for approval as an Approval Card, and a plan the agent shares as Agent Plan. Outside the chat, affectUI's agent views read the same run data: a trace of the run, a tree of sub-agents, an inbox of background work.

  • Tool Call Card – An agent's tool call in one line – live timer, status and summary, folds open to highlighted arguments and result with copy, retry on errors and a group that sums them up
  • Approval Card – An agent asks before it acts – risk badge, preview, Approve and Deny with shortcuts, a pausing countdown, and a smooth morph into a resolved row
  • Agent Plan – An agent's step-by-step plan to review before it runs – rename, drag to reorder, remove or add steps, then watch each one run with live timers and retry from a failed step

Which to pick

  • You need to wire an agent framework into your app, with shared state and generative UI – CopilotKit
  • You already have the agent connection (AI SDK, LangGraph, your own API) and want the UI to look finished – affectUI
  • Your product shows agents working in the background – runs, traces, several agents, approvals in an inbox – affectUI covers those views
  • Both together: CopilotKit for the agent loop, affectUI for the components it renders
  • Agent Tree – Who started whom – an orchestrator and its sub-agents as a live tree, with status, cost and time on every card, costs rolling up each branch, and branches that fold to one line
  • Trace Waterfall – Where the time and money of an agent run go – every LLM call, tool call and sub-agent as a bar on a live timeline, with tokens and cost per step, the slowest call marked and branches that fold into their parent
  • Agent Inbox – All your background agent tasks in one calm list – live clocks and status tags, filter tabs with rolling counts, rows that unfold to the last steps with Approve, Reject, Retry or Open, and glide to their new place

Questions

Is affectUI an alternative to CopilotKit?

Not really. CopilotKit connects agents to your app and manages the state between them; affectUI is the UI layer. They work together – CopilotKit can render affectUI components for tool calls and approvals.

Does affectUI support AG-UI?

affectUI has no protocol of its own – it takes plain props. Map AG-UI events such as tool calls, steps and state updates to the components' props, the same way as with any other backend.

Does affectUI need Tailwind or a runtime?

No. Each component carries its own CSS and needs only React 19. There is no runtime or backend to set up.

Updated 2026-10-29