---
type: concept
title: "Chat Interfaces"
description: "Wrapping agents in chat surfaces (websites, DMs, platforms) with adapters, a shared message format, and durable history."
tags: [chat, interfaces, adapters]
videos: [i-built-a-safer-openclaw-alternative-using-claude-code, the-glow-up-every-ai-agent-needs, i-created-the-best-ai-agent-platform-in-just-2-months, the-king-of-no-code-ai-agent-builders, stop-paying-for-gpt-claude-other-llms-get-them-all-in-one-place, use-open-webui-with-your-n8n-ai-agents-voice-chat-included, get-qualified-leads-while-you-sleep-with-ai, this-slack-ai-personal-assistant-is-better-than-a-real-person, build-a-full-stack-app-for-your-n8n-ai-agent-in-20-minutes, build-a-chatbot-for-your-website-in-4-minutes-no-code, build-a-hilarious-ai-game-from-scratch-in-10-minutes, i-made-a-custom-ai-chatbot-site-in-47-lines-of-code, the-secret-sauce-for-simple-powerful-ai-apps-ai-agents-masterclass-2, developers-this-is-how-you-stay-relevant-with-ai-ai-agents-masterclass-1, chatgpt-users-be-aware-of-this-major-weakness, use-chatgpt-in-two-clicks-on-any-website-with-a-custom-chrome-extension]
created: 2026-07-21
updated: 2026-07-21
---

# Chat Interfaces

A chat interface is the surface that lets a person talk to an agent, whether that is a custom website widget, a platform like Slack, or a full ChatGPT-style app. Cole treats it as one of the highest-value shapes an agent can take: "having chat platform assistance is still one of the most crucial AI use cases for any business," and, "I honestly don't know a single person that wouldn't benefit from having an AI personal assistant in their favorite chat platform." The strategic move is to meet users where they already are. Using an adapter layer, "This is what allows us to talk to OpenClaw in any platform that we want. WhatsApp, Telegram, Slack, Discord... pretty much anything that we'd want to use is available out of the box," though in practice "most of the time you're just going to find one that works for you," and Cole's own pick is Slack.

Underneath the surface, every chat interface rests on the same primitives: a role-tagged message list and durable history. "there's a list of messages that is maintained and each message has one of three roles it is either a system role... a user role... and then also... the role of assistant," and it begins with "a very first message defined right out the get-go which is the system message and this gives the context for the AI." State can also drive the whole flow of a chat app: "we also have our state which is either going to be choosing theme or choosing words this dictates the whole flow of the application... this state determines what we do with each user input."

Persisting the conversation is what makes the interface feel real. In one build the front end reads history straight from the database rather than the API response, "the reason why we're not returning the AI response is because we're storing that directly in the database," paired with a realtime subscription, "if you're using Supabase you'll also want to enable real-time communication with the messages table which is how we get that instant feedback in the front end." Connecting a no-code agent is often just an HTTP handshake: "just add a web hook trigger at the start... and then you add a respond to web hook at the very end," being careful to "change the respond from immediately to using respond to web hook node... otherwise it will respond immediately to the OpenAI request without actually going to the agent." A recurring gotcha is format translation between the store and the agent: "we have to do some of that custom logic to massage the conversation that we pull from the database into the format that our GitHub agent built with Pydantic AI expects."

## Prerequisites

- [Agent Request/Response Schema](./request-response-schema.md) - a chat platform imposes "some specific requirements around the payload that your agent accepts and how it manages conversation history."

## Related

- [Memory Systems](./memory-systems.md) - conversation history is the short-term memory a chat interface persists.
- [Contract-First Development](./contract-first.md) - the shared message format between UI, store, and agent is a contract.
- [System Prompt Engineering](./system-prompt-engineering.md) - the system message that opens every conversation.
- [Tool Use](./tool-use.md) - a custom chatbot can schedule, manage tasks, and check calendars that plain ChatGPT cannot.
- [AI Agent Business Niches](./ai-agent-business-niches.md) - lead-qualification and personal-assistant bots as a service.
- [Buy vs. Build](./buy-vs-build.md) - embeddable widgets versus a hand-coded chatbot site.
- [RAG](./rag.md), [Agentic Search](./agentic-search.md), [Agentic Coding](./agentic-coding.md), [Agentic Workflow Engineering](./agentic-workflow-engineering.md), [Context Engineering](./context-engineering.md), [Fine-Tuning](./fine-tuning.md) - capabilities exposed through a chat surface.

## Tools

- [Slack](../entities/tools/slack.md) - Cole's preferred chat platform for talking to his second brain, with keyword/emoji triggers.
- [Telegram](../entities/tools/telegram.md) - another out-of-the-box adapter target.
- [n8n](../entities/tools/n8n.md) - webhook-triggered agent backend behind many chat front ends.
- [Open Web UI](../entities/tools/open-web-ui.md) - a self-hosted ChatGPT-style front end for n8n agents.
- [Streamlit](../entities/tools/streamlit.md) - fast Python chat UIs for prototype agents.
- [Gradio](../entities/tools/gradio.md) - Python UI framework for ML/LLM apps, integrated directly into smolagents so an agent gets a full chat interface in a single line of code.
- [Notion](../entities/tools/notion.md) - All-in-one docs and workspace app, supported alongside Confluence and Google Drive as a knowledge-base source for chat assistants.
- [Abacus.AI](../entities/organizations/abacus-ai.md) - The AI company behind ChatLLM, offering a consolidated multi-model chat product with connectors to Teams, Jira, Confluence, Google Drive, and Slack.

## Sources

- [This Slack AI Personal Assistant is Better than a Real Person](../sources/this-slack-ai-personal-assistant-is-better-than-a-real-person.md) - "[0:00:47] having chat platform assistance is still one of the most crucial AI use cases for any business."
- [I Built a Safer OpenClaw Alternative Using Claude Code](../sources/i-built-a-safer-openclaw-alternative-using-claude-code.md) - "[0:07:11] This is what allows us to talk to OpenClaw in any platform that we want. WhatsApp, Telegram, Slack, Discord. The beauty of this is pretty much anything that we'd want to use is available out of the box."
- [Developers, THIS is How you Stay Relevant with AI - AI Agents Masterclass #1](../sources/developers-this-is-how-you-stay-relevant-with-ai-ai-agents-masterclass-1.md) - "[0:04:07] there's a list of messages that is maintained and each message has one of three roles it is either a system role... a user role... and then also... the role of assistant."
- [The GLOW-UP Every AI Agent Needs](../sources/the-glow-up-every-ai-agent-needs.md) - "[0:11:48] if you're using Supabase you'll also want to enable real-time communication with the messages table which is how we get that instant feedback in the front end."
- [The GLOW-UP Every AI Agent Needs](../sources/the-glow-up-every-ai-agent-needs.md) - "[0:17:11] we have to do some of that custom logic to massage the conversation that we pull from the database into the format that our GitHub agent built with Pydantic AI expects."
- [I Created the BEST AI Agent Platform in Just 2 MONTHS!](../sources/i-created-the-best-ai-agent-platform-in-just-2-months.md) - "[0:06:52] some specific requirements around the payload that your agent accepts and how it manages conversation history."
- [Use Open WebUI with Your N8N AI Agents - Voice Chat Included!](../sources/use-open-webui-with-your-n8n-ai-agents-voice-chat-included.md) - "[0:10:31] be sure to change the respond from immediately to using respond to web hook node that is really important otherwise it will respond immediately to the OpenAI request without actually going to the agent."
- [Build a FULL Stack App for your n8n AI Agent in 20 Minutes](../sources/build-a-full-stack-app-for-your-n8n-ai-agent-in-20-minutes.md) - "[0:05:33] you simply add a web hook trigger at the start... and then you add a respond to web hook at the very end right after the tools agent."
- [I Made a Custom AI Chatbot Site in 47 Lines of Code](../sources/i-made-a-custom-ai-chatbot-site-in-47-lines-of-code.md) - "[0:00:33] schedule appointments manage your tasks look at your calendar availability all these things that you can't just do with gbt you can do it with an agent and that starts with having a custom chatbot."
- [Build a Chatbot for Your Website in 4 Minutes (No Code)](../sources/build-a-chatbot-for-your-website-in-4-minutes-no-code.md) - "[0:02:48] click on embed and this will give me the code that I can copy and paste into whatever website I want."
- [Get Qualified Leads While you Sleep with AI](../sources/get-qualified-leads-while-you-sleep-with-ai.md) - "[0:12:08] you can also see all the conversations that are happening with your Bot right here... it'll even tie it to the user... so it's almost like a CRM."
- [The KING of No Code AI Agent Builders?!](../sources/the-king-of-no-code-ai-agent-builders.md) - "[0:12:39] I'm going to immediately just make that API call so I'm going to do the dev and then API and it's going to be a post request to my n8n agent."
- [Build a Hilarious AI Game from SCRATCH in 10 Minutes](../sources/build-a-hilarious-ai-game-from-scratch-in-10-minutes.md) - "[0:04:11] we also have our state which is either going to be choosing theme or choosing words this dictates the whole flow of the application."
- [STOP Paying for GPT, Claude, & Other LLMs - Get them ALL in One Place](../sources/stop-paying-for-gpt-claude-other-llms-get-them-all-in-one-place.md) - "[0:00:17] sometimes you just need a ChatGPT like interface to talk to the latest and greatest llms to get advice on very specific problems in your project."
- [The Secret Sauce for SIMPLE + POWERFUL AI Apps - AI Agents Masterclass #2](../sources/the-secret-sauce-for-simple-powerful-ai-apps-ai-agents-masterclass-2.md) - "[0:02:22] instead of saying that we want the system message in this Json format we can actually say it is a system message so this is using a LangChain tool already to make things nice and simple."
- [ChatGPT Users BE AWARE of this Major Weakness](../sources/chatgpt-users-be-aware-of-this-major-weakness.md) - "[0:07:22] instead of having to use something like a GPT plug-in for internet searching... you can actually just use the base model."
- [Use ChatGPT in Two Clicks on ANY website with a Custom Chrome Extension](../sources/use-chatgpt-in-two-clicks-on-any-website-with-a-custom-chrome-extension.md) - "[0:05:05] the extensions are made with HTML CSS and JavaScript so it's just like making your websites there's no other fancy technology you have to use."
