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:
Setup your agent with state
Define your agent's state schema. AWS Strands maintains state throughout execution.
from strands import Agent
from typing import TypedDict
# 1. Define the agent state schema
class AgentState(TypedDict):
language: str # "english" or "spanish"
# 2. Create the agent with state
agent = Agent(
name="languageAgent",
description="Always communicate in the preferred language of the user as defined in the state",
state_schema=AgentState,
initial_state={"language": "english"},
instructions="Always communicate in the preferred language of the user as defined in your state. Do not communicate in any other language."
)Use the useCoAgent Hook
With your agent connected and running, 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 to match your Strands agent
type AgentState = {
language: "english" | "spanish";
};
function YourMainContent() {
const { state } = useCoAgent<AgentState>({
name: "languageAgent",
// optionally provide a type-safe initial state
initialState: { language: "spanish" }
});
// ...
return (
// style excluded for brevity
<div>
<h1>Your main content</h1>
<p>Language: {state.language}</p>
</div>
);
}The state in useCoAgent is reactive and will automatically update when the agent 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 "spanish" as that's the initial state we set.
Rendering agent state in the chat
You can also render the agent state in the chat UI. This is useful for informing the user about the 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: "languageAgent",
render: ({ state }) => {
if (!state.language) return null;
return <div>Language: {state.language}</div>;
},
});
// ...
}The state in useCoAgentStateRender is reactive and will automatically update when the agent state changes.
