Multiple Parallel AI Streams with the Vercel AI SDK

Why would I want to do this?

Installation & Setup

1. Follow the Next.js App Router Quickstart. Just the basics; generate the app, install dependencies, and add your OpenAI API key.
2. Install and set up shadcn/ui.

Setting up basic UI

export function GenerationForm() {
    // State and other info will be defined here...

		return (
	    <form onSubmit={onSubmit} className="flex flex-col gap-3 w-full">
	      <div className="inline-block mb-4 w-full flex flex-row gap-1">
	        <Button type="submit">Generate News & Weather</Button>
	      </div>

	      {isGenerating ? (
	        <div className="flex flex-row w-full justify-center items-center p-4 transition-all">
	          <Spinner className="h-6 w-6 text-slate-900" />
	        </div>
	      ) : null}

	      <h3 className="font-bold">Historical Weather</h3>
	      <div className="mt-4 mb-8 p-4 rounded-md shadow-md bg-blue-100">
	        {weather ? weather : null}
	      </div>

	      <h4 className="font-bold">Historical News</h4>
	      <div className="mt-4 p-4 rounded-md shadow-md bg-green-100">{news ? news : null}</div>
	    </form>
	  )
}

• A form
• A loading animation (and an isGenerating flag for showing/hiding it)
• A container for rendering weather content
• A container for rendering news content

Setting up the React Server Components (RSCs)

export async function streamAnswer(question: string) {
	// Booleans for indicating whether each stream is currently streaming
  const isGeneratingStream1 = createStreamableValue(true);
  const isGeneratingStream2 = createStreamableValue(true);

  // The current stream values
  const weatherStream = createStreamableValue("");
  const newsStream = createStreamableValue("");

	// Create the first stream. Notice that we don't use await here, so that we
	//  don't block the rest of this function from running.
	streamText({
		// ... params, including the LLM prompt
  }).then(async (result) => {
		  // Read from the async iterator. Set the stream value to each new word
		  //  received.
      for await (const value of result.textStream) {
        weatherStream.update(value || "");
      }
    } finally {
	    // Set isGenerating to false, and close that stream.
      isGeneratingStream1.update(false);
      isGeneratingStream1.done();

      // Close the given stream so the request doesn't hang.
      weatherStream.done();
    }
  });

  // Same thing for the second stream.
	streamText({
		// ... params
  }).then(async (result) => {
	  // ...
  })

  // Return any streams we want to read on the client.
  return {
    isGeneratingStream1: isGeneratingStream1.value,
    isGeneratingStream2: isGeneratingStream2.value,
    weatherStream: weatherStream.value,
    newsStream: newsStream.value,
  };
}

Writing the client code

"use client";

import { SyntheticEvent, useState } from "react";
import { Button } from "./ui/button";
import { readStreamableValue, useUIState } from "ai/rsc";
import { streamAnswer } from "@/app/actions";
import { Spinner } from "./svgs/Spinner";

export function GenerationForm() {
	// State for loading flags
  const [isGeneratingStream1, setIsGeneratingStream1] = useState<boolean>(false);
  const [isGeneratingStream2, setIsGeneratingStream2] = useState<boolean>(false);

  // State for the LLM output streams
  const [weather, setWeather] = useState<string>("");
  const [news, setNews] = useState<string>("");

  // We'll hide the loader when both streams are done.
  const isGenerating = isGeneratingStream1 || isGeneratingStream2;

  async function onSubmit(e: SyntheticEvent) {
    e.preventDefault();

    // Clear previous results.
    setNews("");
    setWeather("");

		// Call the server action. The returned object will have all the streams in it.
    const result = await streamAnswer(question);

    // Translate each stream into an async iterator so we can loop through
    //  the values as they are generated.
    const isGeneratingStream1 = readStreamableValue(result.isGeneratingStream1);
    const isGeneratingStream2 = readStreamableValue(result.isGeneratingStream2);
    const weatherStream = readStreamableValue(result.weatherStream);
    const newsStream = readStreamableValue(result.newsStream);

		// Iterate through each stream, putting its values into state one by one.
		//  Notice the IIFEs again! As on the server, these allow us to prevent blocking
		//   the function, so that we can run these iterators in parallel.
    (async () => {
      for await (const value of isGeneratingStream1) {
        if (value != null) {
          setIsGeneratingStream1(value);
        }
      }
    })();

    (async () => {
      for await (const value of isGeneratingStream2) {
        if (value != null) {
          setIsGeneratingStream2(value);
        }
      }
    })();

    (async () => {
      for await (const value of weatherStream) {
        setWeather((existing) => (existing + value) as string);
      }
    })();

    (async () => {
      for await (const value of newsStream) {
        setNews((existing) => (existing + value) as string);
      }
    })();
  }

  return (
    // ... The form code from before.
  );
}

Other fun things to try

• Streaming structured JSON data instead of text using streamObject()
• Streaming lots more things in parallel
• Streaming from different APIs at once
• Streaming different models with the same prompts for comparison (e.g., Cohere, Anthropic, Gemini, etc.)
• Streaming the UI from the server (using createStreamableUI() )

Further reading & links

• Server Actions and Mutations
• Vercel AI SDK
• streamText() API docs
• Next.js App Router Quickstart