Running Locally

Quick Start

1. Create a .env.local file with your API credentials:

OPENAI_BASE_URL=/static-proxy?url=https%3A%2F%2Frouter.huggingface.co%2Fv1
OPENAI_API_KEY=hf_************************

2. Install and run:

npm install
npm run dev -- --open

That’s it! Chat UI will discover available models automatically from your endpoint.

Configuration

Chat UI connects to any OpenAI-compatible API. Set OPENAI_BASE_URL to your provider:

See the configuration overview for all available options.

Database

For development, MongoDB is optional. When MONGODB_URL is not set, Chat UI uses an embedded MongoDB server that persists data to the ./db folder.

For production, you should use a dedicated MongoDB instance:

Option 1: Local MongoDB (Docker)

docker run -d -p 27017:27017 -v mongo-chat-ui:/data --name mongo-chat-ui mongo:latest

Then set MONGODB_URL=mongodb://localhost:27017 in .env.local.

Option 2: MongoDB Atlas (Managed)

Use MongoDB Atlas free tier for a managed database. Copy the connection string to MONGODB_URL.

Running in Production

For production deployments:

npm install
npm run build
npm run preview

The server listens on http://localhost:4173 by default.