AI Agents Overview

AI Agents enable intelligent, automated interactions within your application. They can process user messages, trigger tools, and respond with contextually relevant information. For a broader introduction, see the AI Agents section.

Note: Currently, an Agent only responds to Text Messages.

Agent Run Lifecycle and Message Flow

This section explains how a user’s text message to an Agent becomes a structured “run” which emits real-time events and then produces agentic messages for historical retrieval.

A user sends a text message to an Agent.
The platform starts a run and streams real-time events via the AIAssistantListener.
After the run completes, persisted Agentic Messages arrive via the MessageListener.

Real-time Events

Events are received via the onAIAssistantEventReceived method of the AIAssistantListener class in this general order:

Run Start
Zero or more tool call cycles (repeats for each tool invocation):
- Tool Call Start
- Tool Call Arguments
- Tool Call End
- Tool Call Result
Zero or more card generation cycles (repeats for each card produced):
- Card Start
- Card (full payload)
- Card End
One or more assistant reply streams:
- Text Message Start
- Text Message Content (multiple times; token/char streaming)
- Text Message End
Run Finished

Notes:

Run Start and Run Finished are always emitted.
Tool Call events appear only when a backend or frontend tool is invoked. There can be multiple tool calls in a single run.
Card events appear only when the agent produces a card. The UI can show a loading state on Card Start, render the card on Card (payload), and finalize on Card End.
Text Message events are always emitted and carry the assistant’s reply incrementally.

Dart

import 'package:flutter/foundation.dart';
import 'package:cometchat_sdk/cometchat_sdk.dart';

class AIAssistantEventHandler with AIAssistantListener {
final String _sdkStreamListenerId = "unique_listener_id";

/// Call this to start listening to AI Assistant events
void addListener() {
CometChat.addAIAssistantListener(_sdkStreamListenerId, this);
debugPrint("AIAssistantListener added successfully.");
}

/// Call this to remove the AI Assistant listener
void removeListener() {
CometChat.removeAIAssistantListener(_sdkStreamListenerId);
debugPrint("AIAssistantListener removed successfully.");
}

@override
void onAIAssistantEventReceived(AIAssistantBaseEvent aiAssistantBaseEvent) {
debugPrint(
"Received AI Event: ${aiAssistantBaseEvent.type} for Run ID: ${aiAssistantBaseEvent.id}",
);

// Handle card streaming events
if (aiAssistantBaseEvent is AIAssistantCardStartedEvent) {
debugPrint("Card generation started: ${aiAssistantBaseEvent.cardId}");
debugPrint("Execution text: ${aiAssistantBaseEvent.executionText}");
} else if (aiAssistantBaseEvent is AIAssistantCardReceivedEvent) {
debugPrint("Card received: ${aiAssistantBaseEvent.cardId}");
final cardPayload = aiAssistantBaseEvent.getCard();
// Pass cardPayload to CometChatCardView renderer
} else if (aiAssistantBaseEvent is AIAssistantCardEndedEvent) {
debugPrint("Card generation ended: ${aiAssistantBaseEvent.cardId}");
}
}
}

Event descriptions

Run Start: A new run has begun for the user’s message.
Tool Call Start: The agent decided to invoke a tool.
Tool Call Arguments: Arguments being passed to the tool.
Tool Call End: Tool execution completed.
Tool Call Result: Tool’s output is available.
Card Start: The agent started generating a card. Contains cardId and executionText (a human-readable status like “Building your product card…”).
Card: The full card payload is available. Use getCard() to retrieve the raw card JSON and pass it to the renderer.
Card End: The card generation flow is finalized.
Text Message Start: The agent started composing a reply.
Text Message Content: Streaming content chunks for progressive rendering.
Text Message End: The agent reply is complete.
Run Finished: The run is finalized; persisted messages will follow.

Card Streaming Event Classes

Class	Properties
`AIAssistantCardStartedEvent`	`runId`, `threadId`, `streamMessageId`, `cardId`, `executionText`
`AIAssistantCardReceivedEvent`	`runId`, `threadId`, `streamMessageId`, `cardId`, `getCard()` → `Map<String, dynamic>?`
`AIAssistantCardEndedEvent`	`runId`, `threadId`, `streamMessageId`, `cardId`

Agentic Messages

These events are received via the MessageListener after the run completes.

AIAssistantMessage: The full assistant reply.
AIToolResultMessage: The final output of a tool call.
AIToolArgumentMessage: The arguments that were passed to a tool.

Dart

const listenerId = "unique_listener_id";

    class Class_Name with MessageListener {
    // Adding the MessageListener
    // CometChat.addMessageListener(listenerId, this);
      @override
      void onAIAssistantMessageReceived(AIAssistantMessage aiAssistantMessage) {
        debugPrint("AI Assistant Message Received: ${aiAssistantMessage.toString()}");
      }

      @override
      void onAIToolResultReceived(AIToolResultMessage aiToolArgumentMessage) {
        debugPrint("AI Assistant Message Received: ${aiToolArgumentMessage.toString()}");
      }

      @override
      void onAIToolArgumentsReceived(AIToolArgumentMessage aiToolArgumentMessage) {
        debugPrint("AI Assistant Message Received: ${aiToolArgumentMessage.toString()}");
      }
    }

Starting from SDK version 5.0.5, AI assistant message content is delivered via getElements(). If the agent response contains only a card (no accompanying text), getText() will return an empty string — always prefer getElements() as the primary data source for rendering.

AIAssistantMessage Elements

A persisted AIAssistantMessage carries its content in two ways:

getText() — The flat content string (unchanged, legacy/fallback path).
getElements() — An ordered array of AIAssistantElement objects representing discrete content blocks (text and cards) in the order the agent produced them. This is the default render source — when present, walk the list left-to-right and render each block in order.

When getElements() returns null or is empty (older messages), fall back to getText().

AIAssistantElement

Each element exposes two accessors:

Method	Return Type	Description
`getType()`	`String?`	The element’s type: `"text"`, `"card"`, `"graph"`, etc.
`getData()`	`dynamic`	The element’s raw body data. Shape depends on type — `String` for text, `Map<String, dynamic>` (with keys `card` and `cardId`) for card, raw JSON value for others.

Dart

void handleAIAssistantMessage(AIAssistantMessage message) {
  final elements = message.getElements();

  if (elements != null && elements.isNotEmpty) {
    // Preferred path: walk elements in order
    for (final element in elements) {
      switch (element.getType()) {
        case 'text':
          final textContent = element.getData() as String;
          debugPrint("Text block: $textContent");
          break;
        case 'card':
          final cardData = element.getData() as Map<String, dynamic>;
          final cardPayload = cardData['card'] as Map<String, dynamic>;
          final cardId = cardData['cardId'] as String;
          debugPrint("Card block: $cardId");
          // Pass cardPayload to CometChatCardView renderer
          break;
        default:
          debugPrint("Unknown element type: ${element.getType()}");
          break;
      }
    }
  } else {
    // Fallback: use getText() for older messages without elements
    debugPrint("Message text: ${message.text}");
  }
}

Card Messages (Developer Cards)

Developer card messages are rich, interactive messages (buttons, images, styled layouts) described as JSON and sent via the Platform API or Bubble Builder. The SDK only receives card messages — it does not send them. A CardMessage arrives with category: "card" and is delivered on the onCardMessageReceived callback of the MessageListener.

CardMessage Class

Method	Return Type	Description
`getCard()`	`Map<String, dynamic>?`	The raw card schema payload. Pass directly to the card renderer.
`getText()`	`String?`	Preview text for push notifications and conversation list.
`getFallbackText()`	`String?`	Fallback text from inside the card (`card.fallbackText`). Used for accessibility or when the renderer fails.
`getTags()`	`List<String>?`	Tags associated with this message.

Dart

const listenerId = "unique_listener_id";

class CardMessageHandler with MessageListener {
  // CometChat.addMessageListener(listenerId, this);

  @override
  void onCardMessageReceived(CardMessage cardMessage) {
    debugPrint("Card message received: ${cardMessage.id}");

    // Get the raw card payload for the renderer
    final cardPayload = cardMessage.getCard();
    debugPrint("Card payload: $cardPayload");

    // Get fallback text for previews
    final fallback = cardMessage.getFallbackText();
    debugPrint("Fallback: $fallback");

    // Get preview text for conversation list
    final previewText = cardMessage.getText();
    debugPrint("Preview text: $previewText");
  }
}

Card messages are receive-only. They are created and sent exclusively via the Platform (REST) API and Dashboard Bubble Builder. The SDK exposes the card payload raw via getCard() — an external renderer library (e.g., CometChatCardView) is responsible for drawing the card UI.

​AI Agents Overview

​Agent Run Lifecycle and Message Flow

​Real-time Events

​Event descriptions

​Card Streaming Event Classes

​Agentic Messages

​AIAssistantMessage Elements

​AIAssistantElement

​Card Messages (Developer Cards)

​CardMessage Class

AI Agents Overview

Agent Run Lifecycle and Message Flow

Real-time Events

Event descriptions

Card Streaming Event Classes

Agentic Messages

AIAssistantMessage Elements

AIAssistantElement

Card Messages (Developer Cards)

CardMessage Class