If you’ve been exploring AI-powered applications in React, you might have come across GenKit — an AI toolkit that helps you build intelligent features like chatbots, text generation, and more.
In this post, we’ll learn how to integrate GenKit into a React.js app with a simple example:
An AI-powered text generator.
Step 1 — Install GenKit
First, make sure you have a React project ready.
If not, create one:
npx create-react-app genkit-demo
cd genkit-demo
Now install GenKit:
npm install @genkit-ai/core @genkit-ai/llm
Step 2 — Set up GenKit in Your Project
We’ll create a simple function to call GenKit’s text generation API.
// src/genkit.js
import { Genkit, LLM } from "@genkit-ai/core";
import { OpenAI } from "@genkit-ai/llm-openai"; // Example provider
// Initialize GenKit
const genkit = new Genkit({
llm: new OpenAI({
apiKey: process.env.REACT_APP_OPENAI_KEY, // Store securely in .env
}),
});
export async function generateText(prompt) {
const result = await genkit.llm.generate({
prompt: prompt,
maxTokens: 100,
});
return result.outputText;
}
Step 3 — Create a Simple React UI
// src/App.js
import React, { useState } from "react";
import { generateText } from "./genkit";
function App() {
const [prompt, setPrompt] = useState("");
const [output, setOutput] = useState("");
const handleGenerate = async () => {
const text = await generateText(prompt);
setOutput(text);
};
return (
<div style={{ padding: "20px" }}>
<h2>🧠 GenKit AI Text Generator</h2>
<textarea
rows="4"
cols="50"
placeholder="Enter your prompt..."
value={prompt}
onChange={(e) => setPrompt(e.target.value)}
/>
<br />
<button onClick={handleGenerate}>Generate</button>
<div style={{ marginTop: "20px", padding: "10px", border: "1px solid gray" }}>
<strong>Output:</strong>
<p>{output}</p>
</div>
</div>
);
}
export default App;
Step 4 — Store Your API Key Securely
In .env
:
REACT_APP_OPENAI_KEY=your_openai_api_key
Then restart your app:
npm start
Tips
- You can swap the LLM provider (e.g., Anthropic, Gemini) easily.
- GenKit can also do streaming outputs, chat sessions, embeddings, and tool integration.
- Always keep your API key secure (never commit .env to GitHub).
Conclusion
GenKit makes adding AI features to React super easy. With just a few lines of code, you can bring natural language capabilities to your project.
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