chat/docs/ai/to-ai-messages.mdx

Unified chat abstraction for Slack, Teams, Google Chat, and Discord

---
title: toAiMessages
description: Convert Chat SDK messages to AI SDK conversation format.
type: reference
related:
  - /docs/ai
  - /docs/ai/ai-sdk-tools
  - /docs/ai/types
  - /docs/streaming
---

Convert an array of [`Message`](/docs/api/message) objects into the `{ role, content }[]` format expected by the AI SDK. The output is structurally compatible with AI SDK's `ModelMessage[]`.

```typescript
import { toAiMessages } from "chat/ai";
```

<Callout>
  `toAiMessages` is also re-exported from the main `chat` entrypoint
  for backwards compatibility (with a `@deprecated` JSDoc hint), but
  new code should import it from [`chat/ai`](/docs/ai) alongside
  [`createChatTools`](/docs/ai/ai-sdk-tools) and the rest of the AI
  utilities.
</Callout>

## Usage

```typescript title="lib/bot.ts" lineNumbers
import { toAiMessages } from "chat/ai";

bot.onSubscribedMessage(async (thread, message) => {
  const result = await thread.adapter.fetchMessages(thread.id, { limit: 20 });
  const history = await toAiMessages(result.messages);
  const response = await agent.stream({ prompt: history });
  await thread.post(response.fullStream);
});
```

## Signature

```typescript
function toAiMessages(
  messages: Message[],
  options?: ToAiMessagesOptions
): Promise<AiMessage[]>
```

### Parameters

<TypeTable
  type={{
    messages: {
      description: 'Array of Chat SDK Message objects. Works with FetchResult.messages, thread.recentMessages, or any collected iterable.',
      type: 'Message[]',
    },
    options: {
      description: 'Optional configuration.',
      type: 'ToAiMessagesOptions',
      default: '{}',
    },
  }}
/>

### Options

<TypeTable
  type={{
    includeNames: {
      description: 'Prefix user messages with [username]: for multi-user context.',
      type: 'boolean',
      default: 'false',
    },
    transformMessage: {
      description: 'Transform or filter each message after default processing. Return null to skip the message.',
      type: '(aiMessage: AiMessage, source: Message) => AiMessage | null | Promise<AiMessage | null>',
    },
    onUnsupportedAttachment: {
      description: 'Called when an attachment type is not supported (video, audio).',
      type: '(attachment: Attachment, message: Message) => void',
      default: 'console.warn',
    },
  }}
/>

### Returns

`Promise<AiMessage[]>` — an array of messages with `role` and `content` fields, directly assignable to AI SDK's `ModelMessage[]`.

## Behavior

- **Role mapping** — `author.isMe === true` maps to `"assistant"`, all others to `"user"`
- **Filtering** — Messages with empty or whitespace-only text are removed
- **Sorting** — Messages are sorted chronologically (oldest first) by `metadata.dateSent`
- **Links** — Link metadata (URL, title, description, site name) is appended to message content. Embedded message links are labeled as `[Embedded message: ...]`
- **Attachments** — Images and text files (JSON, XML, YAML, etc.) are included as multipart content using `fetchData()`. Video and audio attachments trigger `onUnsupportedAttachment`

## Return types

```typescript
type AiMessage = AiUserMessage | AiAssistantMessage;

interface AiUserMessage {
  role: "user";
  content: string | AiMessagePart[];
}

interface AiAssistantMessage {
  role: "assistant";
  content: string;
}
```

User messages have multipart `content` when attachments are present:

```typescript
type AiMessagePart = AiTextPart | AiImagePart | AiFilePart;

interface AiTextPart {
  type: "text";
  text: string;
}

interface AiImagePart {
  type: "image";
  image: DataContent | URL;
  mediaType?: string;
}

interface AiFilePart {
  type: "file";
  data: DataContent | URL;
  filename?: string;
  mediaType: string;
}
```

## Examples

### Multi-user context

Prefix each user message with their username so the AI model can distinguish speakers:

```typescript
const history = await toAiMessages(result.messages, { includeNames: true });
// [{ role: "user", content: "[alice]: Hello" },
//  { role: "assistant", content: "Hi there!" },
//  { role: "user", content: "[bob]: Thanks" }]
```

### Transforming messages

Replace raw user IDs with readable names:

```typescript
const history = await toAiMessages(result.messages, {
  transformMessage: (aiMessage) => {
    if (typeof aiMessage.content === "string") {
      return {
        ...aiMessage,
        content: aiMessage.content.replace(/<@U123>/g, "@VercelBot"),
      };
    }
    return aiMessage;
  },
});
```

### Filtering messages

Skip messages from a specific user:

```typescript
const history = await toAiMessages(result.messages, {
  transformMessage: (aiMessage, source) => {
    if (source.author.userId === "U_NOISY_BOT") return null;
    return aiMessage;
  },
});
```

### Handling unsupported attachments

```typescript
const history = await toAiMessages(result.messages, {
  onUnsupportedAttachment: (attachment, message) => {
    logger.warn(`Skipped ${attachment.type} attachment in message ${message.id}`);
  },
});
```

## Supported attachment types

| Type | MIME types | Included as |
|------|-----------|-------------|
| `image` | Any image MIME type | `FilePart` with base64 data |
| `file` | `text/*`, `application/json`, `application/xml`, `application/javascript`, `application/typescript`, `application/yaml`, `application/toml` | `FilePart` with base64 data |
| `video` | Any | Skipped (triggers `onUnsupportedAttachment`) |
| `audio` | Any | Skipped (triggers `onUnsupportedAttachment`) |
| `file` | Other (e.g. `application/pdf`) | Silently skipped |

<Callout type="info">
Attachments require `fetchData()` to be available on the attachment object. Attachments without `fetchData()` are silently skipped.
</Callout>