Vercel AI SDK - ZnapAI Documentation

The Vercel AI SDK provides a simple and unified API for interacting with OpenAI-compatible language models. This guide explains how to integrate the SDK with OpenAI or any OpenAI-compatible API endpoint for text generation, streaming, image generation, and multimodal (vision) capabilities.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, ensure you have:

Node.js 18+
An OpenAI-compatible API endpoint
An API key
npm or another package manager

Installation

Install the required packages:

npm install ai @ai-sdk/openai dotenv

Package Overview

Package	Description
`ai`	Core Vercel AI SDK containing text generation, streaming, and image APIs.
`@ai-sdk/openai`	OpenAI provider that supports both OpenAI and OpenAI-compatible endpoints.
`dotenv`	Loads API keys and configuration from environment variables.

Environment Variables

Create a .env file:

API_KEY=your_api_key
BASE_URL=https://your-openai-compatible-endpoint/v1
MODEL_NAME=gpt-4o-mini
IMAGE_MODEL_NAME=gpt-image-2

BASE_URL is optional when using the official OpenAI API. Specify it only when connecting to an OpenAI-compatible provider or proxy.

Client Configuration

Create a reusable client configuration.

import { createOpenAI } from '@ai-sdk/openai';
import * as dotenv from 'dotenv';

dotenv.config();

const apiKey = process.env.API_KEY;
const baseURL = process.env.BASE_URL;

export const MODEL = process.env.MODEL_NAME;

export const IMAGE_MODEL = process.env.IMAGE_MODEL_NAME;

export const openai = createOpenAI({
  apiKey,
  baseURL,
});

Next Steps

To explore individual capabilities with code examples, check the following sections in the sidebar:

Best Practices

Store API keys in environment variables.
Reuse a single OpenAI client instance throughout your application.
Use streaming for chat interfaces to improve user experience.
Validate generation parameters before making requests.
Handle API errors gracefully with retry or fallback logic.
Use system prompts to define consistent assistant behavior.
Keep prompts concise and specific for better model responses.

Supported Features

Feature	Supported
Text Generation	✅
Streaming Responses	✅
System Prompts	✅
Temperature	✅
Top P	✅
Top K	✅
Max Tokens	✅
Frequency Penalty	✅
Presence Penalty	✅
Seed	✅
Stop Sequences	✅
Image Generation	✅
Vision (Image Input)	✅
OpenAI-Compatible Base URL	✅

Next Steps

You are now ready to build applications using the Vercel AI SDK with any OpenAI-compatible endpoint. Explore additional SDK capabilities such as structured outputs, tool calling, agents, and chat history management as your application grows.

​Prerequisites

​Installation

​Package Overview

​Environment Variables

​Client Configuration

​Next Steps

​Best Practices

​Supported Features

​Next Steps

Prerequisites

Installation

Package Overview

Environment Variables

Client Configuration

Next Steps

Best Practices

Supported Features

Next Steps