HuggingChat / chat-ui
Hugging FaceChat UI is a SvelteKit and MongoDB chat interface built and maintained by Hugging Face, and the codebase behind HuggingChat at huggingface.co/chat. It connects to any OpenAI-compatible endpoint, such as Hugging Face Inference Providers, Ollama, llama.cpp or OpenRouter, and discovers the available models automatically. It supports MCP tool calling, image input, optional OpenID login, and an Omni router that picks a model by request type.
The original HuggingChat was retired on 1 July 2025 and relaunched as HuggingChat Omni, which routes across providers rather than serving one endpoint.
Openness
5 high confidence- license
- Apache-2.0(OSI)
- source
- public
- core features withheld
- no
Fully OSI (Apache-2.0); the public codebase is exactly what powers the hosted HuggingChat, self-hostable end to end.
- https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/gh/huggingface/chat-ui@main/LICENSE recorded 2026-09-29
The repository LICENSE file (served from the jsDelivr mirror of huggingface/chat-ui at main) is the Apache License text: "Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0" and "Version 2.0, January 2004".
- https://github.com/huggingface/chat-ui recorded 2026-08-13
Apache-2.0; 'open source codebase powering HuggingChat'; v0.10.0
- https://huggingface.co/docs/chat-ui/index recorded 2026-09-29
Chat UI docs home: "Open source chat interface with support for tools, multimodal inputs, and intelligent routing across models." Setup is npm install and npm run dev with an OpenAI-compatible endpoint. Searched the body for license key, enterprise edition, paid plan and non-commercial: none.
- https://huggingface.co/docs/chat-ui/installation/local recorded 2026-09-29
Running Locally guide: "Chat UI will discover available models automatically from your endpoint." with MongoDB as the only database and a production build via npm run build. No key, account or paid tier is required to self-host.
Adoption
3 medium confidenceHuggingChat's reach comes from a lifetime user count that Hugging Face's own Head of Product posted on social media and trade press relayed, not a page Hugging Face published itself. The hosted product was later retired and relaunched as HuggingChat Omni, and the self-hosted repository draws a much smaller following, leaving that vendor statement as the only reach figure available.
- https://api.github.com/repos/huggingface/chat-ui recorded 2026-08-14
GitHub API for huggingface/chat-ui - 10,885 stars, 1,659 forks, 97 watchers, Apache-2.0. The self-host base, countable; the hosted product publishes no user count.
- https://huggingface.co/chat recorded 2026-09-29
Live HuggingChat page: "Welcome to HuggingChat, the chat app powered by open source AI models." and the model picker. Searched for a user count: none.
- https://www.startuphub.ai/ai-news/startup-news/2025/hugging-face-closes-huggingchat-to-make-way-for-next-generation-ai-tools recorded 2026-06-04
Sunset write-up. Carries no user or assistant figure.
- https://www.thelettertwo.com/2025/07/01/hugging-face-ends-huggingchat-teases-more-integrated-future/ recorded 2026-09-29
Trade-press piece on the July 2025 HuggingChat wind-down: "helped more than 1 million users, and powered over 100,000 assistants", a vendor statement relayed by the outlet, not a first-party HF page.
Capability
3 medium confidenceHuggingChat pairs broad model access, route-based model selection and MCP tool calling, but the self-host build has no document retrieval and connects to models only through OpenAI-compatible endpoints, a leaner feature surface than Open WebUI or LibreChat. That places it one step below Open WebUI in this category.
- https://github.com/huggingface/chat-ui recorded 2026-08-13
OpenAI-compatible API, MCP tools, multimodal, Omni routing; legacy provider integrations + GGUF discovery removed
- https://huggingface.co/chat recorded 2026-09-29
Live HuggingChat page: "You can also choose from any available open source models to chat with directly." plus the Omni router and a model picker.
- https://huggingface.co/docs/chat-ui/configuration/llm-router recorded 2026-09-29
LLM Router page: "Route selection runs locally as a synchronous heuristic" with default, multimodal and agentic routes and fallback models.
- https://huggingface.co/docs/chat-ui/configuration/mcp-tools recorded 2026-09-29
MCP Tools page: "Chat UI supports tool calling via the" Model Context Protocol, with admin-configured base servers and user-added servers from the UI, plus "User Token Forwarding" for Hugging Face logins.
- https://huggingface.co/docs/chat-ui/configuration/overview recorded 2026-09-29
Configuration page: "Chat UI connects to any OpenAI-compatible API endpoint" with optional "Voice Transcription" (Whisper) and OpenID Connect login.
- https://huggingface.co/docs/chat-ui/developing/architecture recorded 2026-09-29
Architecture page: "Chat UI provides a simple interface connecting LLMs to external tools via MCP." Lists "OpenAI-compatible only" model access and routing by local heuristics; no retrieval or document-store component in the code map.
- https://huggingface.co/docs/chat-ui/index recorded 2026-09-29
Chat UI docs home: "Open source chat interface with support for tools, multimodal inputs, and intelligent routing across models." Setup is npm install and npm run dev with an OpenAI-compatible endpoint. Searched the body for license key, enterprise edition, paid plan and non-commercial: none.
Verified 2026-09-29