Stream

Stream (getstream.io) provides APIs and SDKs for adding Chat, Video (calls and livestreaming), Activity Feeds, and Moderation to apps. A Stream account has organizations; an organization has apps; an app has one or more API key + secret pairs. All data - users, channels, calls, feeds - is scoped to an app. Client SDKs cover React, iOS, Android, React Native, Flutter, Unity, and Unreal; server-side SDKs mint user tokens and call the same API. Most client SDKs provide UI kits.

Stream Agents runs voice and text AI agents on Stream's backend. An agent is a folder of plain files (agents/<name>/agent.yaml, instructions, guardrail, knowledge, skills, simulations) synced with getstream agents, and sessions with it are opened through the Agents SDKs (@stream-io/stream-agents on the web). A session's conversation is a Chat channel and its voice is a Video call, so the app around an agent is a Chat and Video app like any other.

The CLI

The getstream CLI is the base tool for everything account- and data-side: authenticating, onboarding a project (org, app, credentials), calling any API endpoint, obtaining credentials, minting user tokens, reading the docs, and installing the other Stream skills. Don't work from memory of it - run getstream -h and getstream <command> -h and follow what they print.

To install (unless already present):

curl -fsSL https://getstream.io/cli.sh | bash
getstream --version

Alternatively, the user can install the CLI from getstream.io/cli.

A CLI that is already installed can be too old for these skills: early stable builds (such as 1.0.0) have no docs, status or webhook command. If getstream -h doesn't list a command a skill asks for, run getstream update and check again.

The getstream agents commands are only in beta builds, whose version is a date and a commit (YYYY-MM-DD-<commit>) rather than semver. Tell which build is installed from getstream --version, not from an error message: a current stable build answers getstream agents with "agents are available in private beta builds only", and an early one with unknown command "agents". A beta build has every command a stable build has, so for any Stream Agents work install it first, over the stable one:

curl -fsSL https://getstream.io/cli/beta/install.sh | bash
getstream --version   # YYYY-MM-DD-<commit>

Routing

First match wins:

1. Work on an app for a specific platform (build, integrate, audit, upgrade): use the platform-specific skill.

   • stream-react (React / Next.js)
   • stream-react-native (React Native / Expo)
   • stream-swift (iOS / SwiftUI / UIKit)
   • stream-android (Kotlin / Compose)
   • stream-flutter
   • stream-unity (Chat and Video)
   • stream-unreal (Chat only)

   For a review or audit of an existing integration ("is this ready for production?", "prepare for the integration review"), read integration-review.md together with the platform skill.

   Install a missing skill with getstream skills <name>, then follow it (getstream skills alone installs every skill; an older CLI installs only stream, stream-builder and stream-docs, so getstream update first). For a web app, or a generic app, pick stream-react. A framework beats an OS: "an Unreal chat app for iOS" is stream-unreal.

   AI work is the exception to that default. When the request names an AI feature (AI Components, an AI assistant, a voice agent, generative UI) but no platform, and the working directory doesn't show one (an .xcodeproj, a build.gradle, a pubspec.yaml, a package.json), ask which platform before routing. The AI components differ by platform, so a build started on the wrong one is thrown away.

   An app built around Stream Agents is platform work too, even when the request only says "agent" or "voice agent". Read the Agents docs with getstream docs agents: one doc set for every SDK, where each page has the code for every language (there are no agents/<sdk> ids). Configure the agent from its folder. A folder from getstream agents init --template is an example agent for "Acme Corp": replace its agent.yaml description, instructions.md, guardrail.md, knowledge/, confirm skill and simulations before the first sync. Build the app with the platform skill: its Chat UI kit renders the session's conversation and its Video SDK holds the call. React Native runs @stream-io/stream-agents for text agents, with no call-based voice (stream-react-native skill's stream-agents.md). Unity and Unreal have no Agents client SDK - tell the user before building.

2. Migrate Feeds v2 to v3: use stream-feeds-migration skill.

3. Migrate from Sendbird: use the platform-specific skill to migrate the code; to move the data itself (users, channels, message history), read sendbird-data-migration.md.

4. Docs / "how does X work" questions: use the getstream docs command, with an id from getstream docs list. In a command substitution like $(getstream docs <id>) don't add 2>&1. The path you need is on stdout. On a wrong id stdout is empty and the error goes to stderr, so a bare ls $(getstream docs <id>) lists the current directory instead. Check the result first: d=$(getstream docs <id>) && ls "$d".

5. Query or mutate app data ("list channels", "any flagged messages?", one-off API calls): use the getstream api command.

6. Genuinely ambiguous: ask.