Message types — Overview

Every message that arrives via IConnector.onMessage carries a type string. The widget looks that type up in MessageTypeRegistry and renders the matching LitElement.

interface IncomingMessage {
  id: string;
  type: string;                      // ← key into MessageTypeRegistry
  from?: "bot" | "user";
  data: Record<string, unknown>;     // ← shape depends on type
  timestamp?: number;
  actions?: MessageAction[];         // optional quick-reply chips
}

Schema: schemas/messages/incoming-message.schema.json.

Topic	Page
Built-in types and their data shapes	Built-in
Register your own component for a type	Custom

Resolution order

1. MessageTypeRegistry.get(type) — matches an explicitly registered renderer.
2. Falls back to the built-in text renderer for safety.

Registries are singletons

import { MessageTypeRegistry } from "@chativa/core";

MessageTypeRegistry.register("product-card", ProductCardMessage);
MessageTypeRegistry.has("product-card");      // true
MessageTypeRegistry.get("product-card");      // ProductCardMessage
MessageTypeRegistry.list();                    // ["text", "image", ..., "product-card"]
MessageTypeRegistry.clear();                   // tests only

Built-in types are auto-registered on import of @chativa/ui. Re-registering a name overrides it — useful when you want to swap the default card renderer for your own.

Feedback buttons

Every bot message gets like / dislike buttons, whatever its type — text, buttons, card, carousel, image, a custom renderer or a GenUI message. The buttons are not part of the message component: chat-message-list renders a <message-feedback> element under each bot message, so custom renderers get feedback without implementing anything. User messages never show them.

• They appear on hover / keyboard focus, and stay visible once a value is selected. On touch devices (no hover) they are always visible.
• A click dispatches a chativa-feedback event ({ messageId, feedback: "like" | "dislike" }), which the widget forwards to IConnector.sendFeedback.
• If the message's data.feedbackDisabled is true, the buttons are locked and data.feedbackType (0 = like, 1 = dislike) shows the confirmed choice — this is how DirectLine's DisableFeedbackButton event is reflected.

Message actions

The feedback buttons open a row that continues with the message action bar: copy on bot text, a copy button on each code block, regenerate on the latest reply and edit on the latest user message. Actions you register with MessageActionRegistry go into a "⋮" menu, the last item of the row, unless they set placement: "inline". The list renders the bar too, so custom renderers get it without implementing anything. Regenerate and edit appear only when the connector supports them. See Message actions.