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BlocksChat UIs
Sources & Citations
Sources & Citations
Chat with source citations using Perplexity's Sonar model. Answers include clickable links for fact-checking.
Use this when building a research or tutoring chat where Perplexity Sonar responses must show the sources behind each answer as links.
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Problems solved
Technical challenges this implementation handles out of the box.
- Answer questions with citation-backed Perplexity Sonar responses
- Stream clickable source links for fact-checking
- Smooth word-chunked token streaming for readable answers
Use cases
Products and workflows this pattern is designed to support.
- Research assistants with citations
- Fact-checking chat experiences
- News and information verification tools
- Educational tutors that show sources
Compare with
Similar patterns, and when each one is the better fit.
Inline Citations DemoUse this when citations must sit inline in the generated content itself, like footnotes in a draft, rather than as a list of links after the answer.
Web Search ToolUse this when you want OpenAI's built-in web_search_preview tool forced on every query so answers are grounded in live web results.
Jev AEO AuditUse this when auditing a page for AEO and you want title, canonical, and noindex checks in code while Jev judges the citation-worthiness.
ReasoningUse this when your chat needs to stream a model's reasoning parts next to its final answer so users can open and inspect how it got there.
Setup
Requirements, wiring steps, and what this pattern adds to your project.
Getting started
Pick how you want to pull this pattern in. Then wire env vars and routes the same way.
- 1
Download → Next.js app
Use Download → Next.js app in the preview toolbar. You get a zip scaffold (Pro downloads rewrite preview `/view/.../api/*` paths to `/api/*` automatically).
- 2
Extract the zip and install dependencies
Unzip the archive, then run `pnpm install` (or npm / yarn) in the project folder.
- 3
Fill .env.local
The download includes .env.local placeholders when needed. Add real values for: PERPLEXITY_API_KEY.
- 4
Customize the agent and tool files
Adapt prompts, tools, and stop conditions in the generated project for your product.
- 5
Run the app and open the pattern route
Run `pnpm dev`, open the setup/checklist page if present, then navigate to the generated pattern route and verify responses.
Environment variables
PERPLEXITY_API_KEYGet key
Capabilities
AI SDK APIs
streamTextconvertToModelMessagesProviders
Perplexity
Files added
6 files
app/page.tsxapp/layout.tsxlib/request-utils.tscomponents/sources-chat-form.tsxapp/api/chat/route.tsREADME.md
Dependencies
7 total
npm packages
4AISDKlucide-reactNext.jsReact
Registry components
emptyscroll-areatooltip
Critical files
1 file
chat/route.tsAPI route demonstrating perplexity/sonar integration with sendSources: true for citation-backed responses. Uses smoothStream with word chunking.
Requirements
- Complexity
- Beginner
- Setup time
- ~15 minutes
- Node
- 24+
- Memory
- 512MB
Upstash Redis
