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RAG Chatbot Next.js AI template with document upload and citations
RAG Template

RAG Chatbot

RAG Chatbot is a Next.js AI template for document question answering. It demonstrates ingestion, chunking, OpenAI text embeddings, hybrid retrieval, cited answers, and evidence previews in one understandable project. Use it to prototype knowledge-base assistants, internal document copilots, support bots, research tools, or any AI app that needs grounded answers from uploaded text.

Direct answer

RAG Chatbot is a Next.js RAG chatbot template for document Q&A, OpenAI embeddings, retrieval augmented generation, and AI chatbot answers with citations. It is best for knowledge-base assistants, support documentation bots, document intelligence apps, and internal research copilots.

Download on GitHub View repository Explore AI Lab
OpenAI OpenAI Embeddings Next.js

Features

Document ingestion
Sentence-aware chunking
OpenAI embeddings
Hybrid retrieval
Clickable citations

Use cases

Knowledge base chatbotDocument intelligence appSupport documentation assistantResearch copilotInternal policy Q&A

Freshness and tested metadata

last Tested
Jul 11, 2026
last Updated
Jul 11, 2026
next Version
Next.js 16.2.1
node Version
Node.js 20+
runtime
Next.js App Router
deployment
Vercel-ready starter
license
MIT
status
Open Source

Architecture

Next.js App Router page for the user-facing interface.
React components for the responsive chat, workflow, or document interaction surface.
Server-side route for AI provider calls so credentials stay outside the browser.
Tailwind CSS styling for a mobile-ready interface.
Retrieval layer for chunking, embeddings, evidence selection, and cited answer generation.
Agent workflow layer for prompt transformation, research, handoffs, and inspectable intermediate outputs.
Realtime session layer for WebRTC audio, ephemeral client secrets, live transcript rendering, and interruption handling.

Setup path

  1. 1Clone the GitHub repository linked above.
  2. 2Install dependencies with npm install.
  3. 3Create a local environment file from the example variables.
  4. 4Add the required AI provider API key on the server side.
  5. 5Run the local Next.js development server and test the primary workflow.

Related AI template categories

Next.js AI chatbot templates RAG chatbot templates for Next.js OpenAI Agents SDK templates Voice AI agent templates OpenRouter chatbot templates Next.js OpenAI templates ChatGPT clone templates Document Q&A AI templates

Internal template pathways

AI Templates ChatGPT Clone AI Agents Starter AI Lab

Frequently asked questions

What is RAG Chatbot?

RAG Chatbot is a Next.js RAG chatbot template for document Q&A, OpenAI embeddings, retrieval augmented generation, and AI chatbot answers with citations. It is best for knowledge-base assistants, support documentation bots, document intelligence apps, and internal research copilots.

Who should use RAG Chatbot?

Use RAG Chatbot if you are a Next.js developer, AI product builder, applied AI engineer, or founder looking for an open-source AI app starter instead of rebuilding the same AI interface and server route from scratch.

Is RAG Chatbot production-ready?

This starter is production-grade in its AI safety baseline: prompts are hardened against prompt-injection attempts, provider calls stay server-side, unsafe inputs are constrained, and client-facing errors are kept safe. You should still expand it for your use case by adding or adapting authentication, tenant isolation, persistent storage, observability, quotas, billing, and business-specific policy checks before a real launch.