Skip to main content
This is the React InstantSearch v7 documentation. If you’re upgrading from v6, see the upgrade guide. If you were using React InstantSearch Hooks, this v7 documentation applies—just check for necessary changes. To continue using v6, you can find the archived documentation.
When the agent searches your index, the <Chat> widget renders the results in a built-in carousel. You can customize it at three levels, from the least to the most involved:
  1. Restyle the default carousel with CSS.
  2. Change the markup of each result card with the itemComponent prop.
  3. Replace the entire carousel layout by overriding the search tool.
If the default structure works and you only want a different look, target the carousel’s CSS classes. The search-results carousel uses classes prefixed with ais-ChatToolSearchIndexCarousel (for example, ais-ChatToolSearchIndexCarouselHeader). See the styling guide for the full approach.

​
Customize each result card

Use the itemComponent prop to change what each card in the carousel looks like. The same component is used by both the search-results and recommendations carousels. It receives a single record:
React
import { liteClient as algoliasearch } from "algoliasearch/lite";
import { Chat, InstantSearch } from "react-instantsearch";

const searchClient = algoliasearch(
  "ALGOLIA_APPLICATION_ID",
  "ALGOLIA_SEARCH_ONLY_API_KEY"
);

function ProductCard({ item }) {
  return (
    <article className="product-card">
      <img src={item.image} alt={item.name} />
      <h3>{item.name}</h3>
      <span className="product-card-price">${item.price}</span>
    </article>
  );
}

function App() {
  return (
    <InstantSearch searchClient={searchClient}>
      <Chat agentId="YOUR_AGENT_ID" itemComponent={ProductCard} />
    </InstantSearch>
  );
}
For most stores, this is enough: you swap in your own product-card markup and the carousel behavior (header, scroll buttons, “View all”) stays as-is. To change more than the cards—such as the header, the scroll controls, or the wrapper—override the tool that renders the carousel. Import the tool type and use it as a key in the tools prop:
  • SearchIndexToolType renders the search-results carousel.
  • RecommendToolType renders the recommendations carousel.
Both are exported from react-instantsearch. Whatever you pass under a tool key fully replaces the built-in rendering for that tool.
React
import { Chat, SearchIndexToolType } from "react-instantsearch";

function ResultsCarousel({ message, sendEvent }) {
  const items = message.output?.hits || [];

  if (items.length === 0) {
    return <p>No results found.</p>;
  }

  return (
    <div className="MyCarousel">
      <div className="MyCarousel-header">
        {items.length} of {message.output?.nbHits} results
      </div>
      <div className="MyCarousel-track">
        {items.map((item) => (
          <article
            className="MyCarousel-item"
            key={item.objectID}
            onClick={() => sendEvent("click", item, "Product clicked from chat")}
          >
            <img src={item.image} alt={item.name} />
            <h3>{item.name}</h3>
            <span>${item.price}</span>
          </article>
        ))}
      </div>
    </div>
  );
}

function App() {
  return (
    <Chat
      agentId="YOUR_AGENT_ID"
      tools={{
        [SearchIndexToolType]: {
          layoutComponent: ResultsCarousel,
        },
      }}
    />
  );
}
The layoutComponent receives:
  • message. The tool call message. The result is on message.output (hits, nbHits, queryID); the agent’s parameters are on message.input.
  • sendEvent. Sends click or conversion events for the result, using the insights middleware.
  • applyFilters and onClose. Apply filters to the InstantSearch UI state, or dismiss the tool’s UI.
Overriding a tool changes only how the result is displayed in the chat. The tool itself—its name, when the agent calls it, and its parameters—is configured on the agent in the Agent Studio dashboard.
Last modified on June 18, 2026