Generative UI
AG-UI and Generative UI Specs
Several recently released specs have enabled agents to return generative UI, increasing the power and flexibility of the Agent<->User conversation.
A2UI, MCP-UI, and Open-JSON-UI are all generative UI specifications. Generative UIs allow agents to respond to users not only with text but also with dynamic UI components.
| Specification | Origin / Maintainer | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| A2UI | A declarative, LLM-friendly Generative UI spec. JSONL-based and streaming, designed for platform-agnostic rendering. | |
| Open-JSON-UI | OpenAI | An open standardization of OpenAI's internal declarative Generative UI schema. |
| MCP-UI | Microsoft + Shopify | A fully open, iframe-based Generative UI standard extending MCP for user-facing experiences. |
Despite the naming similarities, AG-UI is not a generative UI specification — it's a User Interaction protocol that provides the bi-directional runtime connection between the agent and the application.
AG-UI natively supports all of the above generative UI specs and allows developers to define their own custom generative UI standards as well.