Build and integrate Stream Chat, Video, and Feeds in Android apps. Use for Jetpack Compose, Android Studio, and Gradle project work — including Stream package setup, auth and token wiring, screen blueprints, and any follow-up Stream UI work such as adding screens, navigating between channel list and channel/message screens, channel tap handling, deep links, push routing, theming, custom channel/message UI, video calling flows (joining/starting calls, ringing, custom call controls and participant tiles), and Feeds surfaces (timeline, activity composer, threaded comments, follow graph / profile, notification feed, stories).
Build and integrate Stream Chat, Video, and Feeds in Android apps. Use for Jetpack Compose, Android Studio, and Gradle project work — including Stream package setup, auth and token wiring, screen blueprints, and any follow-up Stream UI work such as adding screens, navigating between channel list and channel/message screens, channel tap handling, deep links, push routing, theming, custom channel/message UI, video calling flows (joining/starting calls, ringing, custom call controls and participant tiles), and Feeds surfaces (timeline, activity composer, threaded comments, follow graph / profile, notification feed, stories).
license
See LICENSE in repository root
compatibility
Requires an Android Studio / Gradle project (Kotlin). The `getstream` CLI (binary name `getstream`) is the default path for the credentials flow (API key fetch, token mint, and any product-specific setup - see `credentials.md`); only optional when the user pastes the API key and token themselves.
"Migrate from Sendbird", "replace the Sendbird Chat SDK with Stream", "we're switching off Sendbird / SendbirdUIKit / uikit-compose"
B + the migration flag below ->
sendbird-migration.md
Bare /stream-android with no args
List the tracks briefly and wait
Disambiguation flow
If the request is ambiguous between build/integrate and reference lookup, ask one short question and wait:
Do you want me to wire this into the project, or just map the Android SDK pattern and files?
After classification
Tracks A, B, D -> run Step 0.5 (credentials) first, then Project signals once per session, then continue in builder.md and sdk.md. Do not probe the project before credentials.
Track C -> skip both steps if the product + UI layer are explicit. Only run Project signals on demand if the SDK or UI layer is ambiguous.
Migration flag (orthogonal to the track)
If the user is migrating an existing app off Sendbird, run sendbird-migration.md — a repeatable Sendbird → Stream Chat procedure that sits on top of Track B. It detects the integration shape (Sendbird uikit-compose / XML uikit / custom UI on the low-level sendbird-chat SDK / spaghetti; MVVM/MVI; single- vs multi-activity; Compose-Nav vs fragments+Jetpack-Nav) and picks one of three paths: UIKit → Stream Compose bundled screens; custom-UI → keep the app's UI, swap only the SDK/state layer (surgical); XML UIKit → Stream Compose hosted in the existing fragments (cross-framework). It preserves the app's architecture and navigation, changing only SDK touchpoints. The load-bearing part is the gap-handling protocol (§3.5): for every screen the Sendbird source exposed that a naive swap would drop (creation, settings, members, invitation), either wire the bundled Stream equivalent (GroupChannelInfoScreen/DirectChannelInfoScreen) or — for screens Stream doesn't bundle (channel creation) — tell the user it isn't out-of-the-box, link the public cookbook (getstream.io/chat/docs/sdk/android/compose-cookbook/<slug>/), and offer to build it from that cookbook. Never silently drop a screen and never invent one. It reuses Step 0.5's credential flow (credentials.md) and the region rigor of design-matching.md for per-screen fidelity, and — once the code migration builds, connects, and matches the source — offers the data migration (the shared, language-agnostic runbook).
Styling-depth flag (orthogonal to the track)
If the request carries a target appearance - an attached screenshot, a Figma frame, or "make the chat look like WhatsApp / Telegram / Slack / <app>" - run design-matching.mdbefore writing UI code. It sits on top of the Track A/B work (it is how you build the requested UI), not instead of it. A reference is a checklist of regions (header, composer, where the timestamp + read receipts sit, bubble shape/tail, channel-list rows, date separators, attachments...), and most differ from Stream's Compose defaults structurally, not just by color - setting the accent + wallpaper and stopping is the known failure. Classify each screenshot to its screen (channel list vs message vs thread - Step 0), decompose every region capturing dimensions not just colors, then route each difference to one of the two axes: a theming token (StreamDesign.Colors/Typography) or a ChatComponentFactory slot (structure - padding / corner-radius / bubble-shape / composer layout live here; Android has no Styles axis, so those are structure, not theming). Recurring traps the doc guards against: overriding a composite slot (MessageContainer, the header, MessageComposer) silently drops the sub-features the default drew (incoming avatar, grouping, reactions, replies, status, send/voice) unless you reproduce them; the message-header trailing slot defaults to a channel avatar (override it for action icons); the composer differs by row count / field shape / alignment far more than by icon set; DMs must not be prefixed with # in the list or titled "Channel" in the header. The match is not done until you build, seed data that triggers every region, compare region-by-region on the real navigation path, and iterate - implement every region, the composer included; a region left at the SDK default is a FAIL, not a footnote.
Step 0.5: Credentials, token, and seed data (tracks A, B, D only)
Order: intent classification -> Step 0.5 (this step) -> Project signals probe -> track work. Do this before running the Project signals shell command, even if a track table below lists "Detect" as phase 1. Run once per session for tracks A, B, and D. Skip for Track C.
collect the Stream API key from the dashboard (or from the user)
generate a user token via the Stream CLI (or accept one from the user)
run any product-specific setup (Chat: optionally seed channels; Feeds: confirm feed groups; Video: nothing — calls are ephemeral)
Wire the API key from getstream env's output (e.g. BuildConfig.STREAM_API_KEY) and use the real user token in code snippets - never placeholder strings. If a track A/B/D task reaches code work and credentials haven't been collected yet, return to credentials.md before continuing.
Project signals (tracks A/B/D - once per session; Track C on demand only)
Read-only local probe. Use it to detect whether the user is in an Android Studio / Gradle project, a Kotlin module, or an empty directory.
Shared Android/Kotlin patterns live in sdk.md. The curated procedure for reproducing a
reference design with the pre-built Compose components (the region -> ChatComponentFactory-slot map
and the build/verify loop) lives in design-matching.md - loaded via the
styling-depth flag above, on top of whichever track applies.
Product and UI-layer specifics live under references/ using a flat naming scheme that can grow with the full Stream Android surface:
Feeds has no pre-built UI components.FEEDS-COMPOSE.md covers the headless data SDK (FeedsClient, FeedState, ActivityState); FEEDS-COMPOSE-blueprints.md is custom Composable scaffolding driven by those state flows. Load both for any Feeds request.
Future Android product coverage should stay in this naming family instead of creating more top-level skills.
If the requested product/UI layer file is not bundled yet, say so plainly, use sdk.md for the shared Android patterns, and only switch to live docs if the user asks.
Track A - New app
Full detail:builder.md - use the new-project path.
Phase
Name
What you do
A1
Detect
After Step 0.5 (credentials), run Project signals. If there is no Android app yet, tell the user to create one in Android Studio first.
A2
Choose lane
Confirm product(s) and UI layer: Compose, XML/Views, or mixed.
A3
Install + wire
Follow builder.md + sdk.md, then load only the needed product references.
A4
Verify
Confirm Gradle sync, ChatClient lifetime, auth, and first rendered screen.
Track B - Existing app
Full detail:builder.md - use the existing-project path.
Phase
Name
What you do
B1
Detect
After Step 0.5 (credentials), run Project signals and inspect the existing app structure before editing.
B2
Preserve
Keep the current UI layer, dependency strategy (version catalog vs inline), and navigation setup unless the user asks for a migration.
B3
Integrate
Use sdk.md for shared wiring, then load only the needed product reference files.
B4
Verify
Confirm the requested Stream flow builds and renders inside the existing app.
Track C - Reference lookup
Load only the relevant files for the requested product and UI layer.
Shared lifecycle / auth / state patterns -> sdk.md
