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IChatClient Feature Matrix

The IChatClient interface provides a unified API for chat completions across all supported providers.

Feature comparison

Feature Anthropic Ollama OpenAI Gemini Mistral Cohere Together AI21 Reka HuggingFace
Text Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y
Streaming Y Y Y Y Y ~1 Y Y Y Y
Tool calling Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y2 Y
Images Y Y Y Y Y - - - Y -
PDFs Y - - - - - - - Y -
Audio/Video - - - - - - - - Y -
Thinking Y Y - Y - - - - - -
Structured output - - Y - - - - - Y -
Reasoning - - - - - - Y Y - -

Universal code example

The power of MEAI is that this code works identically across all providers:

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using Microsoft.Extensions.AI;

IChatClient client = /* any provider */;

// Simple text completion
var response = await client.GetResponseAsync("Explain quantum computing briefly.");
Console.WriteLine(response);

// Streaming
await foreach (var update in client.GetStreamingResponseAsync("Tell me a story."))
{
    Console.Write(update.Text);
}

Provider-specific initialization

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IChatClient client = new AnthropicClient(apiKey)
    .AsChatClient("claude-sonnet-4-20250514");

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// Note: namespace conflict — use Meai alias if needed
IChatClient client = new OpenAiClient(apiKey)
    .AsChatClient("gpt-4o");

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IChatClient client = new OllamaApiClient()
    .AsChatClient("llama3.2");

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IChatClient client = new GoogleGeminiClient(apiKey)
    .AsChatClient("gemini-2.0-flash");

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// Note: namespace conflict — use Meai alias
using Meai = Microsoft.Extensions.AI;
Meai.IChatClient client = new MistralClient(apiKey)
    .AsChatClient("mistral-large-latest");

Tool calling

All IChatClient implementations support function/tool calling via MEAI's AIFunction abstraction:

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using Microsoft.Extensions.AI;

// Define tools using CSharpToJsonSchema
[GenerateJsonSchema]
public interface IMyTools
{
    [Description("Gets the current weather for a location")]
    string GetWeather(string city);
}

// Use with any IChatClient
var tools = new MyToolsService().AsTools();
var options = new ChatOptions { Tools = tools };

var response = await client.GetResponseAsync(
    "What's the weather in Tokyo?",
    options);

Per-SDK documentation

Each SDK has a detailed MEAI guide with provider-specific examples:

SDK Documentation
Anthropic tryagi.github.io/Anthropic/guides/meai/
Ollama tryagi.github.io/Ollama/guides/meai/
OpenAI tryagi.github.io/OpenAI/guides/meai/
Google.Gemini tryagi.github.io/Google_Generative_AI/guides/meai/
Mistral tryagi.github.io/Mistral/guides/meai/
Cohere tryagi.github.io/Cohere/guides/meai/
Together tryagi.github.io/Together/guides/meai/
AI21 tryagi.github.io/AI21/guides/meai/
Reka tryagi.github.io/Reka/guides/meai/
HuggingFace tryagi.github.io/HuggingFace/guides/meai/

  1. Cohere uses simulated streaming (not true SSE). ↩

  2. Reka sends tool results as user text due to API limitations. ↩