sendbird: audit vs current vendor docs (2026-04-16) — vendor discontinued

[productdevbook]

Summary

The underlying "Sendbird AI Chatbot Widget" product our wrapper targets has been discontinued by Sendbird (GitHub repo sendbird/chat-ai-widget archived 2025-07-09, last version 1.9.7; AI Chatbot docs removed from sendbird.com with the notice "The AI chatbot product has been discontinued and is no longer supported") — we should (a) mark ahize/sendbird as legacy/EOL, (b) backfill the richer prop surface that did ship in 1.9.7, and (c) add a sibling ahize/sendbird-desk provider for actual support semantics.

Gaps found

Missing API surface

• userNickName prop (display name distinct from userId) — https://github.com/sendbird/chat-ai-widget/blob/develop/README.md
• configureSession prop (session handler factory; documented as the intended pairing with userId + sessionToken) — https://github.com/sendbird/chat-ai-widget/blob/develop/README.md
• autoOpen prop — https://github.com/sendbird/chat-ai-widget/blob/develop/README.md
• enableResetHistoryOnConnect prop — https://github.com/sendbird/chat-ai-widget/blob/develop/README.md
• enableEmojiFeedback prop — https://github.com/sendbird/chat-ai-widget/blob/develop/README.md
• enableMention prop — https://github.com/sendbird/chat-ai-widget/blob/develop/README.md
• enableHideWidgetForDeactivatedUser prop — https://github.com/sendbird/chat-ai-widget/blob/develop/README.md
• enableWidgetExpandButton prop — https://github.com/sendbird/chat-ai-widget/blob/develop/README.md
• messageStackDirection prop ('top' | 'bottom') — https://github.com/sendbird/chat-ai-widget/blob/develop/README.md
• messageInputControls.blockWhileBotResponding prop — https://github.com/sendbird/chat-ai-widget/blob/develop/README.md
• deviceType prop ('desktop' | 'mobile') — https://github.com/sendbird/chat-ai-widget/blob/develop/README.md
• dateLocale prop (date-fns Locale) — https://github.com/sendbird/chat-ai-widget/blob/develop/README.md
• stringSet prop (i18n / placeholder overrides) — https://github.com/sendbird/chat-ai-widget/blob/develop/README.md
• customRefreshComponent prop — https://github.com/sendbird/chat-ai-widget/blob/develop/README.md

Config options not exposed

• None of the above currently flow through SendbirdLoadOptions; wrapper only accepts {applicationId, botId, userId, sessionToken, onTrack} — we should widen the type even while marking the provider legacy — https://github.com/sendbird/chat-ai-widget/blob/develop/README.md

Auth modes

• configureSession (SessionHandler factory) is the Sendbird-recommended mechanism for rotating/refreshing tokens; our current wrapper only accepts a static sessionToken and triggers a full destroy+load on every identity change, which breaks token refresh semantics — https://github.com/sendbird/chat-ai-widget/blob/develop/README.md

Deprecations in our current code

• The entire underlying product (@sendbird/chat-ai-widget, loaded from https://aichatbot.sendbird.com/index.js) is EOL. GitHub repo archived 2025-07-09 at v1.9.7 (2025-02-11); Sendbird's public docs state "The AI chatbot product has been discontinued and is no longer supported." Recommend: mark ahize/sendbird as @deprecated in JSDoc, add a runtime console.warn on load(), freeze on 1.9.7, and document "AI Agent" (private beta, gated docs) as the non-drop-in successor — https://github.com/sendbird/chat-ai-widget

Sibling product

• Yes — build ahize/sendbird-desk as a separate provider. Sendbird Desk (npm install sendbird-desk, requires Chat SDK 4.9.x+) is the actual "customer support widget" product: ticket-per-conversation, agent inbox via Sendbird Dashboard, Ticket.create(), SendBirdDesk.authenticate(USER_ID, ACCESS_TOKEN) dual-auth paired with sb.connect(). It maps cleanly to our unified surface (track() can map to ticket events, identify() to authenticate(), agent messages are first-class) in a way the chat-widget product never did — https://sendbird.com/docs/desk/sdk/v1/javascript/quickstart/create-first-ticket

Intentionally out of scope

• Low-level Sendbird Chat SDK (@sendbird/chat).
• @sendbird/uikit-react (generic chat UI components, not a support widget).
• Sendbird Calls / Sendbird Live SDKs.
• AI Agent runtime/event API — Sendbird's AI Agent docs are behind a private/gated portal; we cannot audit without vendor access. File a separate issue once access is obtained.
• Runtime imperative methods (open/close/toggle/sendMessage/setUserName/setUserProfileUrl) and lifecycle events (onMessageReceived/onChannelChanged/onUserConnected/onUserDisconnected) — not documented in the archived v1.9.7 README; our existing CSS-level show()/hide() remains the only public escape hatch.
• theme, language, hideLauncher, customLauncherSelector, channelUrl, position — listed as candidates in the audit brief but are NOT present in the v1.9.7 README prop table.

Sources

• https://github.com/sendbird/chat-ai-widget (archived 2025-07-09)
• https://github.com/sendbird/chat-ai-widget/blob/develop/README.md
• https://www.npmjs.com/package/@sendbird/chat-ai-widget
• https://sendbird.com/docs/ai-agent/guide/v1/overview
• https://sendbird.com/docs/desk/sdk/v1/javascript/quickstart/create-first-ticket
• https://sendbird.com/docs/desk/sdk/v1/javascript/features/authentication

[productdevbook]

Shipped a @deprecated JSDoc header + one-shot console.warn on load() in 837ec44 — keeps the wrapper functional while flagging product discontinuation to callers. Sibling ahize/sendbird-desk proposal + remaining gaps stay open.