cometchat-android-v6-core

Ground truth: com.cometchat:chatuikit-{kotlin,compose}-android@6 + catalog android-v6.json (287 public symbols, generated from the INSTALLED 6.0.5 source) + features.android-v6.json. Official docs: https://www.cometchat.com/docs/ui-kit/android/overview · scoped index …/ui-kit/android/llms-android-v6.md. Verify every symbol against the catalog; fetch signatures from docs (references/docs-map.md); never trust memory.

⚠️ ONE kit, TWO cohorts. chatuikit-kotlin-android (XML Views) and chatuikit-compose-android (Jetpack Compose) are different artifacts with different namespaces. Component NAMES are shared, the wiring is not — Views uses setOnX(...) setters, Compose uses onX = params. Never install both. v5 Java snippets do not compile against v6 (com.cometchat.chatuikit.* → com.cometchat.uikit.*); that migration is cometchat-android-v6-migration.

⚠️ Some docs snippets are ahead of / behind the shipped kit. Where a baked signature here differs from a docs page, the baked one was verified against the installed 6.0.5 source (gap logged internally). Compile before you trust a docs fence.

Use this skill when

"add chat to my Android app", "set up CometChat credentials", "integrate CometChat in Kotlin/Compose", "show a conversations + messages screen", "build a chat app". An unscoped "add chat" means the production-ready core chat surface below — not a bare list, and not the whole tab-based app (that grows via cometchat-android-v6-{kotlin,compose}-placement).

Prerequisites & install

Pick ONE cohort — the app's existing UI stack decides:

// settings.gradle.kts → dependencyResolutionManagement.repositories
maven("https://dl.cloudsmith.io/public/cometchat/cometchat/maven/")

// app/build.gradle.kts — repo/exclude/compileOptions are COHORT-NEUTRAL (the duplicate-class
// collision comes via chatuikit-core-android, which BOTH cohorts pull); only the artifact differs
configurations.all {
    // REQUIRED — without it the first build fails at dexing with ~40
    // "Duplicate class org.jetbrains.annotations.*" errors (docs getting-started-{kotlin,jetpack}).
    exclude(group = "org.jetbrains", module = "annotations-java5")
}

// gradle.properties — REQUIRED, both lines (why: dexing dup-class; references/troubleshooting.md):
//   android.useAndroidX=true   android.enableJetifier=true

dependencies {
    implementation("com.cometchat:chatuikit-kotlin-android:6.0.5")
    // implementation("com.cometchat:calls-sdk-android:5.0.4")   // only for voice/video
}
android {
    buildFeatures { viewBinding = true }
    compileOptions { sourceCompatibility = JavaVersion.VERSION_11; targetCompatibility = JavaVersion.VERSION_11 }
}
// JVM 11 (Kotlin 2.2+ rejects kotlinOptions{}). Fully-qualified: a mid-file .kts import won't compile.
kotlin { compilerOptions { jvmTarget.set(org.jetbrains.kotlin.gradle.dsl.JvmTarget.JVM_11) } }

Theme kit views under a CometChatTheme.DayNight-derived theme — REQUIRED (Views), not cosmetic. Kit views resolve ?attr/cometchat* at inflate time; outside such a theme the FIRST kit view crashes (IllegalArgumentException/InflateException on ?attr/cometchatPrimaryColor — verified on device). Greenfield → re-parent app-wide: <style name="AppTheme" parent="CometChatTheme.DayNight" /> + <application android:theme="@style/AppTheme">. Brownfield (app HAS its own theme) → do NOT re-parent (CometChatTheme.DayNight parents MaterialComponents, so Material3-only host attrs stop resolving — you'd break their screens); scope a derived style to the chat Activities (manifest android:theme) + ContextThemeWrapper for fragment/tab-embedded views — recipe: kotlin-placement Placement 2.