diff --git a/concierge_shiny/prompter.py b/concierge_shiny/prompter.py
index 79869aa..63d198a 100644
--- a/concierge_shiny/prompter.py
+++ b/concierge_shiny/prompter.py
@@ -116,7 +116,9 @@ def chat_area():
         selected_task = task_list[0] if "question" not in tasks else "question"
         return ui.TagList(
             ui.chat_ui(
-                id="prompter_chat", placeholder=tasks[selected_task]["greeting"]
+                id="prompter_chat",
+                placeholder=tasks[selected_task]["greeting"],
+                messages=chat.messages(),
             ),
             collection_selector_ui("collection_selector"),
             ui.layout_columns(
diff --git a/demo_projects/chat_message_wipe/app.py b/demo_projects/chat_message_wipe/app.py
index b85a240..d4c0eaf 100644
--- a/demo_projects/chat_message_wipe/app.py
+++ b/demo_projects/chat_message_wipe/app.py
@@ -18,7 +18,8 @@ async def on_chat_submit():
     @render.ui
     def chat_area():
         if show_chat.get():
-            return ui.chat_ui("test_chat")
+            # recent versions allow us to set the messages in the UI element, this fixes the issue!
+            return ui.chat_ui("test_chat", messages=chat.messages())
         else:
             return ui.markdown("Chat hidden")
 
@@ -27,10 +28,5 @@ def chat_area():
     def toggle_chat():
         show_chat.set(not show_chat.get())
 
-    @reactive.effect
-    @reactive.event(chat.messages)
-    def on_message():
-        print(chat.messages())
-
 
 app = App(app_ui, server)
diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
index 7f203f9..55d8e35 100644
--- a/requirements.txt
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@ python-dotenv~=1.0.1
 requests_oauth2client~=1.5.3
 requests-oauthlib~=2.0.0
 sentence-transformers~=3.0.1
+shiny~=1.2.1
 shinyswatch~=0.7.0
 isi-util
 concierge-util