diff --git a/agents/src/llm/chat_context.ts b/agents/src/llm/chat_context.ts
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..9b58ced1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/agents/src/llm/chat_context.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,105 @@
+// SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2024 LiveKit, Inc.
+//
+// SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0
+import type { AudioFrame } from '@livekit/rtc-node';
+
+export enum ChatRole {
+  SYSTEM,
+  USER,
+  ASSISTANT,
+  TOOL,
+}
+
+export interface ChatImage {
+  image: string | AudioFrame;
+  inferenceWidth?: number;
+  inferenceHeight?: number;
+  /** Used by LLM implementations to store a processed version of the image for later use. */
+  cache: { [id: string | number | symbol]: any };
+}
+
+export interface ChatAudio {
+  frame: AudioFrame | AudioFrame[];
+}
+
+export type ChatContent = string | ChatImage | ChatAudio;
+
+export class ChatMessage {
+  readonly role: ChatRole;
+  readonly id?: string;
+  readonly name?: string;
+  readonly content?: ChatContent | ChatContent[];
+  readonly toolCallId?: string;
+  readonly toolException?: Error;
+
+  /** @internal */
+  constructor({
+    role,
+    id,
+    name,
+    content,
+    toolCallId,
+    toolException,
+  }: {
+    role: ChatRole;
+    id?: string;
+    name?: string;
+    content?: ChatContent | ChatContent[];
+    toolCallId?: string;
+    toolException?: Error;
+  }) {
+    this.role = role;
+    this.id = id;
+    this.name = name;
+    this.content = content;
+    this.toolCallId = toolCallId;
+    this.toolException = toolException;
+  }
+
+  // TODO(nbsp): tool call functions.
+  // the system defined in function_context.ts is fundamentally different (and much, much simpler)
+  // than the one in Python Agents.
+  // pair with theo to figure out what to do here (and later in MultimodalAgent/RealtimeModel)
+
+  static create({
+    text = '',
+    images = [],
+    role = ChatRole.SYSTEM,
+  }: {
+    text?: string;
+    images: ChatImage[];
+    role: ChatRole;
+  }): ChatMessage {
+    if (!images.length) {
+      return new ChatMessage({
+        role: ChatRole.ASSISTANT,
+        content: text,
+      });
+    } else {
+      return new ChatMessage({
+        role,
+        content: [...(text ? [text] : []), ...images],
+      });
+    }
+  }
+
+  /** Returns a structured clone of this message. */
+  copy(): ChatMessage {
+    return structuredClone(this);
+  }
+}
+
+export class ChatContext {
+  messages: ChatMessage[] = [];
+  metadata: { [id: string]: any } = {};
+
+  append(msg: { text?: string; images: ChatImage[]; role: ChatRole }): ChatContext {
+    this.messages.push(ChatMessage.create(msg));
+    return this;
+  }
+
+  /** Returns a structured clone of this context. */
+  copy(): ChatContext {
+    return structuredClone(this);
+  }
+}