In the previous parts of the course we covered techniques such as prompting, RAG, and fine-tuning, this section will adopt a practical, hands-on approach to showcase how LLMs can be employed in application development. We'll start with basic examples and progressively incorporate more advanced functionalities like chaining, memory management, and tool integration. Additionally, we'll explore implementations of RAG and fine-tuning. Finally, by integrating these concepts, we'll learn how to construct LLM agents effectively.
As LLMs have become increasingly prevalent, there are now multiple ways to utilize them. We'll start with basic examples and gradually introduce more advanced features, allowing you to build upon your understanding step by step.
This guide is designed to cover the basics, aiming to familiarize you with the foundational elements through simple applications. These examples serve as starting points and are not intended for production environments. For insights into deploying applications at scale, including discussions on LLM tools, evaluation, and more, refer to our content from previous weeks. As we progress through each section, we'll gradually move from basic to more advanced components.
In every section, we'll not only describe the component but also provide resources where you can find code samples to help you develop your own implementations. There are several frameworks available for developing your application, with some of the most well-known being LangChain, LlamaIndex, Hugging Face, and Amazon Bedrock, among others. Our goal is to supply resources from a broad array of these frameworks, enabling you to select the one that best fits the needs of your specific application.
As you explore each section, select a few resources to help build the app with the component and proceed further.
Prompt: A prompt, in this context, is essentially a carefully constructed request or instruction that guides the model in generating a response. It's the initial input given to the LLM that outlines the task you want it to perform or the question you need answered. In the second week's content, we delved extensively into prompt engineering, please head back to older content to learn more.
The foundational aspect of LLM application development is the interaction between a user-defined prompt and the LLM itself. This process involves crafting a prompt that clearly communicates the user's request or question, which is then processed by the LLM to generate a response. For example:
# Define the prompt template with placeholders
prompt_template = "Provide expert advice on the following topic: {topic}."
# Fill in the template with the actual topic
prompt = prompt_template.replace("{topic}", topic)
# API call to an LLM
llm_response = call_llm_api(topic)
Observe that the prompt functions as a template rather than a fixed string, improving its reusability and flexibility for modifications at run-time. The complexity of the prompt can vary; it can be crafted with simplicity or detailed intricacy depending on the requirement.