98 lines
5.7 KiB
Markdown
98 lines
5.7 KiB
Markdown
---
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layout: default
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title: "Development Playbook"
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---
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# LLM Application Development Playbook
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> If you are an AI assistant involved in building LLM Apps, read this guide **VERY, VERY** carefully! This is the most important chapter in the entire document. Throughout development, you should always (1) start with a small and simple solution, (2) design at a high level (`docs/design.md`) before implementation, and (3) frequently ask humans for feedback and clarification.
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{: .warning }
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## System Design Steps
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These system designs should be a collaboration between humans and AI assistants:
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| Stage | Human | AI | Comment |
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|:-----------------------|:----------:|:---------:|:------------------------------------------------------------------------|
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| 1. Project Requirements | ★★★ High | ★☆☆ Low | Humans understand the requirements and context best. |
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| 2. Utility Functions | ★★☆ Medium | ★★☆ Medium | The human is familiar with external APIs and integrations, and the AI assists with implementation. |
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| 3. Flow Design | ★★☆ Medium | ★★☆ Medium | The human identifies complex and ambiguous parts, and the AI helps with redesign. |
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| 4. Data Schema | ★☆☆ Low | ★★★ High | The AI assists in designing the data schema based on the flow. |
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| 5. Implementation | ★☆☆ Low | ★★★ High | The human identifies complex and ambiguous parts, and the AI helps with redesign. |
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| 6. Optimization | ★★☆ Medium | ★★☆ Medium | The human reviews the code and evaluates the results, while the AI helps optimize. |
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| 7. Reliability | ★☆☆ Low | ★★★ High | The AI helps write test cases and address corner cases. |
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1. **Project Requirements**: Clearify the requirements for your project.
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2. **Utility Functions**: AI system is the decision-maker and relies on *external utility functions* to:
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<div align="center"><img src="https://github.com/the-pocket/PocketFlow/raw/main/assets/utility.png?raw=true" width="400"/></div>
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- Read inputs (e.g., retrieving Slack messages, reading emails)
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- Write outputs (e.g., generating reports, sending emails)
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- Use external tools (e.g., calling LLMs, searching the web)
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- In contrast, *LLM-based tasks* (e.g., summarizing text, analyzing sentiment) are **NOT** utility functions. Instead, they are *internal core functions* within the AI system—designed in step 3—and are built on top of the utility functions.
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- > **Start small!** Only include the most important ones to begin with!
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{: .best-practice }
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3. **Flow Design (Compute)**: Create a high-level design for the application’s flow.
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- Identify potential design patterns, such as Batch, Agent, or RAG.
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- For each node, specify:
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- **Purpose**: The high-level compute logic
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- `exec`: The specific utility function to call (ideally, one function per node)
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- > **If a human can’t solve it, an LLM can’t automate it!** Before building an LLM system, thoroughly understand the problem by manually solving example inputs to develop intuition.
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{: .best-practice }
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4. **Data Schema (Data)**: Plan how data will be stored and updated.
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- For simple apps, use an in-memory dictionary.
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- For more complex apps or when persistence is required, use a database.
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- For each node, specify:
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- `prep`: How the node reads data
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- `post`: How the node writes data
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5. **Implementation**: Implement nodes and flows based on the design.
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- Start with a simple, direct approach (avoid over-engineering and full-scale type checking or testing). Let it fail fast to identify weaknesses.
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- Add logging throughout the code to facilitate debugging.
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6. **Optimization**:
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- **Use Intuition**: For a quick initial evaluation, human intuition is often a good start.
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- **Redesign Flow (Back to Step 3)**: Consider breaking down tasks further, introducing agentic decisions, or better managing input contexts.
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- If your flow design is already solid, move on to micro-optimizations:
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- **Prompt Engineering**: Use clear, specific instructions with examples to reduce ambiguity.
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- **In-Context Learning**: Provide robust examples for tasks that are difficult to specify with instructions alone.
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- > **You’ll likely iterate a lot!** Expect to repeat Steps 3–6 hundreds of times.
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>
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> <div align="center"><img src="https://github.com/the-pocket/PocketFlow/raw/main/assets/success.png?raw=true" width="400"/></div>
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{: .best-practice }
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7. **Reliability**
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- **Node Retries**: Add checks in the node `exec` to ensure outputs meet requirements, and consider increasing `max_retries` and `wait` times.
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- **Logging and Visualization**: Maintain logs of all attempts and visualize node results for easier debugging.
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- **Self-Evaluation**: Add a separate node (powered by an LLM) to review outputs when results are uncertain.
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## Example LLM Project File Structure
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```
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my_project/
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├── main.py
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├── flow.py
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├── utils/
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│ ├── __init__.py
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│ ├── call_llm.py
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│ └── search_web.py
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├── requirements.txt
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└── docs/
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└── design.md
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```
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- **`docs/design.md`**: Contains project documentation for each step above. This should be high-level and no-code.
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- **`utils/`**: Contains all utility functions.
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- It’s recommended to dedicate one Python file to each API call, for example `call_llm.py` or `search_web.py`.
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- Each file should also include a `main()` function to try that API call
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- **`flow.py`**: Implements the application’s flow, starting with node definitions followed by the overall structure.
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- **`main.py`**: Serves as the project’s entry point. |