Building an LLM Application: Go with the flow

There are many UIs that enable building LLM flows for applications

Mark Craddock
Prompt Engineering
4 min readMay 2, 2023

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In recent months, the development of language models has revolutionised the field of natural language processing. With the ability to process and generate human-like responses, language models have the potential to transform a wide range of applications, from chatbots to content generation. However, building and deploying language model applications can be a complex and challenging task.

Fortunately, there are several powerful tools available that simplify the process of building and deploying language model applications. In this article, we’ll explore four such tools: Flowise, LangFlow, Apache NiFi and Steamship.

Flowise

Flowise is a cloud-based platform that allows developers to build large language model (LLM) applications on their own data. With a simple drag-and-drop interface, developers can create custom language model applications without the need for extensive programming or data science skills. Flowise provides a range of pre-built components, including text loaders, splitters, and language models, that can be combined to create sophisticated language model applications. In addition, Flowise provides a range of customization options, including the ability to train and fine-tune language models on your own data.

LangFlow

LangFlow is a GUI for LangChain, an open-source Python package that enables developers to integrate language models with APIs and functions. LangFlow streamlines the development process and makes it easy to experiment with and design intelligent applications. With LangFlow, developers can create custom language model applications using a drag-and-drop interface and a range of pre-built components. LangFlow also provides a built-in chat interface that allows users to interact with the language model in real-time.

Apache NiFi

Apache NiFi is a popular data flow tool that enables developers to build complex data processing pipelines. With the upcoming release of NiFi 2.0, developers will be able to build processors using native Python, enabling them to leverage the power and flexibility of Python for data processing tasks within the NiFi framework. NiFi processors can be used to read data from various sources, transform it, and write it to different destinations. With the addition of native Python support, developers can import any Python library they need and use it within the processor code to perform complex data processing tasks.

Steamship

Steamship’s LangChain hosting solution is an excellent tool for developers looking to build and deploy custom language model applications quickly and easily. With Steamship, developers can host managed LangChain apps in seconds, with async compute, data storage, embedding search, and custom endpoints built-in.

To get started, developers can install the steamship-langchain Python library and wrap their LangChain app in Flask-style endpoints to deploy a live, multi-user API. Steamship provides a range of pre-built classes and plugins that can be swapped in for select LangChain counterparts to gain cloud logging, key management, and other features.

One of the most significant advantages of using Steamship is the ease with which developers can deploy and share their language model applications. With a single command, developers can publish their API and make it available to other users over the web or HTTP. Steamship also auto-generates endpoints protected by key-based authentication and allows developers to publish demos for certain project types.

Overall, Steamship’s LangChain hosting solution provides a powerful and flexible platform for building and deploying custom language model applications. With its ease of use and powerful features, Steamship is an excellent choice for developers looking to take their language model applications to the next level.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the combination of Flowise, LangFlow, Apache NiFi, and Steamship’s LangChain hosting solution provides a powerful and comprehensive platform for building and deploying custom language model applications.

With Flowise, developers can build large language model applications on their own data using a simple drag-and-drop interface. LangFlow provides a GUI for LangChain, enabling developers to experiment with and design intelligent applications using a range of pre-built components.

Apache NiFi allows developers to build complex data processing pipelines that can be extended with Python processors, providing a powerful tool for data manipulation, analysis, and visualisation.

With Steamship’s LangChain hosting solution, developers can host their language model applications in the cloud with async compute, data storage, embedding search, and custom endpoints built-in. Steamship’s pre-built classes and plugins can be easily swapped in for select LangChain counterparts, providing developers with cloud logging, key management, and other features. Steamship also makes it easy to deploy and share language model applications with others over the web or HTTP, with auto-generated endpoints protected by key-based authentication.

Overall, the combination of these tools provides developers with a powerful and flexible platform for building and deploying sophisticated language model applications. Whether you’re building chatbots, analysing large datasets, or generating content, Flowise, LangFlow, Apache NiFi, and Steamship’s LangChain hosting solution provide the resources and tools you need to take your language model applications to the next level.

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Mark Craddock
Prompt Engineering

Techie. Built VH1, G-Cloud, Unified Patent Court, UN Global Platform. Saved UK Economy £12Bn. Now building AI stuff #datascout #promptengineer #MLOps #DataOps