LLM Output Parsing: From Raw Text to Typed Objects

Introduction: LLMs generate text, but applications need structured data. Parsing LLM output reliably is surprisingly tricky—models don’t always follow instructions, JSON can be malformed, and edge cases abound. This guide covers robust output parsing strategies: using JSON mode for guaranteed valid JSON, Pydantic for type-safe parsing, handling partial and streaming outputs, implementing retry logic for […]

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Document Processing with LLMs: From PDFs to Structured Data

Introduction: Documents are everywhere—PDFs, Word files, scanned images, spreadsheets. Extracting structured information from unstructured documents is one of the most valuable LLM applications. This guide covers building document processing pipelines: extracting text from various formats, chunking strategies for long documents, processing with LLMs for extraction and summarization, and handling edge cases like tables, images, and […]

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Building LLM-Powered CLI Tools: From Terminal to AI Assistant

Introduction: Command-line tools are the developer’s natural habitat. Adding LLM capabilities to CLI tools creates powerful utilities for code generation, documentation, data transformation, and automation. Unlike web apps, CLI tools are fast to build, easy to integrate into existing workflows, and perfect for power users who live in the terminal. This guide covers building production-quality […]

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Multi-Modal AI: Building Applications with Vision, Audio, and Text

Introduction: Multi-modal AI combines text, images, audio, and video understanding in a single model. GPT-4V, Claude 3, and Gemini can analyze images, extract text from screenshots, understand charts, and reason about visual content. This guide covers building multi-modal applications: image analysis and description, document understanding with vision, combining OCR with LLM reasoning, audio transcription and […]

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Data Storytelling: How to Communicate Insights Effectively

The Presentation That Changed Everything Early in my career, I spent three weeks building what I thought was a brilliant analytics dashboard. It had every metric imaginable, interactive filters, drill-down capabilities, and real-time data feeds. When I presented it to the executive team, I watched their eyes glaze over within the first five minutes. The […]

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Function Calling Patterns: Tool Schemas, Execution Pipelines, and Agent Loops

Introduction: Function calling transforms LLMs from text generators into capable agents that can interact with external systems. By defining tools with clear schemas, models can decide when to call functions, extract parameters from natural language, and incorporate results into responses. This guide covers practical function calling patterns: defining tool schemas, handling multiple tool calls, implementing […]

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