Introduction: AI agents represent the next evolution beyond simple chatbots—they can reason about problems, break them into steps, use external tools, and iterate until they achieve a goal. Unlike traditional LLM applications that respond to a single prompt, agents maintain state, make decisions, and take actions in the real world. The key innovation is tool […]
Read more →Category: Technology Engineering
Technology Engineering
Token Management for LLM Applications: Counting, Budgeting, and Cost Control
Introduction: Token management is critical for LLM applications—tokens directly impact cost, latency, and whether your prompt fits within context limits. Understanding how to count tokens accurately, truncate context intelligently, and allocate token budgets across different parts of your prompt separates amateur implementations from production-ready systems. This guide covers practical token management: counting with tiktoken, smart […]
Read more →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 […]
Read more →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 […]
Read more →Context Window Management: Token Budgets, Prioritization, and Compression
Introduction: Context windows define how much information an LLM can process at once—from 4K tokens in older models to 128K+ in modern ones. Effective context management means fitting the most relevant information within these limits while leaving room for generation. This guide covers practical context window strategies: token counting and budget allocation, content prioritization, compression […]
Read more →Memory Systems for LLMs: Buffers, Summaries, and Vector Storage
Introduction: LLMs have no inherent memory—each request starts fresh. Building effective memory systems enables conversations that span sessions, personalization based on user history, and agents that learn from past interactions. Memory architectures range from simple conversation buffers to sophisticated vector-based long-term storage with semantic retrieval. This guide covers practical memory patterns: conversation buffers, sliding windows, […]
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