Category: Technology Engineering

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… Continue reading

Introduction: Conversational AI applications need to track state across turns—remembering what users said, what information has been collected, and where they are in multi-step workflows. Unlike simple Q&A, task-oriented conversations require slot filling, context tracking, and flow control. This guide covers practical state management patterns: conversation context objects, slot-based information extraction, finite state machines for… Continue reading

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… Continue reading

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… Continue reading

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… Continue reading

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… Continue reading

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… Continue reading

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… Continue reading

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,… Continue reading

Introduction: How do you know if your LLM application is actually working? Evaluation is one of the most challenging aspects of building AI systems—unlike traditional software where tests pass or fail, LLM outputs exist on a spectrum of quality. This guide covers the essential metrics, benchmarks, and tools for evaluating LLMs, from automated metrics like… Continue reading