LlamaIndex
In plain wordsA free software toolkit, and the company behind it, for connecting AI language models to an organization's own documents and data so the models can find and use that information.
An open-source framework, in Python and TypeScript, for connecting language-modellarge language model, n.: A computer program trained on enormous amounts of text to predict the words that come next. At vast scale, that simple skill lets it chat, answer questions, translate, summarize and write code. applications to an organization's own documents and databases, and the company that maintains it. Its core covers the stages of retrieval-augmented generationretrieval-augmented generation, n.: Giving an AI an open-book exam: before answering, it looks up relevant passages in a set of documents and bases its reply on them, often citing where each point came from.: connectors and loaders for files, databases and business software (collected in LlamaHub); parsing and chunkingchunking, n.: Cutting long documents into smaller pieces before storing them for AI search, so the system can find and hand the model just the relevant part instead of a whole manual. documents into nodes; building indexes of several kinds, including vectorvector database, n.: A database built to store embeddings — lists of numbers that represent meaning — and to quickly find the stored items most similar to a new one. It is the memory behind many AI search tools., keyword, summary and knowledge-graph indexes; retrievers, rerankersreranking, n.: A second, more careful pass over search results: a fast method grabs a few hundred candidates, then a slower, smarter model reorders them so the best come first. and query engines that synthesize answers with citations; and evaluation modules. Later versions added agents, event-driven workflows for multi-step orchestrationorchestration, n.: Coordinating several AI calls, tools or agents so each does its part in the right order and their results are combined into one finished piece of work, as a conductor directs an orchestra. and multi-agent patterns. The company sells LlamaParse, a parser for complex documents such as PDFs with tables and charts, and LlamaCloud, a managed ingestion and retrieval service. LlamaIndex is often contrasted with LangChainLangChain, prop. n.: A popular free software toolkit, and the company behind it, for building applications that connect AI language models to documents, databases, tools and multi-step workflows. as more focused on data ingestion and retrieval, though their scopes now overlap heavily.
LlamaIndex parsed the contract archive, built the vector index and gave us a query engine in an afternoon.
Origin
Created by Jerry Liu in November 2022 as GPT Index, an open-source experiment in organizing external data so that GPT-3GPT-3, prop. n.: A huge 2020 OpenAI language model that could perform new tasks simply from instructions or a few examples written into its prompt, without retraining. It made prompting a new way of programming. could use it; it was renamed LlamaIndex in early 2023, when Liu and Simon Suo founded a company around it.
Related
- retrieval-augmented generationretrieval-augmented generation, n.: Giving an AI an open-book exam: before answering, it looks up relevant passages in a set of documents and bases its reply on them, often citing where each point came from.
- LangChainLangChain, prop. n.: A popular free software toolkit, and the company behind it, for building applications that connect AI language models to documents, databases, tools and multi-step workflows.
- chunkingchunking, n.: Cutting long documents into smaller pieces before storing them for AI search, so the system can find and hand the model just the relevant part instead of a whole manual.
- vector databasevector database, n.: A database built to store embeddings — lists of numbers that represent meaning — and to quickly find the stored items most similar to a new one. It is the memory behind many AI search tools.
- agent frameworkagent framework, n.: A software library that gives developers ready-made parts for building AI agents — model connections, tool handling, memory, multi-agent coordination and logging — so they need not write everything from scratch.
- rerankingreranking, n.: A second, more careful pass over search results: a fast method grabs a few hundred candidates, then a slower, smarter model reorders them so the best come first.
Mentioned in
agent frameworkagent framework, n.: A software library that gives developers ready-made parts for building AI agents — model connections, tool handling, memory, multi-agent coordination and logging — so they need not write everything from scratch., chunkingchunking, n.: Cutting long documents into smaller pieces before storing them for AI search, so the system can find and hand the model just the relevant part instead of a whole manual., LangChainLangChain, prop. n.: A popular free software toolkit, and the company behind it, for building applications that connect AI language models to documents, databases, tools and multi-step workflows.