4.4 KiB
| type | title | linkTitle | weight | description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| docs | Conversation overview | Overview | 1000 | Overview of the conversation API building block |
{{% alert title="Alpha" color="primary" %}} The conversation API is currently in [alpha]({{% ref "certification-lifecycle#certification-levels" %}}). {{% /alert %}}
Dapr's conversation API reduces the complexity of securely and reliably interacting with Large Language Models (LLM) at scale. Whether you're a developer who doesn't have the necessary native SDKs or a polyglot shop who just wants to focus on the prompt aspects of LLM interactions, the conversation API provides one consistent API entry point to talk to underlying LLM providers.
In addition to enabling critical performance and security functionality (like [prompt caching]({{% ref "#prompt-caching" %}}) and [PII scrubbing]({{% ref "#personally-identifiable-information-pii-obfuscation" %}})), the conversation API also provides:
- Tool calling capabilities that allow LLMs to interact with external functions and APIs, enabling more sophisticated AI applications
- OpenAI-compatible interface for seamless integration with existing AI workflows and tools
You can also pair the conversation API with Dapr functionalities, like:
- Resiliency circuit breakers and retries to circumvent limit and token errors, or
- Middleware to authenticate requests coming to and from the LLM
Dapr provides observability by issuing metrics for your LLM interactions.
Features
The following features are out-of-the-box for [all the supported conversation components]({{% ref supported-conversation %}}).
Prompt caching
Prompt caching optimizes performance by storing and reusing prompts that are often repeated across multiple API calls. To significantly reduce latency and cost, Dapr stores frequent prompts in a local cache to be reused by your cluster, pod, or other, instead of reprocessing the information for every new request.
Personally identifiable information (PII) obfuscation
The PII obfuscation feature identifies and removes any form of sensitive user information from a conversation response. Simply enable PII obfuscation on input and output data to protect your privacy and scrub sensitive details that could be used to identify an individual.
The PII scrubber obfuscates the following user information:
- Phone number
- Email address
- IP address
- Street address
- Credit cards
- Social Security number
- ISBN
- Media Access Control (MAC) address
- Secure Hash Algorithm 1 (SHA-1) hex
- SHA-256 hex
- MD5 hex
Tool calling support
The conversation API supports advanced tool calling capabilities that allow LLMs to interact with external functions and APIs. This enables you to build sophisticated AI applications that can:
- Execute custom functions based on user requests
- Integrate with external services and databases
- Provide dynamic, context-aware responses
- Create multi-step workflows and automation
Tool calling follows OpenAI's function calling format, making it easy to integrate with existing AI development workflows and tools.
Demo
Watch the demo presented during Diagrid's Dapr v1.15 celebration to see how the conversation API works using the .NET SDK.
{{< youtube id=NTnwoDhHIcQ start=5444 >}}
Try out conversation
Quickstarts and tutorials
Want to put the Dapr conversation API to the test? Walk through the following quickstart and tutorials to see it in action:
| Quickstart/tutorial | Description |
|---|---|
| [Conversation quickstart]({{% ref conversation-quickstart %}}) | Learn how to interact with Large Language Models (LLMs) using the conversation API. |
Start using the conversation API directly in your app
Want to skip the quickstarts? Not a problem. You can try out the conversation building block directly in your application. After [Dapr is installed]({{% ref "getting-started/_index.md" %}}), you can begin using the conversation API starting with [the how-to guide]({{% ref howto-conversation-layer %}}).
Next steps
- [How-To: Converse with an LLM using the conversation API]({{% ref howto-conversation-layer %}})
- [Conversation API components]({{% ref supported-conversation %}})