will share methods to construct an AI journal with the LlamaIndex. We are going to cowl one important perform of this AI journal: asking for recommendation. We are going to begin with probably the most primary implementation and iterate from there. We are able to see important enhancements for this perform once we apply design patterns like Agentic Rag and multi-agent workflow.
You’ll find the supply code of this AI Journal in my GitHub repo right here. And about who I’m.
Overview of AI Journal
I wish to construct my ideas by following Ray Dalio’s observe. An AI journal will assist me to self-reflect, monitor my enchancment, and even give me recommendation. The general perform of such an AI journal seems like this:

As we speak, we’ll solely cowl the implementation of the seek-advise move, which is represented by a number of purple cycles within the above diagram.
Easiest Type: LLM with Giant Context
In probably the most simple implementation, we will go all of the related content material into the context and fasten the query we wish to ask. We are able to try this in Llamaindex with just a few traces of code.
import pymupdf
from llama_index.llms.openai import OpenAI
path_to_pdf_book = './path/to/pdf/guide.pdf'
def load_book_content():
textual content = ""
with pymupdf.open(path_to_pdf_book) as pdf:
for web page in pdf:
textual content += str(web page.get_text().encode("utf8", errors='ignore'))
return textual content
system_prompt_template = """You might be an AI assistant that gives considerate, sensible, and *deeply personalised* strategies by combining:
- The consumer's private profile and ideas
- Insights retrieved from *Ideas* by Ray Dalio
Ebook Content material:
```
{book_content}
```
Consumer profile:
```
{user_profile}
```
Consumer's query:
```
{user_question}
```
"""
def get_system_prompt(book_content: str, user_profile: str, user_question: str):
system_prompt = system_prompt_template.format(
book_content=book_content,
user_profile=user_profile,
user_question=user_question
)
return system_prompt
def chat():
llm = get_openai_llm()
user_profile = enter(">>Inform me about your self: ")
user_question = enter(">>What do you wish to ask: ")
user_profile = user_profile.strip()
book_content = load_book_summary()
response = llm.full(immediate=get_system_prompt(book_content, user_profile, user_question))
return response
This strategy has downsides:
- Low Precision: Loading all of the guide context may immediate LLM to lose give attention to the consumer’s query.
- Excessive Price: Sending over significant-sized content material in each LLM name means excessive price and poor efficiency.
With this strategy, for those who go the entire content material of Ray Dalio’s Ideas guide, responses to questions like “The way to deal with stress?” turn into very common. Such responses with out regarding my query made me really feel that the AI was not listening to me. Regardless that it covers many essential ideas like embracing actuality, the 5-step course of to get what you need, and being radically open-minded. I like the recommendation I bought to be extra focused to the query I raised. Let’s see how we will enhance it with RAG.
Enhanced Type: Agentic RAG
So, what’s Agentic RAG? Agentic RAG is combining dynamic decision-making and information retrieval. In our AI journal, the Agentic RAG move seems like this:

- Query Analysis: Poorly framed questions result in poor question outcomes. The agent will consider the consumer’s question and make clear the questions if the Agent believes it’s crucial.
- Query Re-write: Rewrite the consumer enquiry to undertaking it to the listed content material within the semantic house. I discovered these steps important for bettering the precision through the retrieval. Let’s say in case your information base is Q/A pair and you’re indexing the questions half to seek for solutions. Rewriting the consumer’s question assertion to a correct query will make it easier to discover probably the most related content material.
- Question Vector Index: Many parameters may be tuned when constructing such an index, together with chunk dimension, overlap, or a distinct index kind. For simplicity, we’re utilizing VectorStoreIndex right here, which has a default chunking technique.
- Filter & Artificial: As a substitute of a posh re-ranking course of, I explicitly instruct LLM to filter and discover related content material within the immediate. I see LLM selecting up probably the most related content material, despite the fact that generally it has a decrease similarity rating than others.
With this Agentic RAG, you possibly can retrieve extremely related content material to the consumer’s questions, producing extra focused recommendation.
Let’s look at the implementation. With the LlamaIndex SDK, creating and persisting an index in your native listing is easy.
from llama_index.core import Doc, VectorStoreIndex, StorageContext, load_index_from_storage
Settings.embed_model = OpenAIEmbedding(api_key="ak-xxxx")
PERSISTED_INDEX_PATH = "/path/to/the/listing/persist/index/domestically"
def create_index(content material: str):
paperwork = [Document(text=content)]
vector_index = VectorStoreIndex.from_documents(paperwork)
vector_index.storage_context.persist(persist_dir=PERSISTED_INDEX_PATH)
def load_index():
storage_context = StorageContext.from_defaults(persist_dir=PERSISTED_INDEX_PATH)
index = load_index_from_storage(storage_context)
return index
As soon as we have now an index, we will create a question engine on high of that. The question engine is a strong abstraction that lets you modify the parameters through the question(e.g., TOP Ok) and the synthesis behaviour after the content material retrieval. In my implementation, I overwrite the response_mode NO_TEXT
as a result of the agent will course of the guide content material returned by the perform name and synthesize the ultimate consequence. Having the question engine to synthesize the consequence earlier than passing it to the agent could be redundant.
from llama_index.core.indices.vector_store import VectorIndexRetriever
from llama_index.core.query_engine import RetrieverQueryEngine
from llama_index.core.response_synthesizers import ResponseMode
from llama_index.core import VectorStoreIndex, get_response_synthesizer
def _create_query_engine_from_index(index: VectorStoreIndex):
# configure retriever
retriever = VectorIndexRetriever(
index=index,
similarity_top_k=TOP_K,
)
# return the unique content material with out utilizing LLM to synthesizer. For later analysis.
response_synthesizer = get_response_synthesizer(response_mode=ResponseMode.NO_TEXT)
# assemble question engine
query_engine = RetrieverQueryEngine(
retriever=retriever,
response_synthesizer=response_synthesizer
)
return query_engine
The immediate seems like the next:
You might be an assistant that helps reframe consumer questions into clear, concept-driven statements that match
the fashion and subjects of Ideas by Ray Dalio, and carry out lookup precept guide for related content material.
Background:
Ideas teaches structured occupied with life and work choices.
The important thing concepts are:
* Radical fact and radical transparency
* Resolution-making frameworks
* Embracing errors as studying
Job:
- Job 1: Make clear the consumer's query if wanted. Ask follow-up questions to make sure you perceive the consumer's intent.
- Job 2: Rewrite a consumer’s query into a press release that might match how Ray Dalio frames concepts in Ideas. Use formal, logical, impartial tone.
- Job 3: Lookup precept guide with given re-wrote statements. It's best to present no less than {REWRITE_FACTOR} rewrote variations.
- Job 4: Discover probably the most related from the guide content material as your fina solutions.
Lastly, we will construct the agent with these features outlined.
def get_principle_rag_agent():
index = load_persisted_index()
query_engine = _create_query_engine_from_index(index)
def look_up_principle_book(original_question: str, rewrote_statement: Checklist[str]) -> Checklist[str]:
consequence = []
for q in rewrote_statement:
response = query_engine.question(q)
content material = [n.get_content() for n in response.source_nodes]
consequence.prolong(content material)
return consequence
def clarify_question(original_question: str, your_questions_to_user: Checklist[str]) -> str:
"""
Make clear the consumer's query if wanted. Ask follow-up questions to make sure you perceive the consumer's intent.
"""
response = ""
for q in your_questions_to_user:
print(f"Query: {q}")
r = enter("Response:")
response += f"Query: {q}nResponse: {r}n"
return response
instruments = [
FunctionTool.from_defaults(
fn=look_up_principle_book,
name="look_up_principle_book",
description="Look up principle book with re-wrote queries. Getting the suggestions from the Principle book by Ray Dalio"),
FunctionTool.from_defaults(
fn=clarify_question,
name="clarify_question",
description="Clarify the user's question if needed. Ask follow-up questions to ensure you understand the user's intent.",
)
]
agent = FunctionAgent(
title="principle_reference_loader",
description="You're a useful agent will primarily based on consumer's query and lookup probably the most related content material in precept guide.n",
system_prompt=QUESTION_REWRITE_PROMPT,
instruments=instruments,
)
return agent
rag_agent = get_principle_rag_agent()
response = await agent.run(chat_history=chat_history)
There are just a few observations I had through the implementations:
- One fascinating reality I discovered is that offering a non-used parameter,
original_question
, within the perform signature helps. I discovered that after I don’t have such a parameter, LLM generally doesn’t observe the rewrite instruction and passes the unique query inrewrote_statement
the parameter. Havingoriginal_question
parameters someway emphasizes the rewriting mission to LLM. - Totally different LLMs behave fairly in a different way given the identical immediate. I discovered DeepSeek V3 way more reluctant to set off perform calls than different mannequin suppliers. This doesn’t essentially imply it’s not usable. If a practical name ought to be initiated 90% of the time, it ought to be a part of the workflow as a substitute of being registered as a perform name. Additionally, in comparison with OpenAI’s fashions, I discovered Gemini good at citing the supply of the guide when it synthesizes the outcomes.
- The extra content material you load into the context window, the extra inference functionality the mannequin wants. A smaller mannequin with much less inference energy is extra prone to get misplaced within the giant context offered.
Nevertheless, to finish the seek-advice perform, you’ll want a number of Brokers working collectively as a substitute of a single Agent. Let’s discuss methods to chain your Brokers collectively into workflows.
Last Type: Agent Workflow
Earlier than we begin, I like to recommend this text by Anthropic, Constructing Efficient Brokers. The one-liner abstract of the articles is that you need to all the time prioritise constructing a workflow as a substitute of a dynamic agent when doable. In LlamaIndex, you are able to do each. It lets you create an agent workflow with extra automated routing or a customized workflow with extra specific management of the transition of steps. I’ll present an instance of each implementations.

Let’s check out how one can construct a dynamic workflow. Here’s a code instance.
interviewer = FunctionAgent(
title="interviewer",
description="Helpful agent to make clear consumer's questions",
system_prompt=_intervierw_prompt,
can_handoff_to = ["retriver"]
instruments=instruments
)
interviewer = FunctionAgent(
title="retriever",
description="Helpful agent to retrive precept guide's content material.",
system_prompt=_retriver_prompt,
can_handoff_to = ["advisor"]
instruments=instruments
)
advisor = FunctionAgent(
title="advisor",
description="Helpful agent to advise consumer.",
system_prompt=_advisor_prompt,
can_handoff_to = []
instruments=instruments
)
workflow = AgentWorkflow(
brokers=[interviewer, advisor, retriever],
root_agent="interviewer",
)
handler = await workflow.run(user_msg="The way to deal with stress?")
It’s dynamic as a result of the Agent transition relies on the perform name of the LLM mannequin. Underlying, LlamaIndex workflow supplies agent descriptions as features for LLM fashions. When the LLM mannequin triggers such “Agent Operate Name”, LlamaIndex will path to your subsequent corresponding agent for the following step processing. Your earlier agent’s output has been added to the workflow inner state, and your following agent will choose up the state as a part of the context of their name to the LLM mannequin. You additionally leverage state
and reminiscence
parts to handle the workflow’s inner state or load exterior information(reference the doc right here).
Nevertheless, as I’ve advised, you possibly can explicitly management the steps in your workflow to achieve extra management. With LlamaIndex, it may be accomplished by extending the workflow object. For instance:
class ReferenceRetrivalEvent(Occasion):
query: str
class Recommendation(Occasion):
ideas: Checklist[str]
profile: dict
query: str
book_content: str
class AdviceWorkFlow(Workflow):
def __init__(self, verbose: bool = False, session_id: str = None):
state = get_workflow_state(session_id)
self.ideas = state.load_principle_from_cases()
self.profile = state.load_profile()
self.verbose = verbose
tremendous().__init__(timeout=None, verbose=verbose)
@step
async def interview(self, ctx: Context,
ev: StartEvent) -> ReferenceRetrivalEvent:
# Step 1: Interviewer agent asks inquiries to the consumer
interviewer = get_interviewer_agent()
query = await _run_agent(interviewer, query=ev.user_msg, verbose=self.verbose)
return ReferenceRetrivalEvent(query=query)
@step
async def retrieve(self, ctx: Context, ev: ReferenceRetrivalEvent) -> Recommendation:
# Step 2: RAG agent retrieves related content material from the guide
rag_agent = get_principle_rag_agent()
book_content = await _run_agent(rag_agent, query=ev.query, verbose=self.verbose)
return Recommendation(ideas=self.ideas, profile=self.profile,
query=ev.query, book_content=book_content)
@step
async def recommendation(self, ctx: Context, ev: Recommendation) -> StopEvent:
# Step 3: Adviser agent supplies recommendation primarily based on the consumer's profile, ideas, and guide content material
advisor = get_adviser_agent(ev.profile, ev.ideas, ev.book_content)
advise = await _run_agent(advisor, query=ev.query, verbose=self.verbose)
return StopEvent(consequence=advise)
The particular occasion kind’s return controls the workflow’s step transition. For example, retrieve
step returns an Recommendation
occasion that may set off the execution of the recommendation
step. You may also leverage the Recommendation
occasion to go the required data you want.
In the course of the implementation, if you’re aggravated by having to begin over the workflow to debug some steps within the center, the context object is crucial if you wish to failover the workflow execution. You may retailer your state in a serialised format and recuperate your workflow by unserialising it to a context object. Your workflow will proceed executing primarily based on the state as a substitute of beginning over.
workflow = AgentWorkflow(
brokers=[interviewer, advisor, retriever],
root_agent="interviewer",
)
strive:
handler = w.run()
consequence = await handler
besides Exception as e:
print(f"Error throughout preliminary run: {e}")
await fail_over()
# Elective, serialised and save the contexct for debugging
ctx_dict = ctx.to_dict(serializer=JsonSerializer())
json_dump_and_save(ctx_dict)
# Resume from the identical context
ctx_dict = load_failed_dict()
restored_ctx = Context.from_dict(workflow, ctx_dict,serializer=JsonSerializer())
handler = w.run(ctx=handler.ctx)
consequence = await handler
Abstract
On this publish, we have now mentioned methods to use LlamaIndex to implement an AI journal’s core perform. The important thing studying contains:
- Utilizing Agentic RAG to leverage LLM functionality to dynamically rewrite the unique question and synthesis consequence.
- Use a Custom-made Workflow to achieve extra specific management over step transitions. Construct dynamic brokers when crucial.
The bitterce code of this AI journal is in my GitHub repo right here. I hope you take pleasure in this text and this small app I constructed. Cheers!