Building Data-Driven Applications with LlamaIndex: A practical guide to retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) to enhance LLM applications

Solve real-world problems easily with artificial intelligence (AI) using the LlamaIndex data framework to enhance your LLM-based Python applications

• Examine text chunking effects on RAG workflows and understand security in RAG app development
• Discover chatbots and agents and learn how to build complex conversation engines
• Build as you learn by applying the knowledge you gain to a hands-on project

Generative AI, such as Large Language Models (LLMs) possess immense potential. These models simplify problems but have limitations, including contextual memory constraints, prompt size issues, real-time data gaps, and occasional ＂hallucinations.＂

With this book, you’ll go from preparing the environment to gradually adding features and deploying the final project. You’ll gradually progress from fundamental LLM concepts to exploring the features of this framework. Practical examples will guide you through essential steps for personalizing and launching your LlamaIndex projects. Additionally, you’ll overcome LLM limitations, build end-user applications, and acquire skills in ingesting, indexing, querying, and connecting dynamic knowledge bases, covering Generative AI and LLM, as well as LlamaIndex deployment. As you approach the conclusion, you’ll delve into customization, gaining a holistic grasp of LlamaIndex’s capabilities and applications.

By the end of the book, you’ll be able to resolve challenges in LLMs and build interactive AI-driven applications by applying best practices in prompt engineering and troubleshooting Generative AI projects.

• Understand the LlamaIndex ecosystem and common use cases
• Master techniques to ingest and parse data from various sources into LlamaIndex
• Discover how to create optimized indexes tailored to your use cases
• Understand how to query LlamaIndex effectively and interpret responses
• Build an end-to-end interactive web application with LlamaIndex, Python, and Streamlit
• Customize a LlamaIndex configuration based on your project needs
• Predict costs and deal with potential privacy issues
• Deploy LlamaIndex applications that others can use

This book is for Python developers with basic knowledge of natural language processing (NLP) and LLMs looking to build interactive LLM applications. Experienced developers and conversational AI developers will also benefit from the advanced techniques covered in the book to fully unleash the capabilities of the framework.

1. Understanding Large Language Models
2. LlamaIndex: The Hidden Jewel - An Introduction to the LlamaIndex Ecosystem
3. Kickstarting Your Journey with LlamaIndex
4. Ingesting Data into Our RAG Workflow
5. Indexing with LlamaIndex
6. Querying Our Data, Part 1 - Context Retrieval
7. Querying Our Data, Part 2 - Postprocessing and Response Synthesis
8. Building Chatbots and Agents with LlamaIndex
9. Customizing and Deploying Our LlamaIndex Project
10. Prompt Engineering Guidelines and Best Practices
11. Conclusions and Additional Resources