Basics

• Memory: Stores chat history, summaries, facts in a database.
• Knowledge: Stores business context in a vector database.
• Tools: Let LLMs take actions like calling APIs, sending emails or querying a database.

Let’s work through a few examples

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Install & Setup

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Assistant with Tools

Tools are functions that an Assistant can run to achieve tasks like searching the web, running SQL, sending an email, calling APIs.

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Example: Research Assistant

Let’s create an Assistant that prepares a research report by searching the web.

from phi.assistant import Assistant
from phi.tools.duckduckgo import DuckDuckGo
from phi.tools.newspaper4k import Newspaper4k

assistant = Assistant(
    tools=[DuckDuckGo(), Newspaper4k()],
    show_tool_calls=True,
    description="You are a senior NYT researcher writing an article on a topic.",
    instructions=[
        "For the provided topic, search for the top 3 links.",
        "Then read each URL and extract the article text, if a URL isn't available, ignore and let it be.",
        "Analyse and prepare an NYT worthy article based on the information.",
    ],
    add_datetime_to_instructions=True,
)
assistant.print_response("Latest developments in AI", markdown=True)

pip install openai duckduckgo-search newspaper4k lxml_html_clean

python research.py

​

Assistant with Knowledge

To provide LLMs with business context, we store information in a vector database that the Assistant can search to improve its responses. Let’s use PgVector as our vector store as it can also provide storage for our Assistants.

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Run PgVector

Install docker desktop and run PgVector on port 5532 using:

docker run -d \
  -e POSTGRES_DB=ai \
  -e POSTGRES_USER=ai \
  -e POSTGRES_PASSWORD=ai \
  -e PGDATA=/var/lib/postgresql/data/pgdata \
  -v pgvolume:/var/lib/postgresql/data \
  -p 5532:5432 \
  --name pgvector \
  phidata/pgvector:16

​

RAG Assistant

Retrieval Augmented Generation means “stuffing the prompt with relevant information” to improve LLM responses. This is a 2 step process:

1. Retrieve relevant information from a vector database.
2. Augment the prompt to provide context to the LLM.

Let’s build a PDF Assistant that helps us with food recipes using RAG.

from phi.assistant import Assistant
from phi.knowledge.pdf import PDFUrlKnowledgeBase
from phi.vectordb.pgvector import PgVector2

knowledge_base = PDFUrlKnowledgeBase(
    # Read PDF from this URL
    urls=["https://phi-public.s3.amazonaws.com/recipes/ThaiRecipes.pdf"],
    # Store embeddings in the `ai.recipes` table
    vector_db=PgVector2(
        collection="recipes",
        db_url="postgresql+psycopg://ai:ai@localhost:5532/ai",
    ),
)
# Load the knowledge base
knowledge_base.load(recreate=False)

assistant = Assistant(
    knowledge_base=knowledge_base,
    # The add_references_to_prompt will update the prompt with references from the knowledge base.
    add_references_to_prompt=True,
)
assistant.print_response("How do I make pad thai?", markdown=True)

from phi.knowledge.pdf import PDFKnowledgeBase

...
knowledge_base = PDFKnowledgeBase(
    path="data/pdfs",
    vector_db=PgVector2(
        collection="pdf_documents",
        db_url=vector_db.get_db_connection_local(),
    ),
)
...

​

Autonomous Assistant

With the RAG assistant above, the add_references_to_prompt=True always adds information from the knowledge base to the prompt, regardless of whether it is relevant to the question.

With Autonomous assistants, we let the LLM decide if it needs to access the knowledge base and what search parameters it needs to query the knowledge base.

Make the Assistant Autonomous by setting the search_knowledge and read_chat_history flags, giving it tools to search the knowledge base and chat history on demand.

from phi.assistant import Assistant
from phi.knowledge.pdf import PDFUrlKnowledgeBase
from phi.vectordb.pgvector import PgVector2

knowledge_base = PDFUrlKnowledgeBase(
    urls=["https://phi-public.s3.amazonaws.com/recipes/ThaiRecipes.pdf"],
    vector_db=PgVector2(
        collection="recipes",
        db_url="postgresql+psycopg://ai:ai@localhost:5532/ai",
    ),
)
# Comment out as the knowledge base is already loaded.
# knowledge_base.load(recreate=False)

assistant = Assistant(
    knowledge_base=knowledge_base,
    # Show tool calls in the response
    show_tool_calls=True,
    # Enable the assistant to search the knowledge base
    search_knowledge=True,
    # Enable the assistant to read the chat history
    read_chat_history=True,
)
assistant.print_response("How do I make pad thai?", markdown=True)
assistant.print_response("What was my last question?", markdown=True)

​

Assistant with Memory, Knowledge & Tools

Assistants comes with built-in memory but it only lasts while the session is active. To continue conversations across sessions, we can store chat history in a database like PostgreSQL.

Lets wrap up by building an Assistant that can read PDFs, store them in a knowledge base and continue conversations across sessions by storing chat history in a database.

Create a file pdf_assistant.py

import typer
from rich.prompt import Prompt
from typing import Optional, List
from phi.assistant import Assistant
from phi.storage.assistant.postgres import PgAssistantStorage
from phi.knowledge.pdf import PDFUrlKnowledgeBase
from phi.vectordb.pgvector import PgVector2

db_url = "postgresql+psycopg://ai:ai@localhost:5532/ai"

knowledge_base = PDFUrlKnowledgeBase(
    urls=["https://phi-public.s3.amazonaws.com/recipes/ThaiRecipes.pdf"],
    vector_db=PgVector2(collection="recipes", db_url=db_url),
)
# Comment out after first run
knowledge_base.load()

storage = PgAssistantStorage(table_name="pdf_assistant", db_url=db_url)


def pdf_assistant(new: bool = False, user: str = "user"):
    run_id: Optional[str] = None

    if not new:
        existing_run_ids: List[str] = storage.get_all_run_ids(user)
        if len(existing_run_ids) > 0:
            run_id = existing_run_ids[0]

    assistant = Assistant(
        run_id=run_id,
        user_id=user,
        knowledge_base=knowledge_base,
        storage=storage,
        # Show tool calls in the response
        show_tool_calls=True,
        # Enable the assistant to search the knowledge base
        search_knowledge=True,
        # Enable the assistant to read the chat history
        read_chat_history=True,
    )
    if run_id is None:
        run_id = assistant.run_id
        print(f"Started Run: {run_id}\n")
    else:
        print(f"Continuing Run: {run_id}\n")

    # Runs the assistant as a cli app
    assistant.cli_app(markdown=True)


if __name__ == "__main__":
    typer.run(pdf_assistant)

Run the Assistant

Ask Questions

Now the conversation continues across sessions. Ask a question:

How do I make pad that?

Then message bye to exit, start the app again and ask:

What was my last message?

Run the pdf_assistant.py file with the --new flag to start a new run.

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Next

Congratulations on building an AI Assistant with memory, knowledge and tools. You can serve this Assistant using FastApi, Streamlit or Django. Here’s the architecture we just built:

Continue your journey by learning about:

• Assistants
• Tools
• Knowledge
• Storage

Or Checkout the following examples:

• SQL Assistant
• ArXiv Research Assistant

If you need help, reach out to us on Discord.