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LangChain

Chain models, tools and retrieval together

LangChain Tool Open source

WHAT IT IS

LangChain is an open-source framework released in 2022 for composing language models, tools and retrieval into applications. It offers abstractions for models, prompts, tools, retrievers and memory, with Python and JavaScript implementations. It addresses how to assemble and orchestrate components when building model-driven flows.

Why it matters

By abstracting "model + tools + retrieval" into composable pieces, it became the widely adopted glue of early LLM applications.

Key specs

Abstractions: Models, prompts, tools, retrievers, memory
Languages: Python and JavaScript

Capabilities

Tool Use & Function Calling

Let the model pick an API and fill its arguments

Question Answering & RAG

Retrieve the evidence first, then answer from it

Autonomous Agents

Break down a goal and keep acting until it is done

Related concepts

Agents & Tool Use

Let a model do more than answer: search, call APIs, run code — and decide the next step from what came back

AI Engineering, Safety & Ethics

Retrieval-Augmented Generation

Rather than cramming knowledge into parameters, leave it outside and look it up on demand — an open-book exam instead of a closed-book one

AI Engineering, Safety & Ethics

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