Skip to main content

⚡️ Quickstart

This guide demonstrates how to build a basic flow and modify the prompt for different outcomes.

Prerequisites​

Hello World - Basic Prompting​

Let's start with a Prompt component to instruct an OpenAI Model.

Prompts serve as the inputs to a large language model (LLM), acting as the interface between human instructions and computational tasks. By submitting natural language requests in a prompt to an LLM, you can obtain answers, generate text, and solve problems.


  1. From the Langflow dashboard, click New Project.
  2. Select Basic Prompting.

Quickstart Guide ScreenshotQuickstart Guide Screenshot

This flow allows you to chat with the OpenAI model by using a Prompt to send instructions.

Examine the Prompt component. The Template field instructs the LLM to Answer the user as if you were a pirate. This should be interesting...

To use the OpenAI component, you have two options for providing your OpenAI API Key: directly passing it to the component or creating an environment variable. For better security and manageability, creating an environment variable is recommended. Here's how to set it up:

In the OpenAI API Key field, click the Globe button to access environment variables, and then click Add New Variable.

  1. In the Variable Name field, enter openai_api_key.
  2. In the Value field, paste your OpenAI API Key (sk-...).
  3. Click Save Variable.

By creating an environment variable, you keep your API key secure and make it easier to manage across different components or projects.

Run the basic prompting flow​

  1. Click the Playground button. This where you can interact with your bot.
  2. Type any message and press Enter. And... Ahoy! 🏴‍☠️ The bot responds in a piratical manner!

Modify the prompt for a different result​

  1. To modify your prompt results, in the Prompt template, click the Template field. The Edit Prompt window opens.
  2. Change Answer the user as if you were a pirate to a different character, perhaps Answer the user as if you were Harold Abelson.
  3. Run the basic prompting flow again. The response will be markedly different.

Next steps​

Well done! You've built your first prompt in Langflow. 🎉

By dragging Langflow components to your workspace, you can create all sorts of interesting behaviors. Here are a couple of examples:

Hi, how can I help you?