Dify
Provide an open-source LLM-app development platform on which a builder visually composes AI workflows, RAG pipelines, and tool-using Agents, and ships them as hosted apps, embedded APIs, or MCP servers from a single self-hostable Docker stack.
Description
Dify is an open-source LLM-app development platform built by LangGenius. Per the README: 'Dify is an open-source LLM app development platform. Its intuitive interface combines AI workflow, RAG pipeline, agent capabilities, model management, observability features … and more, letting you quickly go from prototype to production.' Ships in three editions: hosted Dify Cloud at cloud.dify.ai, self-hostable Community (Docker Compose / Helm / K8s), enterprise. The Chinese README is parallel and uses 中文 terminology throughout: '您可以基于 LLM 函数调用或 ReAct 定义 Agent' (You can define Agents based on LLM function calling or ReAct). License is a modified Apache-2.0 that forbids multi-tenant resale and LOGO removal but otherwise tracks Apache-2.0.
Solution
Apps on a visual workflow canvas of typed nodes (User Input → LLM / Knowledge Retrieval / Agent / Tool / IF-ELSE / Iteration / Template / Output) plus standalone modes (Chatbot, Agent, Chatflow, Workflow). Agent loop lives in two places: the Agent app (chat-style, reasoning + tools) and the Agent node inside a workflow. Both expose two pluggable strategies — Function Calling (native) and ReAct (Thought → Action → Observation) — bounded by Maximum Iterations safety cap. Workflows can chain into other workflows; LLM nodes support retry + fallback model chains; any Dify app can be published as an MCP server.
Primary use cases
- no-code/low-code visual LLM-app building
- RAG with Knowledge Base + hybrid search + rerank + automatic citations
- Agent apps with Function Calling or ReAct strategy
- publishing apps as MCP servers consumable by Claude Desktop / Cursor
Open the full interactive page →
Diagram, neighbourhood map, code examples, related patterns and full provenance.