Dify¶

What it is¶

Dify is an open-source LLM application development platform. It allows you to visually create and operate AI applications based on various LLMs, and includes tools for prompt engineering, RAG, and agent orchestration.

What problem it solves¶

Lowers the barrier to building LLM-powered applications by providing a visual interface for designing prompts, RAG pipelines, and agent workflows without writing extensive code.

Where it fits in the stack¶

AI & Knowledge — serves as a visual platform for building and deploying LLM applications, potentially connecting to the local Ollama instance.

Typical use cases¶

Building RAG applications with a visual drag-and-drop interface
Rapid prototyping of prompt chains and agent workflows
Setting up local RAG pipelines with Ollama and private data

Strengths¶

Open-source and self-hostable, aligning with the privacy-first approach
Visual interface makes LLM app development accessible to non-developers
Supports multiple LLM backends including local models via Ollama

Limitations¶

Requires running an additional service with its own dependencies
Less flexible than code-first frameworks for highly custom workflows
Smaller community and ecosystem compared to LangChain

When to use it¶

When you want a visual environment to prototype and deploy LLM applications
When building RAG or agent applications that connect to local LLM infrastructure

When not to use it¶

When you need fine-grained programmatic control over LLM pipelines
When the overhead of running another service is not justified for simple tasks

Getting started¶

Installation (Docker Compose)¶

Dify is best deployed using Docker Compose for self-hosting.

git clone https://github.com/langgenius/dify.git
cd dify/docker
cp .env.example .env
docker compose up -d

Accessing the Dashboard¶

Once the containers are running, navigate to http://localhost/install in your browser to complete the initial setup and create your admin account.

CLI examples¶

1. Start Dify Infrastructure¶

docker compose up -d

2. View Service Logs¶

docker compose logs -f api

3. Database Migration (Maintenance)¶

docker exec -it dify-api-1 flask db upgrade

API examples¶

Calling a Dify Chat Application (Python)¶

Dify provides an official Python SDK for interacting with your deployed applications.

pip install dify-client

from dify_client import ChatClient

# Initialize the ChatClient with your App's API Key
client = ChatClient(api_key="app-xxxxxxxxxxxxxx")

# Create a chat message
response = client.create_chat_message(
    inputs={},
    query="How can I optimize my local RAG pipeline?",
    user="user_123",
    response_mode="blocking"
)

print(response.json())

Sources / references¶

Contribution Metadata¶

Last reviewed: 2026-05-28
Confidence: high