In today’s rapid development of AI technology, how to quickly build practical AI applications has become the focus of attention of many developers and ordinary users. This article will take you into the world of AI applications, through the combination of Dify open source platform and Feishu multi-dimensional tables, you can build a personal plan management tool in just 10 minutes.
With the explosive growth of AI large model capabilities, a core question has emerged: how to make these powerful capabilities truly implement and serve specific business scenarios or personal needs? Traditional AI application development involves complex model tuning, API integration, and front-end development, and the high threshold is prohibitive for non-professional developers. Integration tools, MCPs, etc. further lower the threshold for building AI applications. In this issue, we use Dify+ Feishu tools to quickly build a lightweight AI agent that can understand natural language and manipulate structured data with almost zero code.
Detailed steps
Dify is an open-source platform that supports docker on-premises deployment and also supports cloud services. For ordinary players, it is more convenient and faster to choose cloud services, but I have already deployed dify locally, so I will build AI applications based on my local links.
- Dify Key Capabilities:Model orchestration, prompt engineering, tool/plugin integration, workflow design, API release, user interface hosting.
- Feishu multi-dimensional table: Zero-code creation of structured data tables, intuitive table/board/form view, powerful API interface, deep integration with Feishu IM (message notification), and convenient collaboration.
By building an agent, users can complete the addition, deletion, modification and checking of personal plan data through natural language (e.g., “help me record that I will have a project review meeting with the customer at 3 pm tomorrow”, “display all my to-do items this week”, and “mark ‘write weekly report’ as completed”).
1) Add a blank app: select the application type-Agent。 This is the key, Agents have the ability to actively invoke tools and think about decisions, not just conversations.
2) Configure the model:Connect AI brains
3) Select Tools:Give Agent “hands and feet” – Feishu Multidimensional Table Plugin(Dify integrates a large number of tools to expand model capabilities, here we select the relevant tools of Feishu multi-dimensional tables, it should be noted that the tools need to be configured through plug-ins to use normally)
4) Write prompts:Tell the Agent “what to do” and “how to do it”(When everything is ready, the next step is to make the agent correct and easy to use through the prompt word)
As shown in the figure, it cannot be used directly at this time, and the requirements for prompt words in different models will be different.
Pain point 1: Missing important parameter information for calling tools.
Phenomenon:The user says “Record the meeting tomorrow at 3 PM” and the Agent tries to call create_record but says the deadline parameter is missing or the format is wrong.
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Settle:In the promptDefine extremely clearly the parameter name, type, whether it is required, and formatting requirements required for each tool operation(as in date format). Emphasize temporal information in the user’s natural languageHave tois extracted and converted into the specified format.
Pain point 2: The model lacks attention to details such as parameter types.
Phenomenon:Agents may mistake the user’s input for a status value (where the status is only ‘To Do’/In Progress’/’Completed’) or attempt to cram non-numeric content into a numeric field.
Settle:In the promptStrictly define the allowed/enumerated values for each field(For example, the status field can only be [‘To Do’, ‘In Progress’, ‘Completed’]). For key fields, add a step to the prompt before invoking the toolParameter validation logicDescription (“Before calling the tool, please confirm that the value of parameter X is of type Y/in the Z list, otherwise clarify to the user”).
Pain point 3: The model cannot recognize the current time.
Phenomenon: The user asked, “What are the tasks today?” The Agent cannot accurately understand the range of “today” (because its training data is up to a certain point in time).
Solution: Introducing Dify’s Time Tool!This is a powerful tool built into Dify. In the prompt:
- Declare that the Agent can use the Time tool to get the current precise time.
- Write clearly where time information is needed (e.g., convert fuzzy time, calculate deadlines).“The current datetime is: {{current_time}}”。 Dify automatically replaces this variable with the real-time results obtained by the call time tool at runtime.
Effect:The Agent instantly acquires the “real-time clock” capability, which can correctly handle dynamic time concepts such as “today”, “tomorrow”, and “two hours later”.
The adjustments are as follows:
Results: A usable natural language planning assistant
How to access:Dify automatically generates a separate H5 web page for each app. You can share this link with anyone (or embed it in other systems), and users can open it to talk to your agent.
User Experience: Users do not need to learn any specific commands or operate the form interface, and directly express their needs in natural language (“Help me remember the dentist appointment at 9 a.m. the day after tomorrow”, “Show me the urgent tasks I haven’t completed yet”), the Agent understands the intention behind the scenes, calls the Feishu Multi-Dimensional Form API to complete data operations, and gives clear feedback (“The ‘Appointment a dentist’ task has been added to you, the deadline is 2024-06-22 09:00”, “You have the following 3 uncompleted urgent tasks:…”).
Value embodiment:
- Efficiency Improvement:Action plans go far faster than manually opening forms, lookups, and entering.Estimated single-task operation time from minutes to seconds.
- Convenience:Manage your plans anytime, anywhere, through the chat window.
- Technical threshold: It truly realizes that individual developers/non-programmers can also build practical AI applications.The core build process focuses on configuration and prompt writing, eliminating the need for traditional programming.
Building a personal plan management agent through Dify and Feishu multi-dimensional forms is a successful practice of “lightweight AI application implementation”.
In today’s tool ecosystem,Using large model capabilities to solve practical problems is no longer the patent of large companies。 Clear prompt engineering and effective use of tools, especially time tools, are key to building a reliable agent. The potential of multi-agent collaboration demonstrated by Dify Workflow opens the door for us to build more powerful and automated AI applications. From managing personal plans, to coordinating team meetings, handling customer service processes, analyzing business data… The threshold for building AI applications is being continuously lowered by platforms like Dify and tools like Feishu.
The future belongs to those builders who are good at using these tools to integrate AI capabilities into specific scenarios.Get started now and use Dify + your familiar tools to create your first AI Agent!
