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Custom components view

In addition to the standard workflow components—processors, operators, splitters, reducers and remappers—, the language models published by the Platform authoring application or imported and the Knowledge Models, in NL Flow it is possible have custom components, developed for specific needs.
An example can be a component that interfaces with an external Large Language Model (LLM).

The Custom components view of the dashboard is the one where you manage these custom components.

Note

If you are in need of a custom component, ask your expert.ai representative: it may have already been developed or you can be given direction about developing it yourself.

A custom component consists of a docker image stored in a registry accessible to NL Flow and a descriptive manifest containing, among other information, the URL of the docker image.

Thanks to the manifest, when you add the component as a block to a workflow, you can consult and change its configuration parameters, while at run-time, when the workflow is published and used, thanks to the URL contained in the manifest, NL Flow is able to obtain the docker image and instantiate it.

NL Flow instantiates the docker image of the custom component by creating a container inside a pod of the Kubernetes cluster.

  • Select the column headers to sort the list of custom components.
  • To download the manifest of a custom component, select the component then select Download manifest on the toolbar above the list.

  • To add a custom component:

    1. Select Upload component on the toolbar above the list. The Upload component dialog, containing a text editor, will appear.

    2. Select Upload to upload the JSON file representing the manifest of the component. The JSON will appear in the editor.

      Or:

      Copy and paste the manifest (JSON) in the editor.

    3. Select Save.

    For a manifest to be valid it must have these properties:

    • category
    • id
    • name
    • type
    • image
    • version

    otherwise a warning will appear.

    The name plus the version identify the component, you cannot have two ore more components with the same name and version.

  • To delete a custom component select the component then select Delete on the toolbar above the list.

  • To filter the list, type something in the search box and press Enter: the list will only show components with matching names. To cancel the filter select the X icon inside the search box.