Dify.ai

Dify is an open source platform for building AI-powered applications without requiring deep engineering expertise for the infrastructure layer. It provides a visual interface for designing AI workflows, building chatbots, and creating agents that orchestrate multiple tools and data sources.

The platform is designed to fill the gap between raw AI APIs and fully custom application development. Developers who want to build a document Q&A chatbot, a customer service agent, or an AI workflow that processes data and calls external APIs can do so in Dify without writing the full infrastructure code that such applications normally require.

The workflow builder uses a visual canvas where AI models, data sources, processing nodes, and output actions are connected visually. A workflow might take a user input, retrieve relevant documents from a vector store, pass them to an LLM with a specific prompt, and return a response with citations — all configured visually without custom code.

Model flexibility is strong. Dify supports models from OpenAI, Anthropic, Azure OpenAI, Google, and many others, as well as locally hosted models via Ollama. This multi-provider approach allows switching models as capabilities and prices change without rebuilding applications.

RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) capabilities are well-developed. Dify handles document upload, chunking, embedding, vector storage, and retrieval as a managed service, abstracting the complexity of building a custom RAG pipeline.

The open source nature allows self-hosting for complete data control, which is attractive for enterprise teams with sensitive data. The cloud version is available for teams that prefer managed infrastructure.