Dify Beginner Guide: Build Your First AI Workflow
Dify is an open-source LLM app development platform with drag-and-drop workflow orchestration. Perfect if you do not want to send all data to OpenAI or Anthropic.
Why Dify?
- Fully open source: Free on GitHub, no third-party data transmission
- Visual orchestration: Drag-and-drop components, no coding required
- Multi-model support: OpenAI, Claude, local Ollama all supported
- One-click API publish: Created AI apps can be called via API immediately
Quick Deployment
Prerequisites: Docker Desktop (Windows/Mac) or Docker (Linux). One-command startup: git clone Dify, cd docker, cp .env.example .env, docker-compose up -d. Visit localhost:80 to open Dify interface.
Create Your First Chatbot
1. Click Create App, choose Chat Assistant; 2. Name your app, select AI model (add API Key in Settings first); 3. Write system instructions in prompt template; 4. Publish, get API address.
Build Automated Workflows
Difys real power is in Workflows. Example: Article Analysis Assistant - add LLM component to summarize key points, add conditional node to categorize by length, add template generation node to output structured report.
Local Models with Ollama
Zero-cost local LLMs: Install Ollama, run ollama serve and ollama pull llama3.2, add Ollama as model provider in Dify. Local models are free but lower quality, great for internal tools and testing.
Use Cases
- Customer service bot (website/WeChat integration)
- Content moderation workflow
- Data cleaning and formatting
- Automatic meeting summary
- Competitive analysis report automation