Accessing agent data in AIFunctions

[jooooel]

Semantic Kernel has Kernel.Data which is a dictionary that can hold arbitrary data. It it possible to inject the current kernel in [KernelFunction]s, like in the following example:

https://github.com/microsoft/semantic-kernel/blob/90d158cbf8bd4598159a6fe64df745e56d9cbdf4/dotnet/samples/Concepts/Functions/MethodFunctions_Types.cs#L179

That enables things like setting kernel.Data["userId"] = 123; when the kernel is created, and then access that data in each tool call (for tenant/user isolation).

Is there something equivalent in MAF?

[stephentoub]

AIFunctions have access to the IServiceProvider, so you can provide transient or scoped state into any AIFunction via that.

AIFunctions also have access to FunctionInvokingChatClient.CurrentContext, which provides access to whatever ChatOptions were provided to the operation. Those ChatOptions have an AdditionalProperties dictionary, so you can flow arbitrary state from the caller through to any/all function invocation.

You can also wrap AIFunctions in delegating functions and provide those wrappers as the tools instead. That means for each RunAsync call, you can customize state provided into the functions. AIFunction.InvokeAsync accepts an AIFunctionArguments that has on it a Context dictionary, so you can create your wrapper function that augments the context passed into the "real" function with whatever additional state you want it to have access to.

Do any of those help?

[stephentoub]

using Microsoft.Extensions.AI;

var actualFunction = AIFunctionFactory.Create((AIFunctionArguments args) =>
{
    object? userId = null;
    args.Context?.TryGetValue("userid", out userId);

    Console.WriteLine($"User ID: {userId}");
});

ChatOptions options = new()
{
    Tools = [new UserIdProvidingFunction(actualFunction, "user-1234")],
};


class UserIdProvidingFunction(AIFunction f, object userId) : DelegatingAIFunction(f)
{
    protected override ValueTask<object?> InvokeCoreAsync(AIFunctionArguments arguments, CancellationToken cancellationToken)
    {
        arguments.Context ??= new Dictionary<object, object?>();
        arguments.Context["userid"] = userId;

        return base.InvokeCoreAsync(arguments, cancellationToken);
    }
}

[jooooel]

Thanks! 🙏

[itayfisz]

@stephentoub
In your example, how can the userId be accessed in the original provided FindDataAsync?

[stephentoub]

Accept an AIFunctionArguments as in my example

[nor0x]

I'm also in the process of migrating off semantic kernel right now and was wondering if there is a possibility to set additional data during a tool run that can be accessed after the tool completes (without returning the data). Previously in my KernelFunction I could set kernel["SomeData"] = somedata which I could access later in the pipeline. @stephentoub do you know any solution to this?