Calling external functions from Assistants

Question

Calling external functions from Assistants

Mohamed Hussein 650

Good Day,

Appreciate your all efforts,

At Azure OpenAi Assistants, when calling an external function like Web Search, I've 3 questions

Is that manadroty to manually trigger the function, when the run status requires_action
At the playground, what's the difference between Adding Custom Function and Logic App
If there are multiple functions, and set the tool choice to Auto, what will be the scenario? should the assistant state which function to be called, then i manually call it?

Thank you once agsin

santoshkc 13,350 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff

2024-12-13T08:48:47.58+00:00

Hi @Mohamed Hussein,

Following up to see if the given response was helpful. Thank you.
Mohamed Hussein 650 Reputation points

2024-12-13T09:07:21.1833333+00:00

Thank you for your reply, may I ask where function are actually stored, if we pass just only scheme?
santoshkc 13,350 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff

2024-12-13T14:57:04.35+00:00

Hi @Mohamed Hussein,

Thank you for your follow-up query.

In Azure OpenAI Assistants, the assistant doesn’t store the actual functions. When you provide a schema, it’s simply a guide that tells the assistant how to call the function and what kind of response to expect. The function itself, its logic and execution, happens outside of the assistant. For custom functions, you run the function in your system and send the results back. For Logic Apps, the function logic is stored and executed directly within the Logic App in your Azure account. You can check out Azure OpenAI function calling for more details.

Thank you.
santoshkc 13,350 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff

2024-12-16T05:33:36.8566667+00:00

Hi @Mohamed Hussein,

We haven’t heard from you on the last response and was just checking back to see if the given response was helpful.

Thank you.
Deleted

This comment has been deleted due to a violation of our Code of Conduct. The comment was manually reported or identified through automated detection before action was taken. Please refer to our Code of Conduct for more information.

1 answer

Your answer

santoshkc 13,350 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff

2024-12-13T08:48:47.58+00:00

Hi @Mohamed Hussein,

Following up to see if the given response was helpful. Thank you.
Mohamed Hussein 650 Reputation points

2024-12-13T09:07:21.1833333+00:00

Thank you for your reply, may I ask where function are actually stored, if we pass just only scheme?
santoshkc 13,350 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff

2024-12-13T14:57:04.35+00:00

Hi @Mohamed Hussein,

Thank you for your follow-up query.

In Azure OpenAI Assistants, the assistant doesn’t store the actual functions. When you provide a schema, it’s simply a guide that tells the assistant how to call the function and what kind of response to expect. The function itself, its logic and execution, happens outside of the assistant. For custom functions, you run the function in your system and send the results back. For Logic Apps, the function logic is stored and executed directly within the Logic App in your Azure account. You can check out Azure OpenAI function calling for more details.

Thank you.
santoshkc 13,350 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff

2024-12-16T05:33:36.8566667+00:00

Hi @Mohamed Hussein,

We haven’t heard from you on the last response and was just checking back to see if the given response was helpful.

Thank you.
Deleted

This comment has been deleted due to a violation of our Code of Conduct. The comment was manually reported or identified through automated detection before action was taken. Please refer to our Code of Conduct for more information.

Answer 1

Hi @Mohamed Hussein,

Thank you for reaching out to Microsoft Q&A forum!

Is that manadroty to manually trigger the function, when the run status requires_action

When the run status is set to requires_action, it indicates that the assistant has identified the function to be called but cannot execute it directly. It requires you to manually invoke the function and provide the output back to the assistant.

At the playground, what's the difference between Adding Custom Function and Logic App

Custom Function: This allows you to define a function specification in JSON format directly in the assistant. The assistant will generate the required function call arguments but will not execute the function. You handle execution externally and feed the result back to the assistant.

Logic App: This enables integration with Azure Logic Apps. The Logic App must have an HTTP trigger and response defined. This setup is more automated, as the Logic App handles the function execution once triggered by the assistant, provided the app is correctly configured.

If there are multiple functions, and set the tool choice to Auto, what will be the scenario? should the assistant state which function to be called, then i manually call it?

If multiple functions are available and the tool choice is set to Auto, the assistant determines the most suitable function to call based on the user query. You would still need to manually invoke the function if requires_action is returned, even in Auto mode.

Please refer to: Assistants function calling and Call Azure Logic apps as functions.

I hope you understand! Thank you.

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Calling external functions from Assistants

1 answer

Your answer