Use the out-of-the-box plugins in the kernel

To provide a degree of standardization across Semantic Kernel implementations, the GitHub repo has several plugins available out-of-the-box depending on the language you are using. These plugins are often referred to as Core plugins. Additionally, each library also includes a handful of other plugins that you can use. The following section covers each set of plugins in more detail.

Core plugins

The core plugins are planned to be available in all languages since they are core to using Semantic Kernel. Below are the core plugins currently available in Semantic Kernel along with their current support for each language. The ❌ symbol indicates that the feature is not yet available in that language; if you would like to see a feature implemented in a language, please consider contributing to the project or opening an issue.

Plugin	Description	C#	Python	Java
ConversationSummaryPlugin	To summarize a conversation	✅	✅	*
FileIOPlugin	To read and write to the filesystem	✅	✅	❌
HttpPlugin	To call APIs	✅	✅	❌
MathPlugin	To perform mathematical operations	✅	✅	❌
TextMemoryPlugin	To store and retrieve text in memory	✅	✅	❌
TextPlugin	To deterministically manipulating text strings	✅	✅	*
TimePlugin	To acquire the time of day and any other temporal information	✅	✅	*
WaitPlugin	To pause execution for a specified amount of time	✅	✅	❌

You can find the full list of core plugins for each language by following the links below:

• C# core plugins
• Java sample plugins
• Python core plugins

Using core plugins in Semantic Kernel

If you want to use one of the core plugins, you can easily import them into your project. For example, if you want to use the TimePlugin in C#, Java or Python, you can import it as follows.

C#

When using a core plugin, be sure to install the Microsoft.SemanticKernel.Plugins.Core nuget package, and include a using Microsoft.SemanticKernel.Plugins.Core:

using Microsoft.SemanticKernel.Plugins.Core;

// Instantiate a kernelBuilder and configure it

kernelBuilder.Plugins.AddFromType<TimePlugin>();
var kernel = kernelBuilder.Build();

const string promptTemplate = @"
Today is: {{time.Date}}
Current time is: {{time.Time}}

Answer to the following questions using JSON syntax, including the data used.
Is it morning, afternoon, evening, or night (morning/afternoon/evening/night)?
Is it weekend time (weekend/not weekend)?";

var results = await kernel.InvokePromptAsync(promptTemplate);
Console.WriteLine(results);

Java

Semantic Kernel for Java does not provide a core plugin library. There are a number of examples of plugins and their use in the sample code.

import com.microsoft.semantickernel.samples.plugins.TimePlugin;

// Add the TimePlugin to the Kernel using Kernel.Builder
Kernel kernel = Kernel.builder()
  .withAIService(ChatCompletionService.class, ChatCompletionService.builder()
    .withModelId("gpt-3.5-turbo")
    .withOpenAIAsyncClient(client)
    .build())
  .withPlugin(KernelPluginFactory.createFromObject(new TimePlugin(), "time"))
  .build();

String promptTemplate = 
"""
Today is: {{time.Date}}
Current time is: {{time.Time}}

Answer to the following questions using JSON syntax, including the data used.
Is it morning, afternoon, evening, or night (morning/afternoon/evening/night)?
Is it weekend time (weekend/not weekend)
""";

FunctionResult<String> result = kernel.invokePromptAsync(promptTemplate).block();
System.out.println(result.getValue());

Python

from semantic_kernel.core_skills.time_skill import TimePlugin

# ... instantiate a kernel and configure it first

kernel.import_skill(TimePlugin(), "time")

ThePromptTemplate = """
Today is: {{time.Date}}
Current time is: {{time.Time}}

Answer to the following questions using JSON syntax, including the data used.
Is it morning, afternoon, evening, or night (morning/afternoon/evening/night)?
Is it weekend time (weekend/not weekend)?
"""

myKindOfDay = kernel.create_semantic_function(ThePromptTemplate, max_tokens=150)

myOutput = await myKindOfDay.invoke_async()
print(myOutput)

The output should be similar to the following:

{
  "date": "Wednesday, 21 June, 2023",
  "time": "12:17:02 AM",
  "period": "night",
  "weekend": "not weekend"
}

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