Loading a custom provider in code

[jonborchardt]

Hi there!

I'm interested in extending your fantastic library by forking it and incorporating some custom providers. Currently, I'm utilizing the custom provider flow outlined in the documentation. However, I'm looking for a more streamlined approach to ensure that my providers are always loaded without the need for manual intervention like drag-and-drop.

Presently, I'm accomplishing this by calling initCustomProvider(mycode) when the application first renders. I'm curious if there's a more efficient method, such as placing the code in a designated folder on the backend API and registering the provider programmatically in the code.

I appreciate your guidance on this matter!

[ianarawjo]

Hi, thank you for the interest! Actually once you drop a custom provider in the front-end UI once, it should be cached on the backend —meaning it loads up everytime you load the application. You can take a look at that part of the code (probably its in the Python side) to see where exactly the folder is, in case you’d want to manage it manually.

Lmk if this isn’t the case and we can debug.

[jonborchardt]

Wow, TY for the prompt reply!
I am hoping to control the list of providers for my end users. So they dont have to drag and drop.
Do you have any advise on 'hard coding' some custom providers?
I can add the code to the cache manually... but im unsure how the menus would know about it without calling the initCustomProvider function.

[ianarawjo]

Np... The function called on load is here: https://github.com/ianarawjo/ChainForge/blob/0b32792d07b3b607bd0f1d614afb145ae0f7ed36/chainforge/flask_app.py#L589C16-L589C16

The folder is relative to the package, I believe:
So where the flask_app.py file is located, then /cache/provider_scripts

The app calls loadCachedCustomProviders upon load:

ChainForge/chainforge/react-server/src/GlobalSettingsModal.js

Line 146 in 0b32792

fetch_from_backend('loadCachedCustomProviders', {}, console.error).then((json) => {

[jonborchardt]

ok, great, so if i pre-populate the cache, the ui should all work. TY!

[jonborchardt]

ok, so i have confirmed that placing a file in the cache calls the function above.
however, the ui does not pick up the value.
the ui only shows, if i drag a file to the custom provider drag and drop.
do you have time to attempt my use case and see if it works for you?

[jonborchardt]

i might be unblocked. it appears that running npm run start loads a cached view, and that view does not have access to the custom models. however, if i load a cforge file, the models appear.

[ianarawjo]

Yeah, I would expect you should do this when chainforge is installed as a package or run from its built version —its not meant to be run via npm run start, unless one is debugging or developing it.