codeLive: A Deep Dive into Apex for Prompt Builder

salesforce_prompt_builder_pocket_guide_for_apex_developers.md

What is Prompt Builder?

Prompt Builder from Salesforce is a powerful tool that enables organizations to add generative AI capabilities to their business application. It allows organizations to create and manage prompt templates.

Prompts

Sets of questions or instructions provided to a large language model to generate relevant content. To learn more complete the trailhead module below

• Get Started with Prompts and Prompt Builder

Prompting Techniques

• Zero Shot
• Few-Shot
• Chain of Thought (COT)
• Tree of Thoughts (TOT)
• Graph Prompting

A useful resource to learn about all of the above and much more is below

• Prompting Techniques

Prompt Examples

• Prompt Writing Examples

Advanced Automatic Prompt Generation Tools

• Think GPT
• DSPy

Making LLMs ready for Enterprise Apps

• Solve for Halucinations
  • Provide more context as a part of Prompt.
  • Ground prompts with current and latest information
• Prevent information from leaking to LLM
  • Einstein Trust Layer

Prompt Builder License Requirements

Click on the below trailhead module to learn more about the licenses needed for enabling Prompt Builder for your Salesforce org.

Einstein Pricing: Quick Look Trailhead

How to access Prompt Builder Trial orgs

Below is link to get a free trial org with Prompt Builder access. Trial org expires in 5 days.

Sign up for a Trial Org

Prompt Templates Types

Prompt Builder offers a range of customizable templates, including:

• Sales Email prompt templates
• Field Generation prompt templates
• Record Summary prompt templates
• Flex prompt templates

Leverage AI Across Salesforce Applications

These templates can be used across different AI tools in Salesforce.

• App Builder for Lightning Pages
• Salesforce Flows (Including Screen Flows)
• Apex
• Einstein Copilot

Grounding Prompt Templates with Apex

Below is an example code that shows how to ground prompt templates with Apex

public with sharing class ExamplePromptTemplateResolver {
   
    @InvocableMethod(
        capabilityType='<this depends on the prompt template type>'
    )
    
    public static List<Response> getContactsPropertyInterest(List<Request> requests) {
        // Retrieve inputs
        Request input = requests[0];
        Object1__c input1 = input.input1;
        Object2__c input2 = input.input2;

        // Create expected response
        List<Response> responses = new List<Response>();
        Response output = new Response();
        
        // Example Business logic to add to the prompt
        output.Prompt = 'Recommended Products:';
        for(Product__c prd : ProductController.getSimilarProducts(input1.Id, input1.Product_Family__c)) {
            output.Prompt += '\n' + 'product name:' + prd.Name + ', Picture URL:' + prd.Picture_URL__c + ', MSRP:' + prd.MSRP__c;
        }
        output.Prompt += '\n';
        responses.add(output);
        
        return responses;
    }

    // Class that represents the template inputs that are passed to the class
    public class Request {
        @InvocableVariable
        // Ensure that the input1 variable is same name with proper case as you configured in the Prompt Builder
        public Object1__c input1;
        @InvocableVariable
        public Object2__c input2;
    }

    // Class that represents the data that will be added to the template
    // when it's resolved
    public class Response {
        @InvocableVariable
        public String Prompt;
    }
}

Capability Types

Capability Type	Value
Sales Email	PromptTemplateType://einstein_gpt__salesEmail
Field Completion	PromptTemplateType://einstein_gpt__fieldCompletion
Flex Templates	FlexTemplate://template_API_Name
Record Summary	PromptTemplateType://einstein_gpt__recordSummary

For Flex template type make sure template_API_Name matches the prompt template API Name field defined in Prompt Builder

For more examples refer to the resources below

Apex Developer Guide Examples for Resolving Prompt Templates via Apex

Invoking Prompt Templates via Apex

Use Connect in Apex to call a prompt template from Apex code.

String promptTemplateDeveloperName = '';

// Prepare input for generating prompt template
ConnectApi.EinsteinPromptTemplateGenerationsInput promptGenerationsInput = new ConnectApi.EinsteinPromptTemplateGenerationsInput();

// Map for holding input parameters
Map<String, ConnectApi.WrappedValue> inputParams = new Map<String, ConnectApi.WrappedValue>();
Map<String, String> input = new Map<String, String>();

// Set input parameters. Usually set the record Id for resolving the template
input.put('id', inputId);

// Add wrapped values
ConnectApi.WrappedValue inputValueMap = new ConnectApi.WrappedValue();
inputValueMap.value = input;
inputParams.put('Input:<input_variable_from_prompt_builder>', inputValueMap);

// Set hyper parameters
promptGenerationsInput.inputParams = inputParams;
promptGenerationsInput.additionalConfig = new ConnectApi.EinsteinLlmAdditionalConfigInput();
promptGenerationsInput.additionalConfig.numGenerations = 1;
promptGenerationsInput.additionalConfig.enablePiiMasking = false;
promptGenerationsInput.additionalConfig.applicationName = ApplicationConstant.APP_NAME;

// Set if it's a preview or not
promptGenerationsInput.isPreview = false;

// Call the service to generate messages for the prompt template
ConnectApi.EinsteinPromptTemplateGenerationsRepresentation generationsOutput = ConnectApi.EinsteinLLM.generateMessagesForPromptTemplate(promptTemplateDeveloperName, promptGenerationsInput);

// Consume response
ConnectApi.EinsteinLLMGenerationItemOutput response = generationsOutput.generations[0];
System.debug('Response: ' + response.text);

For more examples refer to the resources below

• Apex Developer Guide Examples for Resolving Prompt Templates via Apex
• Einstein LLM Class

Additional Resources

Blogs

• Ground Your Prompt Templates with Data Using Flow or Apex

Videos

@patmcclellan Yes I recommend using a stub provider and mocking the responses for Unit testing

Thanks. It would be great to add some Unit Test examples to the apex docs. I've used mock http before, but StubProvider is new to me. I see the docs, but examples specific to Resolving a Prompt Template would be very helpful.

Hello @msrivastav13
Can we use custom metadata in prompt builder

Just incase someone is struck with error "The InvocableMethod capabilityType modifier "FlexTemplate://Generate_Personalized_Schedule" isn't available. Enter a valid value and try again" you can use:

@InvocableMethod(label='Generate Personalized Schedule')

in place of

@InvocableMethod(CapabilityType='FlexTemplate://Generate_Personalized_Schedule')

@patmcclellan did you every find a way to mock stub the Prompt output? @msrivastav13 there is still no documentation.

@rsoesemann the prompt output is a string, so I just created my own method generateMockResult():

String promptResult = '';
if(Test.isRunningTest()) {
      promptResult = generateMockResult();
}

I've been experimenting with creating an Apex Agent Action, which calls a prompt template. I specify in the prompt template that the response must be valid JSON. It returns a JSON string to apex. Then, in the apex, I parse the JSON to create a collection of records to insert. Works really well, but sometimes I get a prompt result like this:

json'''
{ [valid json]
}
end of json

Depending on which LLM you use, results may vary in terms of their ability to follow the directions to ONLY include valid json. So, I just do a little trimming on the result to make sure, before trying to cast it to an object.

BTW, all the examples of Prompt Templates calling Apex involve parsing records down to strings like this:

for(Product__c prd : ProductController.getSimilarProducts(input1.Id, input1.Product_Family__c)) {
            output.Prompt += '\n' + 'product name:' + prd.Name + ', Picture URL:' + prd.Picture_URL__c + ', MSRP:' + prd.MSRP__c;
        }

I've found, especially where you have different and interrelated SObject records, it's easier to do a nested SOQL query, then just JSON.serialize() the resulting collection and return it. Prompt Builder understands all of those nested JSON objects better than I could attempt to explain by parsing it. This works best when your field names are obviously named, and I include createdDate and ORDER BY to provide sequential context.

I'm really glad there's a way to invoke prompt templates from apex, but I wish it weren't so involved. It should be as easy as calling a flow from apex.