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Motivation

Resources are any piece of unstructured or structured data your AI-driven processes will utilize. This can include documents of any type, webpages, emails, and more. Within re-factor, we provide simple solutions for storing and embedding resources into your LLM workflows so that you can derive the most value for your business processes.

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Structure

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Example Resource

{
    "id": "123e4567-e89b-12d3-a456-426614174000",
    "account_id": "shared",
    "name": "quarterly_report.pdf",
    "directory_path": "/projects/abc/reports",
    "mime_type": "application/pdf",
    "sha256": "e3b0c44298fc1c149afbf4c8996fb92427ae41e4649b934ca495991b7852b855",
    "original_uri": "https://example.com/reports/quarterly_report.pdf",
    "external_id": "123456789",
    "external_storage_type": null,
    "storage_bucket": "my-bucket",
    "storage_key": "projects/abc/reports/quarterly_report.pdf",
    "size_bytes": 123456,
    "tags": ["report", "quarterly", "finance"],
    "metadata": {
        "author": "Finance Team",
        "quarter": "Q4 2024"
    },
    "created_by": "user-123",
    "created_at": "2023-08-25T10:00:00Z",
    "updated_at": "2023-08-25T10:00:00Z"
}

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Fields

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id
uuid
required
Unique identifier for the resource (generated by re-factor)
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account_id
string
required
ID of the account that owns this resource
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name
string
required
Name of the resource, e.g. "quarterly_report.pdf"
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directory_path
string
required
Path to the directory containing the resource, e.g. /projects/abc/reports
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mime_type
string
required
MIME type of the resource, e.g. "application/pdf"
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sha256
string
required
SHA256 hash of the resource content. Set by re-factor when creating a resource.
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original_uri
string | null
Original URI of the resource, if applicable.
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external_id
string | null
External identifier for the resource, if applicable.
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external_storage_type
enum<s3, gcs, azure_blob> | null
Type of external storage, if applicable.
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storage_bucket
string
required
Storage bucket where the resource is stored.
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storage_key
string
required
Key for artifact storage in the storage system
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size_bytes
integer
required
Size of the resource in bytes. Set by re-factor when creating a resource.
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tags
array<string>
List of tags associated with the resource
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metadata
object | null
Additional metadata associated with the resource
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created_by
string | null
ID of the user who created the resource
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created_at
string
required
Timestamp when the resource was created. Set by re-factor when creating a resource.
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updated_at
string
required
Timestamp when the resource was last updated

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Types

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ResourcePlaceholder

A placeholder within a Runnable that represents a resource that will be embedded into the runnable at runtime.
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name
string
required
Name of the resource, e.g. screenshot or report. This must be unique within the runnable as it will be used to reference the resource via template variables (e.g. {{screenshot}})
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description
string
Description of the resource, e.g. A screenshot of the dashboard
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type
enum<text | file | json>
required
Type of the resource.
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mime_types
array<string>
required
List of valid MIME types that can be embedded into the resource placeholder, e.g. image/png or application/pdf. Wildcards are supported, e.g. image/*.
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required
boolean
required
Whether the resource is required or optional
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metadata_schema
object
JSON schema for validating the metadata of the resource. This should be null if no metadata is required. Must be a JSON Schema Draft 7 compliant object.

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EmbeddedResource

Resources can be embedded into runnables which declare ResourcePlaceholders via the EmbeddedResource interface which consists of the following fields:
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name
string
required
The name that the resource will be referenced by within the runnable.
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resource
string | Resource
required
The resource that will be embedded into the runnable. This can be a string representing an existing resource’s id or an instance of a [Resource] object.

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Features

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Storage

Create and manage resources programmatically: 
import { Resource } from '@re-factor/sdk';

// Create a resource from a local file path
const pdfResource = await Resource.fromPath('./document.pdf', {
    directory: '/projects/abc/reports',
    mime_type: 'application/pdf',
    metadata: {
        author: 'Finance Team',
        quarter: 'Q4 2024'
    }
}, { store: true });

// Create a resource from a URL
const webResource = await Resource.fromUrl('https://example.com/data.png', {
    mime_type: 'image/png',
    name: 'image_data.png',
}, { store: true });

// Create a resource from text
const textResource = await Resource.fromText({
    content: 'Important business metrics...',
    name: 'metrics_summary',
    tags: ['business_intelligence'],
    metadata: {
        source: 'database'
    }
}, { store: true });
Or, use the UI to create and manage resources:

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Transformations

Resources can be transformed and processed in various ways: 
// Convert PDF to text
const textContent = await pdfResource.transform({
    type: 'text',
});

// Extract images from a document
const images = await pdfResource.transform({
    type: 'images'
});

// Extract text from an image via OCR
const ocr = await imageResource.transform({
    type: 'ocr',
    provider: 'google'
});
While our library provides a wide range of built-in transformations, you can also easily create your own using plugins.

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Embedding within Runnables

Resources can be seamlessly integrated into prompts, flows, and agents: 
import { CompletionRunnable } from '@re-factor/sdk/runnable';
import { Resource } from '@re-factor/sdk/resources';

const document = await Resource.fromPath('./document.pdf', {
    directory: '/projects/abc/reports',
    mime_type: 'application/pdf',
    metadata: {
        author: 'Finance Team',
        quarter: 'Q4 2024'
    }
}, { store: true });

const runnable = await CompletionRunnable.construct({
  name: 'document_analyzer',
  resources: [{
    name: 'document',
    description: 'The document to analyze',
    type: 'file',
    mime_types: ['application/pdf'],
    required: true
  }],
  prompt: {
    system: "You are a finance expert",
    messages: [{
        role: 'user',
        content: `Provide a thorough analysis of the following document, placing emphasis on 
          the financial metrics.
        
        {{ document }}
        `
    }, {
        role: 'assistant',
        generate: true
    }]
  }
});

const result = await runable.run({
  resources: [document.embedAs('document')]
});

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Best Practices

When working with resources in re-factor:
  1. Use meaningful names, directory paths, and tags for efficient organization
  2. Clean up unused resources to save space

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Resource Types

re-factor supports various resource types out of the box:
  • Documents (PDF, Word, Excel, etc.)
  • Images (PNG, JPEG, etc.)
  • Audio files (MP3, WAV, etc.)
  • Video files (MP4, etc.)
  • Webpages
  • Structured data (JSON, CSV, etc.)
  • Custom resource types via plugins
For detailed implementation guidance and advanced features, refer to our SDK documentation.
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