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---
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---
# Introduction
**LangChain** is a framework for developing applications powered by language models. It enables applications that:
- **Are context-aware**: connect a language model to sources of context (prompt instructions, few shot examples, content to ground its response in, etc.)
- **Reason**: rely on a language model to reason (about how to answer based on provided context, what actions to take, etc.)
This framework consists of several parts.
You can see how the parts interact with each other below:
![LangChain Diagram](/img/langchain_stack.jpg)
These parts include:
- **[LangChain Packages]**: The Python and JavaScript packages. Contains interfaces and integrations for a myriad of components, a basic run time for combining these components into chains and agents, and off-the-shelf implementations of chains and agents.
- **[LangChain Templates](https://github.com/langchain-ai/langchain/tree/master/templates)**: A collection of easily deployable reference architectures for a wide variety of tasks.
- **[LangServe](https://github.com/langchain-ai/langserve)**: A library for deploying LangChain chains as a REST API.
- **[LangSmith](https://smith.langchain.com/)**: A developer platform that lets you debug, test, evaluate, and monitor chains built on any LLM framework and seamlessly integrates with LangChain.
Together, these products simplify the entire application lifecycle:
- **Develop**: Write your applications in LangChain/LangChain.js. Hit the ground running using Templates for reference.
- **Productionize**: Use LangSmith to inspect, test and monitor your chains, so that you can constantly improve and deploy with confidence.
- **Deploy**: Turn any chain into an API with LangServe.
## LangChain Packages
The main value props of the LangChain packages are:
1. **Components**: composable tools and integrations for working with language models. Components are modular and easy-to-use, whether you are using the rest of the LangChain framework or not
2. **Off-the-shelf chains**: built-in assemblages of components for accomplishing higher-level tasks
Off-the-shelf chains make it easy to get started. Components make it easy to customize existing chains and build new ones.
## Get started
[Heres](/docs/get_started/installation) how to install LangChain, set up your environment, and start building.
We recommend following our [Quickstart](/docs/get_started/quickstart) guide to familiarize yourself with the framework by building your first LangChain application.
## Modules
LangChain provides standard, extendable interfaces and integrations for the following modules, listed from least to most complex:
#### [Model I/O](/docs/modules/model_io/)
Interface with language models
#### [Retrieval](/docs/modules/data_connection/)
Interface with application-specific data
#### [Chains](/docs/modules/chains/)
Construct sequences of calls
#### [Agents](/docs/modules/agents/)
Let chains choose which tools to use given high-level directives
#### [Memory](/docs/modules/memory/)
Persist application state between runs of a chain
#### [Callbacks](/docs/modules/callbacks/)
Log and stream intermediate steps of any chain
## Examples, ecosystem, and resources
### [Use cases](/docs/use_cases/question_answering/)
Walkthroughs and techniques for common end-to-end use cases, like:
- [Document question answering](/docs/use_cases/question_answering/)
- [Chatbots](/docs/use_cases/chatbots/)
- [Analyzing structured data](/docs/use_cases/qa_structured/sql/)
- and much more...
### [Guides](/docs/guides/adapters/openai)
Best practices for developing with LangChain.
### [Ecosystem](/docs/integrations/providers/)
LangChain is part of a rich ecosystem of tools that integrate with our framework and build on top of it. Check out our growing list of [integrations](/docs/integrations/providers/) and [dependent repos](/docs/additional_resources/dependents).
### [Community](/docs/community)
Head to the [Community navigator](/docs/community) to find places to ask questions, share feedback, meet other developers, and dream about the future of LLMs.
## API reference
Head to the [reference](https://api.python.langchain.com) section for full documentation of all classes and methods in the LangChain Python package.