Day 18 – Building Smarter AI Chatbots with Dify and Prompt Engineering
Nader Fkih Hassen

Nader Fkih Hassen @nader_fh

About: Newly graduated computer science student exploring full-stack development. Interested in clean design, practical solutions, and growing one step at a time.

Joined:
Jun 12, 2025

Day 18 – Building Smarter AI Chatbots with Dify and Prompt Engineering

Publish Date: Jul 4
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🧠 Today’s Focus

As Lura evolves into more than just a case and document management platform, I wanted to explore how we can make it feel intelligent — like it’s working with you, not just for you. That led me to deepen my integration of Dify and Ollama, specifically around prompt engineering.

While I had Dify running earlier in the project, today was about quality — not just functionality.

🧩 What I Worked On

1.Refining Prompt Templates:

  • Instead of using a generic prompt like “Summarize this document,” I wrote a more tailored version:
You are a legal assistant AI inside a document platform. Always summarize in simple language, highlight important names, and suggest next steps for legal actions.
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  • I also tested multiple prompt structures to see how results changed with small adjustments.

2.Customizing System Instructions:

  • Dify allows setting "system messages" that guide how the assistant behaves. I made sure the assistant stays professional, doesn’t hallucinate, and sticks to the workspace’s document context.

3.PDF Chunking and Indexing:

  • Learned how Dify chunks large PDF documents before embedding them.
  • Tuned the chunk size and overlap to improve answer relevance.

4.Testing Real User Scenarios:

  • Sample query: “What’s the main point of this contract?”
  • I uploaded an actual test contract and watched how the AI summarized it in 3 lines, perfectly highlighting the client name and conditions.

🔧 Useful Code/Setup

# My Dify docker-compose.yaml snippet
  dify:
    image: langgenius/dify
    environment:
      - MODEL_PROVIDER=ollama
      - SYSTEM_PROMPT="You are a legal assistant..."
    volumes:
      - ./data:/app/data
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// Sample Prompt Template in UI
{
  "prompt": "Summarize this legal document in plain language. Highlight any deadlines or responsibilities.",
  "context": "Document file content here..."
}
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💡 Takeaways

  • Prompt engineering is UX for AI. How you phrase things matters a lot.
  • Even “dumb” chatbots can become useful with thoughtful design.
  • Working with lawyers? Be precise. AI must never invent or exaggerate.
  • Keeping tone and context on-brand is just as important as accuracy.

❓Question
Have you ever tried building your own assistant — even something simple? What did you wish you knew before starting?

On to Day 19. 👨‍💻💬

AI #Ollama #ChatbotDevelopment #LegalTech #Dify #PromptEngineering #JavaScript #InternshipJourney #LuraApp #30DaysOfCode

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