The fantastic duo: How to build your modern APIs
🧠Core Concept The article introduces a Chat Playground System designed to streamline AI development by managing multiple chat scenarios (e.g., technical support, creative writing) from a single dashboard. 🔧 Key Features Scenario-Aware Sessions: Launch pre-configured chat contexts with one click. Dual Access Architecture: FastAPI for RESTful web apps. MCP (Model Context Protocol) for AI tool integration. Streamlit Integration: Wrapped with MCP to allow seamless interaction with AI tools. Automatic Resource Management: Smart port allocation and process cleanup. Context Passing: Uses environment variables and temp JSON files to transfer session data. 🚧 Challenges & Solutions Bridging MCP and Streamlit: Created a wrapper to translate protocol calls and maintain session state. Process Management: Built an async manager to handle multiple Streamlit sessions reliably. Context Transfer: Developed a hybrid system for passing rich context between processes. User Experience: Simplified interface with real-time feedback and intuitive controls. 💡 Lessons Learned Innovation thrives at protocol boundaries. Supporting both REST and MCP broadens adoption. Start simple, scale gradually. Process lifecycle management is critical. Contextual awareness enhances AI utility. Developer experience drives product success. 🔮 Future DirectionsSkill Up On The Latest AI Models & Tools on Model Mondays - Season 2 starts Jun 16!
Quick Links To RSVP for each episode: EP1: Advanced Reasoning Models: https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/reactor/events/25905/ EP2: Model Context Protocol: https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/reactor/events/25906/ EP3: SLMs (and Reasoning): https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/reactor/events/25907/ Get All The Details: https://aka.ms/model-mondays Azure AI Foundry offers the best model choice Did you manage to catch up on all the talks from Microsoft Build 2025? If, like me, you are interested in building AI-driven applications on Azure, you probably started by looking at what’s new in Azure AI Foundry. I recommend you read Asha Sharma’s post for the top 10 things you need to know in this context. And it starts with New Models & Smarter Models! New Models | Azure AI Foundry now has 11,000+ models to choose from – including frontier models from partner providers, and thousands of open-source community variants from Hugging Face. But how do you pick the right one for your needs? Smarter Models | It's not just about model selection, but about the effort required to use the model and validate the results. How can you improve the user experience and build trust and confidence in your customers? Solutions like Model Router and Azure AI Evaluations SDK help. The Challenge? | New models, features, and tools being released daily - the information overload is real. How do we keep up with the latest updates – and skill up on model choices? Say Hello to Model Mondays! Model Mondays is a weekly series with a livestream on Microsoft Reactor (on Mondays) and a follow-up AMA on Azure AI Foundry Discord (on Fridays). Here are the three links to know: Visit the Model Mondays repo: https://aka.ms/model-mondays Watch the Model Mondays playlist: https://aka.ms/model-mondays/playlist Join #model-mondays on Discord: https://aka.ms/model-mondays/discord Visit the playlist or repo to catch up on replays from Season 1 (above). Learn about topics like reasoning models, visual generative models, open-source AI, forecasting models, and local AI development with Visual Studio AI Toolkit. Each 30-minute episode consists of: 5-min Highlights. Catch up on top model-related news from the previous week. 15-min Spotlight. Get a deep dive into a specific model, model family, or related tool. Q&A. Ask questions on chat during the livestream, or join the AMA on Discord on Friday. Register Now to Join Us for Season 2! Microsoft Build showed us that the model catalog is expanding quickly – and so are the tools that are available, to help you select, customize, and evaluate, your AI application. In Season 2, we’re going to dive deeper into advanced topics in models and tools. Some of the topics that we hope to cover include: Advanced Reasoning Models – Deep Research, Visual Reasoning and more. Model Context Protocol – What it is, examples of MCP Servers today. SLMs and Reasoning – We dive into the Phi-4 model ecosystem for insights. Foundry Labs – Explore projects like Magentic-UI and MCP Server. Open-Source Models – Explore the 10K+ community models from Hugging Face. Edge Models – Explore Foundry Local and the rise of on-device AI capabiltiies. Models for AI Agents – Explore the Agent Catalog samples like Red-Teaming Model Playgrounds – Explore Image, Video, Agent, Chat, Language playgrounds Advanced Fine Tuning – Learn to fine GPT models, and use the Foundry Portal AI Developer Experience – Get productive with AI Toolkit & VS Code Extension pack Our first three episodes below are open for registration right now! EP1: Advanced Reasoning Models: https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/reactor/events/25905/ EP2: Model Context Protocol: https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/reactor/events/25906/ EP3: SLMs (and Reasoning): https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/reactor/events/25907/ Let's build our model IQ and get starting developing AI applications on Azure! Want to Build AI Apps - and need resources to accelerate your journey? Chat with us on Azure AI Foundry Discord - https://aka.ms/aifoundrydiscord Provide feedback on our Discussion Forum - https://aka.ms/aifoundryforum Skill up with the Azure AI Foundry Learn Course - http://aka.ms/learnatbuild Review the Azure AI Foundry Documentation - http://aka.ms/AzureAI Download and explore the Azure AI Foundry SDK - http://aka.ms/aifoundrysdkIntroducing Model Mondays - Build Your AI Model IQ With This Weekly Hands-on Series
Have you felt overwhelmed by the pace of AI innovation? How do you keep up with the latest model news? How do you pick the right model from 1800+ options? How can you learn about best practices from others and get hands-on experience? This is where Model Mondays comes in. Join us starting March 10 for the 8-part season kickoff - read the blog post to learn more.
