Codebase
What is a codebase?
A codebase is the complete collection of source code, configuration files, and related assets that make up a software application or system. Think of it as all the code and files that developers work with to build and maintain a product.
In AI product development, a codebase typically includes the code for orchestrating LLM calls, implementing evals, managing workflows or agents, and integrating with various tools and services.
What's included in an AI product codebase?
An AI product codebase might contain:
- Prompt engineering code: System prompts, user prompt templates, and prompt orchestration logic
- Integration code: Connections to LLM providers, databases, and external services
- Evaluation code: Evals, test datasets, and evaluation frameworks
- Workflow management: Agent coordination, step functions, or other orchestration systems
- Configuration files: Environment variables, model settings, and deployment configurations
- Supporting infrastructure: Error handling, logging, monitoring, and CI/CD pipelines
How does managing an AI codebase differ from traditional software?
While AI codebases share many characteristics with traditional software codebases, they introduce new challenges. Prompts and model configurations can be as important as traditional code, yet they're harder to version control and test effectively.
AI codebases also require ongoing evaluation and monitoring in ways that traditional software doesn't. You need to maintain test datasets, run evals regularly, and monitor production traces to understand how your AI system performs in the real world.
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