Quickstart Guide

#Authorisation

#Instill Cloud

To get started with Instill Cloud, you'll need to create an account if you haven't already. If you already have an account, simply log in to begin your journey with Instill Cloud. Experience the power of Instill Cloud by clicking the link below:

When signing up, you have three options:

• Sign in with your Google account
• Sign in with your GitHub account
• Use your email address and password

#Self-hosted Instill Core

If you're configuring Instill Core for the first time, please visit the Console (http://localhost:3000) and use the following initial login details to initiate the password reset process for onboarding:

• Username: admin
• Password: password

This protects Instill Core from being acceesible by anyone when deployed.

Provide the initial username `admin` and password `password` to reset the password for onboarding

Instill Cloud empowers you to build pipelines tailored for processing unstructured data using Versatile Data Pipeline (VDP). The central concept in VDP is the Pipeline, which automates a sequence of sub-components to process unstructured data. A pipeline comprises different types of Connectors and Operators.

#Build Your First AI Workflow

#Build the Pipeline

In this guide, we'll walk you through creating your first AI pipeline, specifically focusing on a generative pipeline using the OpenAI and Stability AI Connectors to generate digital stickers.

Step1: Add Connector Resources

Begin by navigating to the Resources page on the left sidebar. Since you haven't set up any pipelines yet, this page will be empty.

To set up an OpenAI connector resource, follow these steps:

1. Click on + Add Resource, add select OpenAI on the Modal.
2. Provide a unique ID for the resource. Here we use openai. Optionally, you can add a description.
3. Fill in the API Key. Follow the OpenAI documentation to find your API key.
4. Optionally, specify which organization is used for the request.
5. Click Save.

Next, set up a Stability AI connector resource:

1. Click on + Add Resource, add select Stability AI on the Modal.
2. Assign a unique ID for the resource. Here we use stability-ai, and you can Optionally add a description.
3. Provide the API Key. Follow the Stability AI documentation to find your API key.
4. Click Save.

Now, head to the Pipelines page on the left sidebar. To create your first pipeline through the Console, click on + Add Pipeline. This will redirect you to the no-code pipeline builder. The pipeline will be assigned a randomly generated unique ID. You can change it on the right, for example, digital-sticker-maker. On the canvas, you can drag and drop connectors and operators to construct your pipeline.

Step 2: Build the Pipeline in the No-code Pipeline Builder

The Start Operator serves as the starting point of a VDP pipeline, where you can define the input data for your application.

To set up a Start operator:

1. Locate the start operator on canvas
2. Click Add Field + and select Text. Fill in the Title with Prompt and Key with prompt.
3. Click Add Field + and select Text, Fill in the Title with Sticker Shape and Key with shape.
4. Click Save.

This configuration requires two inputs: a prompt to generate the idea for the sticker and a shape parameter to control the sticker's appearance.

To configure an OpenAI connector:

1. Click Add Connector + and choose openai from existing resource. This will add a OpenAI connector ai_0 to the canvas.
2. Click the ⚙️ icon on the ai_0 to open configuration right panel.
3. Select TASK_TEXT_GENERATION from the dropdown of the Task field.
4. Choose Model to choose the model to use, e.g., gpt-3.5-turbo.
5. Set N to in the 1 to indicate only one chat completion.
6. Fill System Message to set the behavior of the model. Here we set the value to:

7. In the Prompt field, specify the text prompt to generate an LLM augmented prompt:

8. Fill Temperature with a number between 0 and 2 to control how random the generation is, e.g., 1.
9. Click Save.

The OpenAI connector will automatically link to the Start operator since we have used {{start.shape}} and {{start.prompt}} in the OpenAI connector configuration. The {{}} placeholders represent string values to be filled during pipeline triggering.

To set up an Stability AI connector:

1. Click + Add Resource and choose stability-ai from existing resource. This will add a OpenAI connector ai_1 to the canvas.
2. Click the ⚙️ icon on the ai_1 to open configuration right panel.
3. Select TASK_TEXT_TO_IMAGE from the dropdown of the Task field.
4. Adjust CFG Scale to control how strictly the diffusion process adheres to the text prompt, e.g., set it to 8.
5. Choose the Engine to use, e.g., stable-diffusion-xl-1024-v1-0.
6. In the Prompts field, specify the generated text array from the OpenAI connector output {ai_0.output.texts}.
7. Set Samples to 1 to indicate generating only one image.
8. Specify a Seed with 0 for a randomization.
9. Fill Steps to 30 to indicate the number of diffusion steps to run.
10. Click Save.

You will see that the Stability AI connector is automatically linked to the OpenAI connector since we have used {ai_0.output.texts} in the Stability AI connector configuration.

The End Operator is used at the end of a VDP pipeline to receive the output as a response when triggering the pipeline.

To set up an End operator:

1. Find the end operator on canvas.
2. Click Add Field + and fill in the Title with My Original Prompt, Key with my_original_prompt and Value with {start.prompt}.
3. Click Add Field + and fill in the Title with Sticker Shape, Key with sticker_shape and Value with {start.shape}.
4. Click Add Field + and fill in the Title with LLM Powered Prompt, Key with llm_powered_prompt and Value with {ai_0.output.texts}.
5. Click Add Field + and fill in the Title with Digital Sticker, Key with digital_sticker and Value with {ai_0.output.images}.
6. Click Save.

You will see that the End operator is automatically linked to multiple components: start, ai_0 and ai_1.

Click Save on the top right corner, and your pipeline is ready to be tested.

#Test the Pipeline via No-Code

🎉 Congratulations! Your first VDP pipeline is all set up and ready to go. Now, simply click on the Test button located in the top right corner.

You can now put your pipeline to the test using real data. For instance, let's create a sticker featuring a yellow plane in the sky.

Click Run.

Test the pipeline with real data

As you can see, the OpenAI ChatGPT model has expanded our initial prompt, turning it into:

Give it a try!

#Use the Pipeline via Low-Code

To triggering the pipeline, you need a valid API token. If you don't have one yet, follow these steps:

1. Click on Settings on the left sidebar
2. Navigate to the API Tokens page
3. Click Create Token and give it an ID

The API tokens do not expire, so keep them safe. If a token is compromised, select it and click Delete. Be cautious, as this operation cannot be undone, and apps using the token will stop working.

VDP automatically generates a dedicated trigger endpoint for each pipeline to process data. To trigger the pipeline, follow these steps:

1. Click the bottom right icon to display the Pipeline toolkit
2. Copy the cURL request in the Trigger Snippet section and pass your API token as a Bearer token in the Authorization header
3. Adjust and ingest your data accordingly in the example request

Here is an example trigger request for the pipeline:

Where <user-id> represents your username, and <pipeline-id> corresponds to the pipeline ID.

You should receive the following response:

To obtain the generated image, decode the "digital_sticker" field of the response from Base64 format.

Decoded digital sticker image

#Generate Stickers in Batch

Interested in generating multiple stickers at once? You can do this by adjusting the Stability AI connector configuration and setting Samples to 4.

Save your changes and test the pipeline again with the following prompt:

Generate four stickers in a batch

#Create Pipelines from Templates

No need to start from scratch! Take advantage of our pre-made templates available in the Console. We've curated a selection of templates for various common use cases. Simply choose the one that suits your needs and start building pipelines effortlessly.

You don't have to reinvent the wheel; explore the Templates and pick the ones that pique your interest.

#Use Models on Instill Cloud

We deploy our source available product Model on Instill Cloud.

#Access Pre-trained ML Models

Deploying and maintaining ML models in a production environment can be challenging. To simplify this process, we have deployed a list of pre-trained ML models on Instill Cloud. These models are ready for use and are entirely free during Open Alpha.

To explore the available pre-deployed ML models for different AI tasks, navigate to the Model Hub on the Instill Cloud console. Each model in the Model Hub is designed to handle a specific AI task.

For detailed information about a specific model, click on its ID and review the Description and Setting sections. If you want to import the model into VDP, refer to the VDP documentation on the Instill Model AI connector.