“`html
Build an AI-Powered Research Assistant: A Step-by-Step Tutorial
1. Define Your Research Scope & Choose the Right AI Model
- Identify the type of research your assistant will handle (e.g., market trends, academic papers, competitive analysis) so the model and tools align with your goals.
- Compare models: GPT-4o for deep reasoning, Claude 3.5 Sonnet for long-context analysis, or a fine-tuned open-source model like Llama 3 for cost-sensitive projects.
- Set up your OpenAI / Anthropic / HuggingFace account, generate an API key, and install the official Python SDK (
pip install openaioranthropic).
2. Scaffold the Project & Manage Secrets Securely
- Create a clean project folder with a virtual environment (
python -m venv venv) and a.envfile to store your API key usingpython-dotenv. - Write a simple
config.pythat loads environment variables and sets default parameters (temperature, max_tokens, model name). - Build a minimal
assistant.pyscript that sends a single prompt to the API and prints the response — this validates your connection before adding complexity.
3. Implement Core Research Workflows
- Design a
research(query, depth)function that constructs a system prompt (system + user) prompt with structured instructions: “summarise, cite sources, note
