Tutorial: Function calling with the Gemini API

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Function calling makes it easier for you to get structured data outputs from generative models. You can then use these outputs to call other APIs and return the relevant response data to the model. In other words, function calling helps you connect generative models to external systems so that the generated content includes the most up-to-date and accurate information.

You can provide Gemini models with descriptions of functions. These are functions that you write in the language of your app (that is, they're not Google Cloud Functions). The model may ask you to call a function and send back the result to help the model handle your query.

If you haven't already, check out the Introduction to function calling to learn more.

Set up your project

Before calling the Gemini API, you need to set up your project, which includes setting up your API key, installing the SDK package, and initializing the model.

npm install @google/generative-ai

const { GoogleGenerativeAI } = require("@google/generative-ai");

// Access your API key as an environment variable (see "Set up your API key" above)
const genAI = new GoogleGenerativeAI(process.env.API_KEY);

// ...

// Use a model that supports function calling, like Gemini 1.0 Pro.
// See "Supported models" in the "Introduction to function calling" page.
const model = genAI.getGenerativeModel({ model: "MODEL_NAME"});

// ...

Set up a function call

For this tutorial, you'll have the model interact with a hypothetical currency exchange API that supports the following parameters:

Example API request

{
  "currencyFrom": "USD",
  "currencyTo": "SEK"
}

Example API response

{
  "base": "USD",
  "rates": {"SEK": 0.091}
}

Step 1: Create the function that makes the API request

If you haven't already, start by creating the function that makes an API request.

For demonstration purposes in this tutorial, rather than sending an actual API request, you'll be returning hardcoded values in the same format that an actual API would return.

async function makeApiRequest(currencyFrom, currencyTo) {
  // This hypothetical API returns a JSON such as:
  // {"base":"USD","rates":{"SEK": 0.091}}
  return {
    base: currencyFrom,
    rates: { [currencyTo]: 0.091 },
  };
}

Step 2: Create a function declaration

Create the function declaration that you'll pass to the generative model (next step of this tutorial).

Include as much detail as possible in the function and parameter descriptions. The generative model uses this information to determine which function to select and how to provide values for the parameters in the function call.

// Function declaration, to pass to the model.
const getExchangeRateFunctionDeclaration = {
  name: "getExchangeRate",
  parameters: {
    type: "OBJECT",
    description: "Get the exchange rate for currencies between countries",
    properties: {
      currencyFrom: {
        type: "STRING",
        description: "The currency to convert from.",
      },
      currencyTo: {
        type: "STRING",
        description: "The currency to convert to.",
      },
    },
    required: ["currencyTo", "currencyFrom"],
  },
};

// Executable function code. Put it in a map keyed by the function name
// so that you can call it once you get the name string from the model.
const functions = {
  getExchangeRate: ({ currencyFrom, currencyTo }) => {
    return makeApiRequest( currencyFrom, currencyTo)
  }
};

Step 3: Specify the function declaration during model initialization

Specify the function declaration when initializing the generative model by setting the model's tools parameter:

const { GoogleGenerativeAI } = require("@google/generative-ai");

// Access your API key as an environment variable (see "Set up your API key" above)
const genAI = new GoogleGenerativeAI(process.env.API_KEY);

// ...

const generativeModel = genAI.getGenerativeModel({
  // Use a model that supports function calling, like Gemini 1.0 Pro.
  // See "Supported models" in the "Introduction to function calling" page.
  model: "gemini-1.0-pro",

  // Specify the function declaration.
  tools: {
    functionDeclarations: [getExchangeRateFunctionDeclaration],
  },
});

Step 4: Generate a function call

Now you can prompt the model with the defined function.

The recommended way to use function calling is through the chat interface, since function calls fit nicely into chat's multi-turn structure.

const chat = generativeModel.startChat();
const prompt = "How much is 50 US dollars worth in Swedish krona?";

// Send the message to the model.
const result = await chat.sendMessage(prompt);

// For simplicity, this uses the first function call found.
const call = result.response.functionCalls()[0];

if (call) {
  // Call the executable function named in the function call
  // with the arguments specified in the function call and
  // let it call the hypothetical API.
  const apiResponse = await functions[call.name](call.args);

  // Send the API response back to the model so it can generate
  // a text response that can be displayed to the user.
  const result2 = await chat.sendMessage([{functionResponse: {
    name: 'getExchangeRate',
    response: apiResponse
  }}]);

  // Log the text response.
  console.log(result2.response.text());
}