Chaining functions together

Semantic Kernel (SK) was designed in the spirit of UNIX's piping capability to take one command and stream its output to the next command in the sequence. You can see that legacy design built-in to the use of the $INPUT parameter as a default intake for a function to stream its output into the next $INPUT-ready function.

For example we can make three inline semantic functions and string their outputs into the next input, and so forth after preparing myKernel as before.

string myJokePrompt = """
Tell a short joke about {{$INPUT}}.
""";

string myPoemPrompt = """
Take this "{{$INPUT}}" and convert it to a nursery rhyme.
""";

string myMenuPrompt = """
Make this poem "{{$INPUT}}" influence the three items in a coffee shop menu. 
The menu reads in enumerated form:
1.
""";

var myJokeFunction = myKernel.CreateSemanticFunction(myJokePrompt, maxTokens: 500);
var myPoemFunction = myKernel.CreateSemanticFunction(myPoemPrompt, maxTokens: 500);
var myMenuFunction = myKernel.CreateSemanticFunction(myMenuPrompt, maxTokens: 500);

var myOutput = await myKernel.RunAsync(
    new ContextVariables("Charlie Brown"),
    myJokeFunction,
    myPoemFunction,
    myMenuFunction);

Console.WriteLine(myOutput);

This can result in something like:

1. Charlie Brown's Surprise - A sweet and creamy latte with a hint of caramel 
2. Good Grief! - A bold espresso with a dash of cinnamon 
3. Wide Smile - A smooth cappuccino with a sprinkle of nutmeg

We could also have stopped the Chaining process one step shorter with:

var myOutput = await myKernel.RunAsync(
    new ContextVariables("Charlie Brown"),
    myJokeFunction,
    myPoemFunction);

Which would result in something like:

Charlie Brown got a present one day
He said "Oh good grief!" in dismay
He opened it up with a smile so wide
But it wasn't what he had in mind

Take the next step

Running the app samples will give you the quickest sense of what you can do with SK.