Foundation·Concept·2 min read

What the LLM Does

Practice this question

The LLM acts as an information extraction layer, not as the authority for workflow execution.

For example, a user might say:

“I noticed a charge of $249.99 that I don't recognize. It happened yesterday.”

The extraction layer might return a candidate structure:

JSON
{
  "intent": "report_unrecognized_transaction",
  "amount": 249.99,
  "currency": "USD",
  "transaction_date_reference": "yesterday",
  "customer_recognizes_transaction": false
}

This output is not automatically trusted. The system must validate the schema, resolve relative dates using a known clock and timezone, match the transaction against authorized records, and ask for clarification when details are missing or ambiguous.

The LLM should not independently:

  • decide whether a dispute qualifies;
  • skip required verification;
  • call a financial action without permission;
  • change workflow state outside approved transitions;
  • invent facts that are not in the user's message or trusted data.

A useful design rule is: extract candidates, validate facts, then evaluate rules.

Adapted from 19_deterministic_workflow_engine_learnings.md · “3. What the LLM Does”. Code examples are study fragments. Difficulty and core labels are editorial estimates; version-specific behavior should be checked against your project.