{"id":2674,"date":"2024-05-14T06:53:10","date_gmt":"2024-05-14T13:53:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/semantic-kernel\/?p=2674"},"modified":"2024-05-14T06:53:10","modified_gmt":"2024-05-14T13:53:10","slug":"using-semantic-kernel-to-create-a-time-plugin-with-net","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/agent-framework\/using-semantic-kernel-to-create-a-time-plugin-with-net\/","title":{"rendered":"Using Semantic Kernel to create a Time Plugin with .NET"},"content":{"rendered":"

Plugins are one of the most powerful features of Semantic Kernel and in this demo <\/span>we show how you can easily use Plugins with the power of Auto Function Calling from AI Models.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A Glimpse into the Demonstration\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Time Information Plugin\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the demo we implement a simple class TimeInformantionPlugin with one function to retrieve the UTC time in string format.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

public class TimeInformationPlugin\u00a0\r\n{\u00a0\r\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 [KernelFunction]\u00a0\r\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 [Description(\"Retrieves the current time in UTC.\")]\u00a0\r\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 public string GetCurrentUtcTime()\u00a0=> DateTime.UtcNow.ToString(\"R\");\u00a0\r\n}<\/code><\/pre>\n
C# functions that can be imported to Plugins are marked with KernelFunction that will instruct the Kernel what are going to be imported into Plugins using Description attribute will be used on how those functions will be detailed to the AI Model for calling so it will have a better understanding on when to use your functions.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
When implementing functions in your plugins you can use many different signatures, including asynchronous tasks and different types, check our [Concept \u2013 Method Function Types]( <\/span>semantic-kernel\/dotnet\/samples\/Concepts\/Functions\/MethodFunctions_Types.cs at main \u00b7 microsoft\/semantic-kernel (github.com)<\/span><\/a>) sample for more details.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n