Azure OpenAI Chat

Azure’s OpenAI offering, powered by ChatGPT, extends beyond traditional OpenAI capabilities, delivering AI-driven text generation with enhanced functionality. Azure offers additional AI safety and responsible AI features, as highlighted in their recent update here.

Azure offers Java developers the opportunity to leverage AI’s full potential by integrating it with an array of Azure services, which includes AI-related resources such as Vector Stores on Azure.

Prerequisites

The Azure OpenAI client offers three options to connect: using an Azure API key or using an OpenAI API Key, or using Microsoft Entra ID.

Azure API Key & Endpoint

Obtain your Azure OpenAI endpoint and api-key from the Azure OpenAI Service section on the Azure Portal.

Spring AI defines two configuration properties:

spring.ai.azure.openai.api-key: Set this to the value of the API Key obtained from Azure.
spring.ai.azure.openai.endpoint: Set this to the endpoint URL obtained when provisioning your model in Azure.

You can set these configuration properties by exporting environment variables:

export SPRING_AI_AZURE_OPENAI_API_KEY=<INSERT AZURE KEY HERE>
export SPRING_AI_AZURE_OPENAI_ENDPOINT=<INSERT ENDPOINT URL HERE>

OpenAI Key

To authenticate with the OpenAI service (not Azure), provide an OpenAI API key. This will automatically set the endpoint to api.openai.com/v1.

When using this approach, set the spring.ai.azure.openai.chat.options.deployment-name property to the name of the OpenAI model you wish to use.

export SPRING_AI_AZURE_OPENAI_OPENAI_API_KEY=<INSERT OPENAI KEY HERE>

Microsoft Entra ID

To authenticate using Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Azure Active Directory), create a TokenCredential bean in your configuration. If this bean is available, an OpenAIClient instance will be created using the token credentials. bd === Deployment Name

To use Azure AI applications, you need to create an Azure AI Deployment through the Azure AI Portal. In Azure, each client must specify a Deployment Name to connect to the Azure OpenAI service. It’s important to note that the Deployment Name is different from the model you choose to deploy. For example, a deployment named 'MyAiDeployment' could be configured to use either the GPT 3.5 Turbo model or the GPT 4.0 model.

To get started, follow these steps to create a deployment with the default settings:

Deployment Name: `gpt-35-turbo`
Model Name: `gpt-35-turbo`

This Azure configuration aligns with the default configurations of the Spring Boot Azure AI Starter and its Autoconfiguration feature. If you use a different Deployment Name, make sure to update the configuration property accordingly:

spring.ai.azure.openai.chat.options.deployment-name=<my deployment name>

The different deployment structures of Azure OpenAI and OpenAI leads to a property in the Azure OpenAI client library named deploymentOrModelName. This is because in OpenAI there is no Deployment Name, only a Model Name.

The property spring.ai.azure.openai.chat.options.model has been renamed to spring.ai.azure.openai.chat.options.deployment-name.

If you decide to connect to OpenAI instead of Azure OpeanAI, by setting the spring.ai.azure.openai.openai-api-key=<Your OpenAI Key> property, then the spring.ai.azure.openai.chat.options.deployment-name is treathed as an OpenAI model name.

Access the OpenAI Model

You can configure the client to use directly OpenAI instead of the Azure OpenAI deployed models. For this you need to set the spring.ai.azure.openai.openai-api-key=<Your OpenAI Key> instead of spring.ai.azure.openai.api-key=<Yur Azure OpenAi Key>.

Add Repositories and BOM

Spring AI artifacts are published in Spring Milestone and Snapshot repositories. Refer to the Repositories section to add these repositories to your build system.

To help with dependency management, Spring AI provides a BOM (bill of materials) to ensure that a consistent version of Spring AI is used throughout the entire project. Refer to the Dependency Management section to add the Spring AI BOM to your build system.

Auto-configuration

Spring AI provides Spring Boot auto-configuration for the Azure OpenAI Chat Client. To enable it add the following dependency to your project’s Maven pom.xml file:

<dependency>
    <groupId>org.springframework.ai</groupId>
    <artifactId>spring-ai-azure-openai-spring-boot-starter</artifactId>
</dependency>

or to your Gradle build.gradle build file.

dependencies {
    implementation 'org.springframework.ai:spring-ai-azure-openai-spring-boot-starter'
}

Refer to the Dependency Management section to add the Spring AI BOM to your build file.

Chat Properties

The prefix spring.ai.azure.openai is the property prefix to configure the connection to Azure OpenAI.

Property Description Default

Property	Description	Default
spring.ai.azure.openai.api-key	The Key from Azure AI OpenAI `Keys and Endpoint` section under `Resource Management`	-
spring.ai.azure.openai.endpoint	The endpoint from the Azure AI OpenAI `Keys and Endpoint` section under `Resource Management`	-
spring.ai.azure.openai.openai-api-key	(non Azure) OpenAI API key. Used to authenticate with the OpenAI service, instead of Azure OpenAI. This automatically sets the endpoint to api.openai.com/v1. Use either `api-key` or `openai-api-key` property. With this configuraiton the `spring.ai.azure.openai.chat.options.deployment-name` is threated as an OpenAi Model name.	-

spring.ai.azure.openai.api-key

The Key from Azure AI OpenAI Keys and Endpoint section under Resource Management

spring.ai.azure.openai.endpoint

The endpoint from the Azure AI OpenAI Keys and Endpoint section under Resource Management

spring.ai.azure.openai.openai-api-key

(non Azure) OpenAI API key. Used to authenticate with the OpenAI service, instead of Azure OpenAI. This automatically sets the endpoint to api.openai.com/v1. Use either api-key or openai-api-key property. With this configuraiton the spring.ai.azure.openai.chat.options.deployment-name is threated as an OpenAi Model name.

The prefix spring.ai.azure.openai.chat is the property prefix that configures the ChatModel implementation for Azure OpenAI.

Property Description Default

Property	Description	Default
spring.ai.azure.openai.chat.enabled	Enable Azure OpenAI chat model.	true
spring.ai.azure.openai.chat.options.deployment-name	In use with Azure, this refers to the "Deployment Name" of your model, which you can find at oai.azure.com/portal. It’s important to note that within an Azure OpenAI deployment, the "Deployment Name" is distinct from the model itself. The confusion around these terms stems from the intention to make the Azure OpenAI client library compatible with the original OpenAI endpoint. The deployment structures offered by Azure OpenAI and Sam Altman’s OpenAI differ significantly. Deployments model name to provide as part of this completions request.	gpt-35-turbo
spring.ai.azure.openai.chat.options.maxTokens	The maximum number of tokens to generate.	-
spring.ai.azure.openai.chat.options.temperature	The sampling temperature to use that controls the apparent creativity of generated completions. Higher values will make output more random while lower values will make results more focused and deterministic. It is not recommended to modify temperature and top_p for the same completions request as the interaction of these two settings is difficult to predict.	0.7
spring.ai.azure.openai.chat.options.topP	An alternative to sampling with temperature called nucleus sampling. This value causes the model to consider the results of tokens with the provided probability mass.	-
spring.ai.azure.openai.chat.options.logitBias	A map between GPT token IDs and bias scores that influences the probability of specific tokens appearing in a completions response. Token IDs are computed via external tokenizer tools, while bias scores reside in the range of -100 to 100 with minimum and maximum values corresponding to a full ban or exclusive selection of a token, respectively. The exact behavior of a given bias score varies by model.	-
spring.ai.azure.openai.chat.options.user	An identifier for the caller or end user of the operation. This may be used for tracking or rate-limiting purposes.	-
spring.ai.azure.openai.chat.options.n	The number of chat completions choices that should be generated for a chat completions response.	-
spring.ai.azure.openai.chat.options.stop	A collection of textual sequences that will end completions generation.	-
spring.ai.azure.openai.chat.options.presencePenalty	A value that influences the probability of generated tokens appearing based on their existing presence in generated text. Positive values will make tokens less likely to appear when they already exist and increase the model’s likelihood to output new topics.	-
spring.ai.azure.openai.chat.options.responseFormat	An object specifying the format that the model must output. Using `AzureOpenAiResponseFormat.JSON` enables JSON mode, which guarantees the message the model generates is valid JSON. Using AzureOpenAiResponseFormat.TEXT enables TEXT mode.	-
spring.ai.azure.openai.chat.options.frequencyPenalty	A value that influences the probability of generated tokens appearing based on their cumulative frequency in generated text. Positive values will make tokens less likely to appear as their frequency increases and decrease the likelihood of the model repeating the same statements verbatim.	-

spring.ai.azure.openai.chat.enabled

Enable Azure OpenAI chat model.

true

spring.ai.azure.openai.chat.options.deployment-name

In use with Azure, this refers to the "Deployment Name" of your model, which you can find at oai.azure.com/portal. It’s important to note that within an Azure OpenAI deployment, the "Deployment Name" is distinct from the model itself. The confusion around these terms stems from the intention to make the Azure OpenAI client library compatible with the original OpenAI endpoint. The deployment structures offered by Azure OpenAI and Sam Altman’s OpenAI differ significantly. Deployments model name to provide as part of this completions request.

gpt-35-turbo

spring.ai.azure.openai.chat.options.maxTokens

The maximum number of tokens to generate.

spring.ai.azure.openai.chat.options.temperature

The sampling temperature to use that controls the apparent creativity of generated completions. Higher values will make output more random while lower values will make results more focused and deterministic. It is not recommended to modify temperature and top_p for the same completions request as the interaction of these two settings is difficult to predict.

0.7

spring.ai.azure.openai.chat.options.topP

An alternative to sampling with temperature called nucleus sampling. This value causes the model to consider the results of tokens with the provided probability mass.

spring.ai.azure.openai.chat.options.logitBias

A map between GPT token IDs and bias scores that influences the probability of specific tokens appearing in a completions response. Token IDs are computed via external tokenizer tools, while bias scores reside in the range of -100 to 100 with minimum and maximum values corresponding to a full ban or exclusive selection of a token, respectively. The exact behavior of a given bias score varies by model.

spring.ai.azure.openai.chat.options.user

An identifier for the caller or end user of the operation. This may be used for tracking or rate-limiting purposes.

spring.ai.azure.openai.chat.options.n

The number of chat completions choices that should be generated for a chat completions response.

spring.ai.azure.openai.chat.options.stop

A collection of textual sequences that will end completions generation.

spring.ai.azure.openai.chat.options.presencePenalty

A value that influences the probability of generated tokens appearing based on their existing presence in generated text. Positive values will make tokens less likely to appear when they already exist and increase the model’s likelihood to output new topics.

spring.ai.azure.openai.chat.options.responseFormat

An object specifying the format that the model must output. Using AzureOpenAiResponseFormat.JSON enables JSON mode, which guarantees the message the model generates is valid JSON. Using AzureOpenAiResponseFormat.TEXT enables TEXT mode.

spring.ai.azure.openai.chat.options.frequencyPenalty

A value that influences the probability of generated tokens appearing based on their cumulative frequency in generated text. Positive values will make tokens less likely to appear as their frequency increases and decrease the likelihood of the model repeating the same statements verbatim.

All properties prefixed with spring.ai.azure.openai.chat.options can be overridden at runtime by adding a request specific Runtime Options to the Prompt call.

Runtime Options

The AzureOpenAiChatOptions.java provides model configurations, such as the model to use, the temperature, the frequency penalty, etc.

On start-up, the default options can be configured with the AzureOpenAiChatModel(api, options) constructor or the spring.ai.azure.openai.chat.options.* properties.

At runtime you can override the default options by adding new, request specific, options to the Prompt call. For example to override the default model and temperature for a specific request:

ChatResponse response = chatModel.call(
    new Prompt(
        "Generate the names of 5 famous pirates.",
        AzureOpenAiChatOptions.builder()
            .withModel("gpt-4-o")
            .withTemperature(0.4)
        .build()
    ));

In addition to the model specific AzureOpenAiChatOptions.java you can use a portable ChatOptions instance, created with the ChatOptionsBuilder#builder().

Function Calling

You can register custom Java functions with the AzureOpenAiChatModel and have the model intelligently choose to output a JSON object containing arguments to call one or many of the registered functions. This is a powerful technique to connect the LLM capabilities with external tools and APIs. Read more about Azure OpenAI Function Calling.

Multimodal

Multimodality refers to a model’s ability to simultaneously understand and process information from various sources, including text, images, audio, and other data formats. Presently, the Azure OpenAI gpt-4o model offers multimodal support.

The Azure OpenAI can incorporate a list of base64-encoded images or image urls with the message. Spring AI’s Message interface facilitates multimodal AI models by introducing the Media type. This type encompasses data and details regarding media attachments in messages, utilizing Spring’s org.springframework.util.MimeType and a java.lang.Object for the raw media data.

Below is a code example excerpted from OpenAiChatModelIT.java, illustrating the fusion of user text with an image using the the GPT_4_VISION_PREVIEW model.

URL url = new URL("https://docs.spring.io/spring-ai/reference/_images/multimodal.test.png");
String response = ChatClient.create(chatModel).prompt()
        .options(AzureOpenAiChatOptions.builder().withDeploymentName("gpt4o").build())
        .user(u -> u.text("Explain what do you see on this picture?").media(MimeTypeUtils.IMAGE_PNG, url))
        .call()
        .content();

you can pass multiple images as well.

It takes as an input the multimodal.test.png image:

along with the text message "Explain what do you see on this picture?", and generates a response like this:

This is an image of a fruit bowl with a simple design. The bowl is made of metal with curved wire edges that
create an open structure, allowing the fruit to be visible from all angles. Inside the bowl, there are two
yellow bananas resting on top of what appears to be a red apple. The bananas are slightly overripe, as
indicated by the brown spots on their peels. The bowl has a metal ring at the top, likely to serve as a handle
for carrying. The bowl is placed on a flat surface with a neutral-colored background that provides a clear
view of the fruit inside.

Sample Controller

Create a new Spring Boot project and add the spring-ai-azure-openai-spring-boot-starter to your pom (or gradle) dependencies.

Add a application.properties file, under the src/main/resources directory, to enable and configure the OpenAi chat model:

spring.ai.azure.openai.api-key=YOUR_API_KEY
spring.ai.azure.openai.endpoint=YOUR_ENDPOINT
spring.ai.azure.openai.chat.options.deployment-name=gpt-35-turbo
spring.ai.azure.openai.chat.options.temperature=0.7

replace the api-key and endpoint with your Azure OpenAI credentials.

This will create a AzureOpenAiChatModel implementation that you can inject into your class. Here is an example of a simple @Controller class that uses the chat model for text generations.

@RestController
public class ChatController {

    private final AzureOpenAiChatModel chatModel;

    @Autowired
    public ChatController(AzureOpenAiChatModel chatModel) {
        this.chatModel = chatModel;
    }

    @GetMapping("/ai/generate")
    public Map generate(@RequestParam(value = "message", defaultValue = "Tell me a joke") String message) {
        return Map.of("generation", chatModel.call(message));
    }

    @GetMapping("/ai/generateStream")
	public Flux<ChatResponse> generateStream(@RequestParam(value = "message", defaultValue = "Tell me a joke") String message) {
        Prompt prompt = new Prompt(new UserMessage(message));
        return chatModel.stream(prompt);
    }
}

Manual Configuration

The AzureOpenAiChatModel implements the ChatModel and StreamingChatModel and uses the Azure OpenAI Java Client.

To enable it, add the spring-ai-azure-openai dependency to your project’s Maven pom.xml file:

<dependency>
    <groupId>org.springframework.ai</groupId>
    <artifactId>spring-ai-azure-openai</artifactId>
</dependency>

or to your Gradle build.gradle build file.

dependencies {
    implementation 'org.springframework.ai:spring-ai-azure-openai'
}

Refer to the Dependency Management section to add the Spring AI BOM to your build file.

The spring-ai-azure-openai dependency also provide the access to the AzureOpenAiChatModel. For more information about the AzureOpenAiChatModel refer to the Azure OpenAI Chat section.

Next, create an AzureOpenAiChatModel instance and use it to generate text responses:

var openAIClient = new OpenAIClientBuilder()
  .credential(new AzureKeyCredential(System.getenv("AZURE_OPENAI_API_KEY")))
  .endpoint(System.getenv("AZURE_OPENAI_ENDPOINT"))
  .buildClient();

var openAIChatOptions = AzureOpenAiChatOptions.builder()
  .withDeploymentName("gpt-35-turbo")
  .withTemperature(0.4f)
  .withMaxTokens(200)
  .build();

var chatModel = new AzureOpenAiChatModel(openAIClient, openAIChatOptions);

ChatResponse response = chatModel.call(
  new Prompt("Generate the names of 5 famous pirates."));

// Or with streaming responses
Flux<ChatResponse> response = chatModel.stream(
  new Prompt("Generate the names of 5 famous pirates."));

the gpt-35-turbo is actually the Deployment Name as presented in the Azure AI Portal.