langchainlisted
Install: claude install-skill Zephyrex21/claude-skills-vetted
# LangChain - Build LLM Applications with Agents & RAG
The most popular framework for building LLM-powered applications.
## When to use LangChain
**Use LangChain when:**
- Building agents with tool calling and reasoning (ReAct pattern)
- Implementing RAG (retrieval-augmented generation) pipelines
- Need to swap LLM providers easily (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google)
- Creating chatbots with conversation memory
- Rapid prototyping of LLM applications
- Production deployments with LangSmith observability
**Metrics**:
- **119,000+ GitHub stars**
- **272,000+ repositories** use LangChain
- **500+ integrations** (models, vector stores, tools)
- **3,800+ contributors**
**Use alternatives instead**:
- **LlamaIndex**: RAG-focused, better for document Q&A
- **LangGraph**: Complex stateful workflows, more control
- **Haystack**: Production search pipelines
- **Semantic Kernel**: Microsoft ecosystem
## Quick start
### Installation
```bash
# Core library (Python 3.10+)
pip install -U langchain
# With OpenAI
pip install langchain-openai
# With Anthropic
pip install langchain-anthropic
# Common extras
pip install langchain-community # 500+ integrations
pip install langchain-chroma # Vector store
```
### Basic LLM usage
```python
from langchain_anthropic import ChatAnthropic
# Initialize model
llm = ChatAnthropic(model="claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929")
# Simple completion
response = llm.invoke("Explain quantum computing in 2 sentences")
print(response.content)
```
### Create an ag