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Sebastiao Gazolla Jr
Sebastiao Gazolla Jr

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Connecting to LLMs: Building a Simple HTTP Client for AI Integration

#tutorial #ai #llm #java

Part 4 of the "From Zero to AI Agent: My Journey into Java-based Intelligent Applications" series

Now that we have our MCPService handling tool connections, we need to add the "intelligence" to our agent. This means connecting to Large Language Models (LLMs) that will help us understand user queries and decide which tools to use.

Today we'll build a HTTP client that can talk to popular LLM providers like Groq and Google Gemini. No complex libraries, just modern Java HTTP calls with clean JSON parsing using records and Jackson.

Why These LLM Providers?

These providers are chosen for their generous free tiers, offering high token quotas ideal for prototyping and learning.

Groq: Fast inference with Llama models, great for real-time apps. Its free tier supports up to 131,072 tokens per minute, allowing millions daily for rapid iteration.

Google Gemini: Strong reasoning for complex queries. Its free tier offers up to 1 million tokens per context window and high daily quotas, supporting token-heavy tasks like code generation.

Both: Simple REST APIs, good for learning and for building and testing AI integrations.

The LLM Client Interface

Let's start with a simple interface that any LLM provider can implement:

public interface LLMClient {
    String send(String prompt) throws Exception;
    String getProviderName();
    boolean isHealthy();
}
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Building the HTTP Foundation

Here's our base class with all the common HTTP functionality:

import java.net.http.HttpClient;
import java.net.http.HttpRequest;
import java.net.http.HttpResponse;
import java.time.Duration;
import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.ObjectMapper;

public abstract class BaseLLMClient implements LLMClient {
    protected final HttpClient httpClient = HttpClient.newBuilder()
        .connectTimeout(Duration.ofSeconds(30))
        .build();

    protected final ObjectMapper objectMapper = new ObjectMapper()
        .configure(DeserializationFeature.FAIL_ON_UNKNOWN_PROPERTIES, false);

    protected final String apiKey;

    public BaseLLMClient(String apiKey) {
        this.apiKey = apiKey;
        if (apiKey == null || apiKey.isBlank()) {
            throw new IllegalArgumentException("API key is required");
        }
    }

    @Override
    public String send(String prompt) throws RuntimeException {
        if (prompt == null || prompt.isBlank()) {
            throw new RuntimeException("Prompt cannot be null or empty");
        }

        try {
            HttpRequest request = buildRequest(prompt);
            HttpResponse<String> response = httpClient.send(request, HttpResponse.BodyHandlers.ofString());

            if (response.statusCode() != 200) {
                throw new RuntimeException("API error: status=%d, body=%s".formatted(
                    response.statusCode(), response.body()));
            }

            return extractAnswer(response.body()).trim();

        } catch (Exception e) {
            throw new RuntimeException("Error sending request: " + e.getMessage(), e);
        }
    }

    protected abstract HttpRequest buildRequest(String prompt) throws Exception;
    protected abstract String extractAnswer(String jsonResponse) throws Exception;

    @Override
    public boolean isHealthy() {
        try {
            send("Hello");
            return true;
        } catch (Exception e) {
            return false;
        }
    }
}
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The BaseLLMClient Java class is an abstract base for interacting with large language model (LLM) APIs. The class requires an API key, validated in the constructor, and provides a send method to transmit a prompt to the LLM, handling HTTP requests and responses. The buildRequest method, also abstract, must be implemented by subclasses to define the HTTP request structure.

Groq Implementation with Records

Groq uses an OpenAI-compatible API. Here's our clean implementation using Java records:

import java.net.URI;
import java.net.http.HttpRequest;
import java.util.List;

public class GroqClient extends BaseLLMClient {
    private static final String GROQ_URL = "https://api.groq.com/openai/v1/chat/completions";
    private final String model;

    public GroqClient(String apiKey, String model) {
        super(apiKey);
        this.model = model != null ? model : "llama-3.3-70b-versatile";
    }

    @Override
    protected HttpRequest buildRequest(String prompt) throws Exception {
        String jsonBody = objectMapper.writeValueAsString(
            new GroqRequest(
                model,
                List.of(new GroqRequest.Message("user", prompt)),
                1000,
                0.1
            )
        );

        return HttpRequest.newBuilder(URI.create(GROQ_URL))
            .header("Content-Type", "application/json")
            .header("Authorization", "Bearer %s".formatted(apiKey))
            .POST(HttpRequest.BodyPublishers.ofString(jsonBody))
            .build();
    }

    @Override
    protected String extractAnswer(String jsonResponse) throws Exception {
        GroqResponse response = objectMapper.readValue(jsonResponse, GroqResponse.class);
        List<GroqResponse.Choice> choices = response.choices();

        if (choices == null || choices.isEmpty()) {
            throw new IllegalStateException("No choices in response");
        }

        return choices.getFirst().message().content();
    }

    @Override
    public String getProviderName() {
        return "Groq (%s)".formatted(model);
    }
}

// Clean record definitions for JSON mapping
record GroqRequest(
    String model,
    List<Message> messages,
    int max_tokens,
    double temperature
) {
    record Message(String role, String content) {}
}

record GroqResponse(List<Choice> choices) {
    record Choice(Message message) {}
    record Message(String content) {}
}
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Google Gemini Implementation

Gemini has a different API structure, but the pattern is the same:

import java.net.URI;
import java.net.http.HttpRequest;
import java.util.List;

public class GeminiClient extends BaseLLMClient {
    private static final String BASE_URL = "https://generativelanguage.googleapis.com/v1beta/models/";
    private final String model;
    private final String endpointUrl;

    public GeminiClient(String apiKey, String model) {
        super(apiKey);
        this.model = model != null ? model : "gemini-1.5-flash";
        this.endpointUrl = "%s%s:generateContent?key=%s".formatted(BASE_URL, this.model, apiKey);
    }

    @Override
    protected HttpRequest buildRequest(String prompt) throws Exception {
        String jsonBody = objectMapper.writeValueAsString(
            new GeminiRequest(
                List.of(new GeminiRequest.Content(List.of(new GeminiRequest.Part(prompt)))),
                new GeminiRequest.GenerationConfig(0.1, 1000)
            )
        );

        return HttpRequest.newBuilder(URI.create(endpointUrl))
            .header("Content-Type", "application/json")
            .POST(HttpRequest.BodyPublishers.ofString(jsonBody))
            .build();
    }

    @Override
    protected String extractAnswer(String jsonResponse) throws Exception {
        GeminiResponse response = objectMapper.readValue(jsonResponse, GeminiResponse.class);
        List<GeminiResponse.Candidate> candidates = response.candidates();

        if (candidates == null || candidates.isEmpty()) {
            throw new IllegalStateException("No candidates in response");
        }

        List<GeminiResponse.Part> parts = candidates.getFirst().content().parts();
        if (parts == null || parts.isEmpty()) {
            throw new IllegalStateException("No parts in content");
        }

        return parts.getFirst().text();
    }

    @Override
    public String getProviderName() {
        return "Google Gemini (%s)".formatted(model);
    }
}

// Gemini request/response records
record GeminiRequest(
    List<Content> contents,
    GenerationConfig generationConfig
) {
    record Content(List<Part> parts) {}
    record Part(String text) {}
    record GenerationConfig(double temperature, int maxOutputTokens) {}
}

record GeminiResponse(List<Candidate> candidates) {
    record Candidate(Content content) {}
    record Content(String role, List<Part> parts) {}
    record Part(String text) {}
}
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Simple Factory for Easy Creation

Keep client creation clean and simple:

public class LLMClientFactory {

    public static LLMClient createGroqClient(String apiKey) {
        return new GroqClient(apiKey, "llama-3.3-70b-versatile");
    }

    public static LLMClient createGeminiClient(String apiKey) {
        return new GeminiClient(apiKey, "gemini-1.5-flash");
    }
}
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Usage Example

Here's how simple it is to use our LLM clients:

public class LLMClientDemo {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        testGroq();
        testGemini();
    }

    private static void testGroq() {
        try {
            LLMClient groq = LLMClientFactory.createGroqClient(System.getenv("GROQ_API_KEY"));

            System.out.println("Testing " + groq.getProviderName());
            String response = groq.send("What is 2+2? Answer briefly.");
            System.out.println("Response: " + response);
            System.out.println("Healthy: " + groq.isHealthy());
            System.out.println();

        } catch (Exception e) {
            System.out.println("Groq test failed: " + e.getMessage());
        }
    }

    private static void testGemini() {
        try {
            LLMClient gemini = LLMClientFactory.createGeminiClient(System.getenv("GEMINI_API_KEY"));

            System.out.println("Testing " + gemini.getProviderName());
            String response = gemini.send("What is the capital of France? Answer briefly.");
            System.out.println("Response: " + response);
            System.out.println("Healthy: " + gemini.isHealthy());
            System.out.println();

        } catch (Exception e) {
            System.out.println("Gemini test failed: " + e.getMessage());
        }
    }
}
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Sample Output:

Testing Groq (llama-3.3-70b-versatile)
Response: 2+2 = 4
Healthy: true

Testing Google Gemini (gemini-1.5-flash)
Response: The capital of France is Paris.
Healthy: true
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Environment Setup

Make sure to set your API keys as environment variables:

# Windows
set GROQ_API_KEY=your_groq_key_here
set GEMINI_API_KEY=your_gemini_key_here

# Unix/MacOS
export GROQ_API_KEY=your_groq_key_here
export GEMINI_API_KEY=your_gemini_key_here
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What's Next?

In our next post, we'll build a simple inference strategy that bridges the gap between user queries and tool execution. We'll keep it minimal and focused - just enough to understand the core concepts.

The clean HTTP foundation we built today will power all the intelligent features in our Java MCP client!

This is part 4 of our series "From Zero to AI Agent: My Journey into Java-based Intelligent Applications". Next up: inference strategies that bring it all together!

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