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Practical LLM Service Development for Spring Developers

This is a practical course on building a RAG-based document search system using the OpenAI API and Spring AI in a Spring Boot environment. You will learn the entire process of developing an AI assistant step by step, from the concepts of Prompt Engineering, Vector Stores, and Embeddings to rapid prototyping with Dify, MCP tool integration, multimodality, and guardrails. You can learn practical application strategies by comparing direct implementation with the use of no-code tools. 🆕 [Update] Section 4 now includes a supplementary lecture (1 hour) on TypeSafe’s Jev decision-making model, covering how to design an agent’s decision-making logic in greater depth.

(5.0) 6 reviews

794 learners

Level Basic

Course period Unlimited

openai
openai
vector-database
vector-database
prompt engineering
prompt engineering
RAG
RAG
Spring AI
Spring AI
openai
openai
vector-database
vector-database
prompt engineering
prompt engineering
RAG
RAG
Spring AI
Spring AI

What you will gain after the course

  • Practical Experience Implementing ChatClient, Structured Outputs, and Streaming Responses with Spring AI

  • The ability to build a vector store–based RAG pipeline from design to chunking strategy.

  • Experience completing production-grade LLM services, from MCP tool integration and multimodal processing to applying guardrails.

  • How to Configure a Dify Knowledge–Based AI Assistant and Integrate It with Spring Boot

LLM Services Built with Spring, from LLM and RAG to Production and Jev Decision Models

This course aims to equip Spring Boot developers with the LLM service development skills they can apply directly in real-world work. Starting with Spring AI’s basic use of ChatClient, structured outputs, and streaming response implementation, it progressively covers building RAG pipelines (vector store integration, chunking strategies, and search quality improvements), integrating external tools with MCP, processing multimodal inputs such as images, Dify integration, and applying guardrails for service stability. Finally, you will complete a real service–style deliverable through a mini-project that integrates what you have learned.

  • Internal document/knowledge search: Transform internal documents, manuals, and wikis into a searchable chatbot using a RAG pipeline

  • Commerce/Retail AI Integration: Configure LLMs to directly call backend functions such as order lookup and product recommendations through MCP-based tool integration (incorporating patterns used in an actual large-scale retail MCP commerce integration project)

  • Financial/Enterprise AI Services: Designing AI service architectures for the financial sector, where response reliability and stability are critical, by applying guardrails

  • Multimodal document processing: Services that analyze documents containing images (contracts, reports, etc.) together

Features of This Course

📌 Practice directly with an executable Spring Boot example project rather than just learning the theory

📌 We openly share the real-world problems you may encounter when building an RAG pipeline (chunking strategies, degraded search quality, etc.) and how to solve them.

📌 Reflects the latest ecosystem trends from a practical perspective, including MCP, multimodality, and Dify integration.

📌 Experience a complete service architecture—not just individual features—through a mini project :)

Recommended for those who are:

I want to level up with LLM development.
For those with Spring backend experience who feel overwhelmed about where to start with LLM services

I'm interested in building RAG services.
Those who only know RAG as a concept and want to understand its principles through hands-on implementation

I'm curious about the Spring AI development course.
Professionals who need to build internal document search, chatbot, and AI assistant features using Spring.

After completing the course,

  • You will be able to design and implement your own LLM services using the core components of the Spring AI ecosystem. By combining ChatClient, vector stores, MCP, and guardrails, you will develop the intuition to turn ideas into service architectures.

  • You will be able to independently diagnose and improve problems that arise in RAG pipelines. You will develop practical debugging skills to identify and fix the causes of poor search quality by examining chunking strategies, prompts, and vector search parameters individually.

  • You will be able to take charge of converting internal documents and manuals into a searchable chatbot. You will reach a level where you can design RAG-based knowledge search systems from start to finish, from requirements analysis through implementation.

  • You will be able to design integration workflows that use MCP to let LLMs directly call backend functions (retrieval, recommendations, processing, etc.). You will be able to independently design architectures that connect existing APIs, such as those for commerce and internal systems, to LLM workflows.

  • You will be able to lead the initial architecture of AI services that require guardrails and reliability standards (such as finance and internal regulatory compliance). You will be able to participate in design discussions based not on a "working demo," but on the standards of a "service you can trust and use."

You’ll learn the following.

1. Spring AI Core Fundamentals

  • ChatClient’s basic structure and invocation methods, and how to configure prompt templates

  • How to safely map LLM responses to Java objects using structured output (Structured Output)

  • Implementing streaming responses — Backend design to support a chat-style UI where answers are displayed in real time

2. Tool and Multimodal Extensions

  • Integrate MCP (Model Context Protocol) so that the LLM can directly call external tools (backend functions such as retrieval, processing, and recommendations).

  • Service architecture for processing multimodal inputs such as images together (including examples of hybrid document-and-image analysis, such as contracts and reports)

  • How to combine no-code workflows with a Spring backend through integration with Dify

  • [Supplementary Lecture] Designing Agent Decision Logic with the TypeSafe Jev Decision-Making Model


3. Building a RAG Pipeline

  • Designing the Vector Store Integration and Embedding Storage/Search Architecture

  • Comparison of document chunking strategies (token-based vs. paragraph-based) and selection criteria by situation — an introduction to a case where search quality actually degraded and the strategy was changed

  • How to diagnose and improve factors that degrade search quality (such as damage to semantic units and the inclusion of low-relevance chunks)


4. Service Stabilization and Practical Projects

  • How to filter out incorrect responses and exploitable inputs by applying guardrails

  • Reliability design standards required in domains where reliability is critical, such as the financial sector

  • Proceed with a mini project that integrates all the elements learned so far (ChatClient, RAG, MCP, multimodality, and guardrails) into one.

The person who created this course

With the belief that “knowledge in your head is not knowledge,” I strive to package the small amount of experience and knowledge I possess and explain it in a way that is easier to understand. I believe this course will be easier to follow for those who are interested in entering the fields of LLMs and AI based on Java and the Spring Framework.

  • With 26 years of experience in lecturing, consulting, and development, I conduct my courses with explanations designed to help participants understand practical experience and know-how.

  • My current work as an architect and engineer: I directly design and develop GraphRAG-based knowledge graph systems and enterprise AI platforms.

    • 2023 ~ Present: CEO of NJ1 Company Co., Ltd.


    • Former) Distinguished Professor, Department of Information Security, Graduate School of International Information Studies, Dongguk University

    • Former JP Morgan Chase AMJ Tech consultant (Japan)

    • Formerly) Samsung SDS CMS Business Division, Lead Engineer

  • Execution of AI/LLM projects in the financial sector: By carrying out multiple AI·LLM-related projects in the financial sector, I gained practical experience designing and implementing LLM services in the financial domain, where reliability and stability are particularly important.

  • Years of teaching experience in MSA, cloud-native technologies, and AI: I teach courses in Spring Boot, Spring Cloud, MSA, Kafka, blockchain, machine learning, deep learning, and DevOps.

  • Corporate training and curriculum design: I have designed curricula for and personally taught numerous corporate and bootcamp courses, including cloud, MSA, security, and AI programs. My guiding principle is to incorporate hands-on project experience into my teaching rather than stopping at theory.


Do you have any questions?

Q. Can I take this course even if I know nothing about AI or machine learning?

A. Yes, it is possible. This course covers LLM service development from a Spring developer’s perspective, explaining AI-related concepts as they become necessary.

Q. Does the hands-on practice incur any costs?

A. Using LLM APIs may incur costs, and the course also provides guidance on hands-on practice using local models such as Ollama. The total cost of taking the course may vary depending on the number of times you run the exercises, but approximately $1~$2 in API fees may be incurred. The course uses models provided by OpenAI.

Q. Can I follow along even if I’m new to RAG and MCP?

A. Yes, the course is structured step by step, from conceptual explanations to hands-on practice, so even beginners can follow along without difficulty.

Q. Can I apply what I learn to a real-world service after completing the course?

A. The mini-project in the latter part of the course reflects the structure of a real-world service, so you can apply it directly to an in-house project or your own service.

Q. Is the course updated regularly?

A. Yes. For example, Section 4 now includes an additional one-hour supplementary lecture covering TypeSafe’s Jev decision-making model.

Notes Before Enrolling

Practice environment

  • The course is explained based on macOS (Sequoia 15.7.4), but those using Windows can also follow along easily.

  • In the course, we will conduct the exercises using IntelliJ IDEA and Postman based on OpenJDK 21+.

  • Maven or Gradle is used as the build tool.

  • Docker Desktop must be installed to run a Docker container for the PGVector exercises.

  • Postman is used to test the implemented APIs and directly call them to verify streaming responses and more.

Learning Materials

  • Slide materials provided by section (PDF files)

  • Provides an executable Spring Boot example project (the GitHub repository is made public within the course materials)

Prerequisite Knowledge and Notes

  • Basic experience using Spring Boot required (understanding of REST APIs)

  • No prior knowledge of AI/LLM is required

  • An LLM API key (or an environment for running a local model) may be required for the exercises (details will be explained in the exercise examples).

Recommended for
these people

Who is this course right for?

  • A backend developer with Spring Boot experience but no prior experience developing LLM/AI services

  • Developers who want to apply RAG, vector search, and more to real-world projects—not just at a tutorial level

  • An AI service planner who wants to understand RAG and LLM technologies through hands-on practice

  • Practitioners who need to directly implement in-house AI features (chatbots, document search, recommendations, etc.) using Spring.

Need to know before starting?

  • Understanding Spring Boot Basics and REST API Concepts

  • Understanding of Java programming fundamentals and object-oriented concepts

  • Basic understanding of HTTP communication and JSON data processing

Hello
This is Dowon Lee

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I am an IT engineer. There was a time when I wondered which word I should choose for the occupation field: "office worker?", "developer?", or "instructor?" Then I came to think that “IT engineer” was the job title that suited me best, so I have continued to write "IT engineer" in the occupation field.

A profession represents the work you do, and I believe that work should be enjoyable and useful. Although no one can live by doing exactly the work they want, I am someone who likes the work I do and wants to do it well. Having worked as a developer, instructor, and consultant, I am constantly struggling to keep up with newly released and ever-changing IT technologies. Even so, I am one of those people who wants to encounter, share, and use them even a little earlier than others.

The field I have recently become interested in is online education consulting. The technologies I am interested in include Cloud Native Architecture, Blockchain, Machine Learning, Kafka, and Kuberbetes. I actually teach courses on these technologies and apply them in my work as well. However, since they are such vast topics, I am still continuously studying them.

They say that what you keep in your head is not true knowledge. I intend to share my knowledge and experience in various ways. And I will continue to be an IT engineer who takes on new challenges in new fields and with new technologies.

 

 

  • Current) CEO of NJ One Company

  • Current) Adjunct Professor, Department of Information Security, Graduate School of International Information, Dongguk University

  • Former) JP Morgan Chase AMJ Tech consultant (Japan)

  • Former) Samsung SDS CMS Business Division Lead Engineer

 

 

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Curriculum

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132 lectures ∙ (21hr 6min)

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5.0

6 reviews

  • 93backend님의 프로필 이미지
    93backend

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    The course content is very good. It was great to be able to learn not only about Spring AI but also about AI-related concepts themselves. However, while listening to the lectures, I could continuously hear a strange high-frequency noise. I hope this can be improved next time.

    • kenneth
      Instructor

      Hello, this is Lee Do-won. Thank you for taking the course and sharing your valuable feedback. I’m glad to hear that it helped you understand not only Spring AI but also AI-related concepts. I apologize for the inconvenience caused by the high-frequency noise you mentioned. I do my best to minimize noise during recording, but some lecture files may contain unwanted noise. If you could let me know the title of the lecture or the section where you hear the noise, I’ll check the video and review whether the audio quality can be improved. I’ll also pay closer attention to the issue you mentioned when recording future lectures. Thank you.

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