While large language models (LLMs) possess powerful natural language processing capabilities, they may require additional functionality to excel in specific domains or tasks—such as real-time web search or image generation. Alibaba Cloud Bailian provides a suite of official and third-party plugins. You can select the most suitable plugins for your use case to further enhance LLM capabilities and broaden application scenarios.
First-Time Access to the Plugin Page
If your Alibaba Cloud primary account or RAM user (sub-account) has never been granted the AliyunServiceRoleForSFMAccessCloudAPI role permission, you will be unable to access the plugin page. Please follow the steps below to complete authorization.
Official Plugins
The Plugin Marketplace includes preconfigured official Bailian plugins. You can invoke them directly without configuring input or output parameters.
| Plugin Name | Tool ID | Description | Billing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Python Code Interpreter | code_interpreter | Enables the LLM to execute Python code snippets—for example, mathematical calculations, data analysis & visualization, and data processing. | Free |
| Calculator | calculator | Enables the LLM to perform complex arithmetic operations—for example, computing "12313 × 13232". | Free |
| Image Generation | text_to_image | Enables the LLM to generate images from text prompts—for example, "Draw a smiling puppy." | Time-limited free trial; requires application for activation |
| Quark Search | quark_search | Enables the LLM to retrieve real-time information from publicly available web sources—for example, "What’s the weather in Hangzhou today?"The Quark Search plugin currently returns webpage titles, keywords, and summaries—but does not support direct access to full webpage content. | Time-limited free trial; requires application for activation |
| QR Code Generator | generate_qrcode | Enables the LLM to generate QR codes from website URLs. | Free |
| GitHub Search | github_search | Enables the LLM to search GitHub repositories—for example, "GitHub search: Qwen." | Free |
The Python Code Interpreter plugin does not support outbound network access or uploading local files.
Invoking Official Plugins
Step 1: Grant plugin access to a sub-business space (required only when invoking official plugins from a sub-business space—not needed for the default business space).
- Navigate to the Plugins page, locate the target plugin, and click View Details.
- Click Authorize, select the target sub-business space, and click OK to complete authorization.
Third-Party Plugins
Third-party plugins span multiple domains—including commercial services, image/video processing, and education—and have undergone functional validation. Once activated, they can be invoked directly without additional configuration.
Invoking Third-Party Plugins
Step 1: Activate a third-party plugin.
- Navigate to the Plugins page, locate the target plugin, and click View Details.
- Select a subscription plan and click Free Trial or Buy Now, then follow the on-screen instructions to activate the plugin. Upon successful activation, the plugin card displays the status label Activated.
Invoking Plugins
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Method 1: Add a tool to an Agent application directly from the Plugins page.
Official plugins can only be associated with Agent applications residing in the same business space.
- Locate the target plugin and click Add to Agent.
- Select the tool and click Next.
- Choose the target Agent application and click Confirm Addition.
- On the application detail page, the tool appears automatically. You may also click Select Plugin to add more tools—up to 10 tools are supported.
- Enter test prompts in the chat input box to verify whether the tool behaves as expected.
- After testing, publish the application.
- Method 2: Navigate to the Application Management page, add the desired plugin to a specified Agent or Workflow application, test its behavior, and publish the application. For detailed steps, refer to Agent Application Plugin Capabilities and Workflow Application Plugin Nodes.
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Method 3: Invoke tools programmatically via the Assistant API. Search for the keyword
toolsin the Assistant API documentation to learn how to call tools using the Assistant API.
Retrieving Tool IDs
A Tool ID uniquely identifies a specific tool. When invoking tools via API, you must correctly pass the Tool ID so requests are properly routed and recognized.
- Navigate to the Plugins page, locate the target plugin, and click View Details.
- Under Plugin Tools, copy the Tool ID.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between Quark Search and Web Search (enable_search)?
- When the Quark Search plugin is enabled, the model directly invokes the plugin to perform searches and returns results as plain text—these results can be used directly to generate final outputs. Currently, Quark Search retrieves webpage titles, keywords, and summaries—but does not support fetching full webpage content.
- Web Search (
enable_search) also leverages Quark Search under the hood. When enabled, the model attempts to enrich its responses using internet-sourced information—but it does not rely exclusively on, nor return raw, search results.