Shiny LLM Tools

Review Chapters 23 - 25

golem (Chapter 23)

• 23.2 The dev/ scripts
  
• 23.3 Set up
  
• 23.4 Development
  • 23.4.1 The R/ folder
    
  • 23.4.2 The inst/ folder
    
  • 23.4.3 Data
  • 23.4.4 Documentation
    
  • 23.4.6 Tests
    
  • 23.4.7 Code coverage
    
  • 23.4.8 Continuous Integration (CI)
    
• 23.5 Deployment
  
• 23.6 Summary of golem features

Chapter 23 Applications

The applications in Chapter 23 (golem) can be accessed with the launch() or get() functions from the shinypak R package:

# install.packages('pak')
pak::pak('mjfrigaard/shinypak')
library(shinypak)

Chapter 23 applications:

list_apps(regex = '^23')
## # A tibble: 1 × 2
##   branch   last_updated       
##   <chr>    <dttm>             
## 1 23_golem 2025-03-25 11:43:13

leprechaun (Chapter 24)

leprechaun covers:

• 24.1 Set up
  
• 24.2 Development
  • 24.2.1 The R/ folder
    
  • 24.2.2 The inst/ folder
    • 24.2.2.2 use and build
      
    • 24.2.2.3 Use JavaScript
      
    • 24.2.2.4 Use Sass
      
  • 24.2.3 Data
    
  • 24.2.4 Documentation
    
  • 24.2.5 Dependencies
    
  • 24.2.6 Tests
    
  • 24.2.7 Deployment

Chapter 24 Applications

The applications in Chapter 24 (leprechaun) can be accessed with the launch() or get() functions from the shinypak R package:

# install.packages('pak')
pak::pak('mjfrigaard/shinypak')
library(shinypak)

Chapter 24 applications:

list_apps(regex = '^24')
## # A tibble: 1 × 2
##   branch        last_updated       
##   <chr>         <dttm>             
## 1 24_leprechaun 2025-04-06 22:46:54

rhino (Chapter 25)

The rhino chapter includes three examples of CI/CD workflows:

• 25.2 rhino features
  
• 25.3 box modules
  • 25.3.1 Utility functions
    
  • 25.3.2 Shiny modules
    
• 25.4 app/main.R
  
• 25.5 Tests
  
• 25.6 rhino dependencies

Chapter 25 Applications

The applications in Chapter 25 (rhino) can be accessed with the launch() or get() functions from the shinypak R package:

# install.packages('pak')
pak::pak('mjfrigaard/shinypak')
library(shinypak)

Chapter 25 applications:

list_apps(regex = '^25')
## # A tibble: 1 × 2
##   branch   last_updated       
##   <chr>    <dttm>             
## 1 25_rhino 2025-04-09 11:52:51

Since I began writing this book¹, the number of AI tools for building Shiny apps has grown significantly. The chapters in this section introduce a few popular tools I’ve personally used to develop applications. For a comprehensive review of LLMs R packages, please checkout Large Language Model tools for R online resource by Luis D. Verde Arregoitia. For the most up-to-date information on LLMs and R, I recommend Simon Couch’s blog and Posit’s AI blog.

Given the rapidly evolving landscape and nature of these tools, I expect these chapters to change frequently. Please open a GitHub issue if there is anything outdated, incorrect, or missing.

Shiny Assistant

The Shiny Assistant is a browser-based LLM chat tool you can use to help build a Shiny app. The UI gives you the ability to submit prompts (questions or instructions), view the code, and launch the application. 26  Shiny Assistant covers:

• 26.1 IDE + Chat
  
• 26.1.1 Prompt 1: Build an app
  
• 26.1.2 Prompt 2: Refine
  
• 26.1.3 Prompt 3: Modularize
  
• 26.1.4 Prompt 4: Structure
  
• 26.1.5 Prompt 5: Error
  
• 26.1.6 Bonus: Theme
• 26.3 Finishing touches

ellmer

The ellmer package provides easy access to many LLMs in the R environment (Positron or RStudio).

• 27.1 Installing ellmer
  • 27.1.2 Using the chat
    
  • 27.1.3 Prompts
    
• 27.2 Movie explorer redux
  • 27.2.1 System Prompt
    
  • 27.2.2 Prompt 1: update
    
  • 27.2.3 Prompt 2: refactor
    
  • 27.2.4 Prompt 3: overhaul
    
• 27.3 Finishing touches

chores

The chores package was designed to,

“help you complete repetitive, hard-to-automate tasks quickly.”

The first portion of this chapter covers the updates to the movie review application:

• 28.1 Navbar App
  • 28.1.1 App modules
    • 28.1.1.1 Compare
      
    • 28.1.1.2 Counts
      
    • 28.1.1.3 Distributions
      
    • 28.1.1.4 Awards
      
  • 28.1.2 Utility functions
    • 28.1.2.1 Name case
      
    • 28.1.2.2 Variable summary
      
    • 28.1.2.3 Movie awards

I also cover how to write extension packages with custom helper (prompts) that can be used with the addin.

• 28.2 Setting up chores
  • 28.2.1 Configure add-in
    
• 28.3 Addin
  
• 28.4 Custom helpers
  • 28.4.1 Extension package

gander

The gander package…

“Think of AI tools as a friend who is a know-it-all, over-confident, presumptuous, and lacks self-awareness. Despite these imperfections, they remain your friend.”

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1. I put the first ‘complete’ edition online in late 2023.