LangChain history

LangChain history traces the framework’s evolution from a weekend side project to the de-facto open-source toolkit for building data-aware large-language-model (LLM) apps. 2022 Q4: ex-Airbnb engineer Harrison Chase open-sources the first Python repo on GitHub, abstracting prompts, vector search, and tool calls under the name “LangChain.” 2023 H1: Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) chains, agent tooling, and vector-store adapters (Chroma, Pinecone, FAISS) debut, pushing GitHub stars past 10 k. Seed funding from Benchmark and Sequoia turns the hobby into LangChain Inc. 2023 H2: a TypeScript port, streaming callbacks, and memory modules launch; the community surpasses 2 000 contributors and powers early AI copilots at Zapier and HubSpot. 2024: multimodal support (Gemini, Llama 3-70B, vision embeddings), LangGraph DAG engine, and an MIT–licensed evaluation suite arrive; enterprise adoption grows as Azure OpenAI and SOC 2 compliance guides land. 2025: LangChain clocks 70 k GitHub stars, weekly releases, and a plugin ecosystem rivaling Kubernetes—cementing its place as the “React for LLMs.”