# Building Data-Aware AI Applications with Heroku AI and LlamaIndex

DevFeed: [Building Data-Aware AI Applications with Heroku AI and LlamaIndex](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/building-data-aware-ai-applications-with-heroku-ai-and-llamaindex-26384.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://www.heroku.com/blog/building-data-aware-ai-applications-with-heroku-ai-llamaindex/>)

Author: Anush DSouza

Published: 2025-08-19T15:00:00Z

Content type: tutorial

Language: en

Sources: [Heroku](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/heroku.md>)

Topics: [Heroku](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/heroku.md>), [Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG)](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/retrieval-augmented-generation-rag.md>), [llamaindex](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/llamaindex.md>), [AI Development](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/ai-development.md>), [Large Language Model](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/llm.md>), [Model Context Protocol (MCP)](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/model-context-protocol-mcp.md>)

Tags: [ai](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/ai.md>), [building](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/building.md>), [data](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/data.md>), [engineering](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/engineering.md>), [heroku-ai](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/heroku-ai.md>), [how-to](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/how-to.md>), [llamaindex](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/llamaindex.md>), [llm-applications](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/llm-applications.md>), [managed-inference-and-agents](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/managed-inference-and-agents.md>), [product-features](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/product-features.md>), [rag](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/rag.md>)

## AI overview

This tutorial explains how to build retrieval-augmented generation applications that use private data with Heroku AI and LlamaIndex. It describes LlamaIndex's role in orchestrating data ingestion, indexing, retrieval, and LLM context, along with Heroku AI capabilities including managed inference, embeddings, vector search through pgvector, and connections via Model Context Protocol and AppLink.

## Source excerpt

Building AI applications that can interact with private data is a common goal for many organizations. The challenge often lies in connecting large language models (LLMs) with proprietary datasets. A combination of Heroku Managed Inference and Agents and LlamaIndex provides an elegant stack for this purpose. This post explores how to use these tools to [...] The post Building Data-Aware AI Applications with Heroku AI and LlamaIndex appeared first on Heroku.