SemanticKernel function call with local LLM issue

I am trying to create my first demo AI project, and I would like to use Semantic Kernel to connect with my local hosted LLM and use function calls. I am getting responses from the LLM just fine, but I am unable to invoke any of my plugins. I can see that plugins are inserted into json when sending prompt to the LLM like so:

"tools": [
    {
      "type": "function",
      "function": {
        "description": "Gets a list of lights and their current state",
        "name": "Lights-get_lights",
        "parameters": {
          "type": "object",
          "required": [],
          "properties": {}
        }
      }
    },

but sadly I am unable to make LLM call my function via Kernel, to fetch data from my plugin. I have tried few models such as: Llama-3.2-3B-Instruct, Phi-3-mini-4k-instruct, Hermes-2-Pro-Mistral-7B, c4ai-command-r-v01. I am using LM Studio to host local server. I am pretty new to LLMs so perhaps I am missing something obvious?

Here is my Program.cs code:

var messageAPIPlatform = "LocalAI";
var url = "http://localhost:1234/v1";
var modelId = "llama-3.2-3b-instruct";

Console.WriteLine($"Example using local {messageAPIPlatform}");

#pragma warning disable SKEXP0010
var kernel = Kernel.CreateBuilder()
    .AddOpenAIChatCompletion(
        modelId: modelId,
        apiKey: null,
        endpoint: new Uri(url))
    .Build();


var chatCompletionService = kernel.GetRequiredService<IChatCompletionService>();

kernel.Plugins.AddFromType<LightsPlugin>("Lights");

// Enable planning
#pragma warning disable SKEXP0001
OpenAIPromptExecutionSettings settings = new OpenAIPromptExecutionSettings()
{
    ToolCallBehavior = ToolCallBehavior.AutoInvokeKernelFunctions,
    Temperature = .1,
    ChatSystemPrompt = """
                       Assistant is a large language model.
                       This assistant uses plugins to interact with the software.
                       """
};

// Create a history store the conversation
var history = new ChatHistory();

// Initiate a back-and-forth chat
string? userInput;
do
{
    // Collect user input
    Console.Write("User > ");
    userInput = Console.ReadLine();

    // Add user input
    history.AddUserMessage(userInput);

    // Get the response from the AI
    var result = await chatCompletionService.GetChatMessageContentAsync(
        history,
        executionSettings: settings,
        kernel: kernel);

    // Print the results
    Console.WriteLine("Assistant > " + result);

    // Add the message from the agent to the chat history
    history.AddMessage(result.Role, result.Content ?? string.Empty);
} while (userInput is not null);

and my plugin:

public class LightsPlugin
{
    // Mock data for the lights
    private readonly List<LightModel> lights = new()
    {
        new LightModel { Id = 1, Name = "Table Lamp", IsOn = false },
        new LightModel { Id = 2, Name = "Porch light", IsOn = false },
        new LightModel { Id = 3, Name = "Chandelier", IsOn = true }
    };

    [KernelFunction("get_lights")]
    [Description("Gets a list of lights and their current state")]
    [return: Description("An array of lights")]
    public async Task<List<LightModel>> GetLightsAsync()
    {
        return lights;
    }

    [KernelFunction("change_state")]
    [Description("Changes the state of the light")]
    [return: Description("The updated state of the light; will return null if the light does not exist")]
    public async Task<LightModel?> ChangeStateAsync(int id, bool isOn)
    {
        var light = lights.FirstOrDefault(light => light.Id == id);

        if (light == null)
        {
            return null;
        }

        // Update the light with the new state
        light.IsOn = isOn;

        return light;
    }
}

Even though I can see that this plugin is being send to the LLM as a tool. LLM is unable to call this GetLigthsAsync() method when asked about the current state of lights. I am getting an general answer that LLM is not able to answer this question

OllamaConnector

I tried using solution from this sample implementation of Ollama with function calling sadly without any success. I am using the latest versions of Semantic Kernel and Ollama.

ChatComplitionAgent and KernelPLuginFactory

I was finally able to invoke function calling with Ollama. Main changes are:

1. I am using ChatComplitionAgent to send prompts to the LLM instead of ChatCompletionService.
2. SemanticKernel object is assigned to the ChatComplitionAgent
3. I am using KernelPluginFactory to create plugins instead of KelnerBuilder.AddFromType.
4. I am still using OpenAiChatCompletion even though I believe I should be using OllamaConnector
5. I had to downgrade SemanticKernel library to 1.18.2 version to be able to use ChatComplitionAgent

This solution is not perfect, since I am using old version of SemanticKernel and it's much different than any official guide. However this in the only way I was able to invoke my methods via LLM until now. A solution below is base on this article. I am still wondering why anything else does not work.

Here is the code:

var modelId = "llama3.2";
var baseUrl = "http://localhost:11434";

var httpClient = new HttpClient
{
    Timeout = TimeSpan.FromMinutes(2)
};

var builder = Kernel.CreateBuilder().AddOpenAIChatCompletion(modelId: modelId!, apiKey: null, endpoint: new Uri(baseUrl!), httpClient: httpClient);
var kernel = builder.Build();

var hostName = "AI Assistant";
var hostInstructions =
    @"You are a friendly assistant";


var settings = new OpenAIPromptExecutionSettings()
{
    Temperature = 0.1,
    ToolCallBehavior = ToolCallBehavior.AutoInvokeKernelFunctions,
};

ChatCompletionAgent agent =
           new()
           {
               Instructions = hostInstructions,
               Name = hostName,
               Kernel = kernel,
               Arguments = new(settings),
           };

KernelPlugin lightsPlugin = KernelPluginFactory.CreateFromType<LightsPlugin>();
agent.Kernel.Plugins.Add(lightsPlugin);

Console.ForegroundColor = ConsoleColor.Green;
Console.WriteLine("Assistant: Hello, I am your Assistant. How may i help you?");

AgentGroupChat chat = new();

while (true)
{
    Console.ForegroundColor = ConsoleColor.White;
    Console.Write("User: ");
    await InvokeAgentAsync(Console.ReadLine()!);
}

async Task InvokeAgentAsync(string question)
{
    chat.AddChatMessage(new ChatMessageContent(AuthorRole.User, question));

    Console.ForegroundColor = ConsoleColor.Green;

    await foreach (ChatMessageContent content in chat.InvokeAsync(agent))
    {
        Console.WriteLine(content.Content);
    }
}

#pragma warning restore SKEXP0010
#pragma warning restore SKEXP0110