Instructor enhances client functionality with three new keywords for backwards compatibility. This allows use of the enhanced client as usual, with structured output benefits.
response_model
: Defines the response type forchat.completions.create
.max_retries
: Determines retry attempts for failedchat.completions.create
validations.validation_context
: Provides extra context to the validation process.
The default mode is instructor.Mode.TOOLS
which is the recommended mode for OpenAI clients. This mode is the most stable and is the most recommended for OpenAI clients. The other modes are for other clients and are not recommended for OpenAI clients.
This is the recommended method for OpenAI clients. It is the most stable as functions is being deprecated soon.
import instructor
from openai import OpenAI
client = instructor.patch(OpenAI(), mode=instructor.Mode.TOOLS)
Parallel tool calling is also an option but you must set response_model
to be Iterable[Union[...]]
types since we expect an array of results. Check out Parallel Tool Calling for more information.
import instructor
from openai import OpenAI
client = instructor.patch(OpenAI(), mode=instructor.Mode.PARALLEL_TOOLS)
Note that function calling is soon to be deprecated in favor of TOOL mode for OpenAI. But will still be supported for other clients.
import instructor
from openai import OpenAI
client = instructor.patch(OpenAI(), mode=instructor.Mode.FUNCTIONS)
JSON mode uses OpenAI's JSON fromat for responses. by setting response_format={"type": "json_object"}
in the chat.completions.create
method.
import instructor
from openai import OpenAI
client = instructor.patch(OpenAI(), mode=instructor.Mode.JSON)
JSON Schema mode uses OpenAI's JSON fromat for responses. by setting response_format={"type": "json_object", schema:response_model.model_json_schema()}
in the chat.completions.create
method. This is only available for select clients (e.g. llama-cpp-python, Anyscale, Together)
import instructor
from openai import OpenAI
client = instructor.patch(OpenAI(), mode=instructor.Mode.JSON_SCHEMA)
This just asks for the response in JSON format, but it is not recommended, and may not be supported in the future, this is just left to support vision models and will not give you the full benefits of instructor.
!!! warning "Experimental"
This is not recommended, and may not be supported in the future, this is just left to support vision models.
import instructor
from openai import OpenAI
client = instructor.patch(OpenAI(), mode=instructor.Mode.MD_JSON)