Guidance
Text Generation Inference (TGI) now supports JSON and regex grammars and tools and functions to help developers guide LLM responses to fit their needs.
These feature are available starting from version 1.4.3. They are accessible via the text_generation library. The tool support is compatible with OpenAI’s client libraries. The following guide will walk you through the new features and how to use them!
The Grammar guidance support is currently only available in the TGI API due to lack of support in Open AI API.
Quick Start
Before we jump into the deep end, ensure your system is using TGI version 1.4.3 or later to access all the features we’re about to explore in this guide.
If you’re not up to date, grab the latest version and let’s get started!
Table of Contents 📚
Grammar and Constraints
- The Grammar Parameter: Shape your AI’s responses with precision.
- Constrain with Pydantic: Define a grammar using Pydantic models.
- JSON Schema Integration: Fine-grained control over your requests via JSON schema.
- Using the client: Use TGI’s client libraries to shape the AI’s responses.
Tools and Functions
- The Tools Parameter: Enhance the AI’s capabilities with predefined functions.
- Via the client: Use TGI’s client libraries to interact with the Messages API and Tool functions.
- OpenAI integration: Use OpenAI’s client libraries to interact with TGI’s Messages API and Tool functions.
Grammar and Constraints 🛣️
The Grammar Parameter
In TGI 1.4.3, we’ve introduced the grammar parameter, which allows you to specify the format of the response you want from the AI. This is a game-changer for those who need precise control over the AI’s output.
Using curl, you can make a request to TGI’s Messages API with the grammar parameter. This is the most primitive way to interact with the API and using Pydantic is recommended for ease of use and readability.
curl localhost:3000/generate \
-X POST \
-H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
-d '{
"inputs": "I saw a puppy a cat and a raccoon during my bike ride in the park",
"parameters": {
"repetition_penalty": 1.3,
"grammar": {
"type": "json",
"value": {
"properties": {
"location": {
"type": "string"
},
"activity": {
"type": "string"
},
"animals_seen": {
"type": "integer",
"minimum": 1,
"maximum": 5
},
"animals": {
"type": "array",
"items": {
"type": "string"
}
}
},
"required": ["location", "activity", "animals_seen", "animals"]
}
}
}
}'
// {"generated_text":"{ \n\n\"activity\": \"biking\",\n\"animals\": [\"puppy\",\"cat\",\"raccoon\"],\n\"animals_seen\": 3,\n\"location\": \"park\"\n}"}
A grammar can be defined using Pydantic models, JSON schemas, or regular expressions. The AI will then generate a response that conforms to the specified grammar.
Note: A grammar must compile to an intermediate representation to constrain the output. Grammar compilation is a computationally expensive and may take a few seconds to complete on the first request. Subsequent requests will use the cached grammar and will be much faster.
Constrain with Pydantic
Pydantic is a powerful library for data validation and settings management. It’s the perfect tool for crafting the a specific response format.
Using Pydantic models we can define a similar grammar as the previous example in a shorter and more readable way.
import requests
from pydantic import BaseModel, conint
from typing import List
class Animals(BaseModel):
location: str
activity: str
animals_seen: conint(ge=1, le=5) # Constrained integer type
animals: List[str]
prompt = "convert to JSON: I saw a puppy a cat and a raccoon during my bike ride in the park"
data = {
"inputs": prompt,
"parameters": {
"repetition_penalty": 1.3,
"grammar": {
"type": "json",
"value": Animals.schema()
}
}
}
headers = {
"Content-Type": "application/json",
}
response = requests.post(
'http://127.0.0.1:3000/generate',
headers=headers,
json=data
)
print(response.json())
# {'generated_text': '{ "activity": "bike riding", "animals": ["puppy","cat","raccoon"],"animals_seen": 3, "location":"park" }'}
JSON Schema Integration
If Pydantic’s not your style, go raw with direct JSON Schema integration. It’s like having a conversation with the AI in its own language. This is simliar to the first example but with programmatic control.
import requests
json_schema = {
"properties": {
"location": {
"type": "string"
},
"activity": {
"type": "string"
},
"animals_seen": {
"type": "integer",
"minimum": 1,
"maximum": 5
},
"animals": {
"type": "array",
"items": {
"type": "string"
}
}
},
"required": ["location", "activity", "animals_seen", "animals"]
}
data = {
"inputs": "convert to JSON: I saw a puppy a cat and a raccoon during my bike ride in the park",
"parameters": {
"max_new_tokens": 200,
"repetition_penalty": 1.3,
"grammar": {
"type": "json",
"value": json_schema
}
}
}
headers = {
"Content-Type": "application/json",
}
response = requests.post(
'http://127.0.0.1:3000/generate',
headers=headers,
json=data
)
print(response.json())
# {'generated_text': '{\n"activity": "biking",\n"animals": ["puppy","cat","raccoon"]\n , "animals_seen": 3,\n "location":"park"}'}
Using the client
TGI provides a client library to that make it easy to send requests with all of the parameters we’ve discussed above. Here’s an example of how to use the client to send a request with a grammar parameter.
from text_generation import AsyncClient
from text_generation.types import GrammarType
# NOTE: tools defined above and removed for brevity
# Define an async function to encapsulate the async operation
async def main():
client = AsyncClient(base_url="http://localhost:3000")
# Use 'await' to wait for the async method 'chat' to complete
response = await client.generate(
"Whats Googles DNS",
max_new_tokens=10,
decoder_input_details=True,
seed=1,
grammar={
"type": GrammarType.Regex,
"value": "((25[0-5]|2[0-4]\\d|[01]?\\d\\d?)\\.){3}(25[0-5]|2[0-4]\\d|[01]?\\d\\d?)",
},
)
# Once the response is received, you can process it
print(response.generated_text)
# Ensure the main async function is run in the event loop
if __name__ == "__main__":
import asyncio
asyncio.run(main())
# 118.8.0.84
Tools and Functions 🛠️
The Tools Parameter
In addition to the grammar parameter, we’ve also introduced a set of tools and functions to help you get the most out of the Messages API.
Tools are a set of user defined functions that can be used in tandem with the chat functionality to enhance the AI’s capabilities. You can use these tools to perform a variety of tasks, such as data manipulation, formatting, and more.
Functions, similar to grammar are defined as JSON schema and can be passed as part of the parameters to the Messages API.
curl localhost:3000/v1/chat/completions \
-X POST \
-H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
-d '{
"model": "tgi",
"messages": [
{
"role": "user",
"content": "What is the weather like in New York?"
}
],
"tools": [
{
"type": "function",
"function": {
"name": "get_current_weather",
"description": "Get the current weather",
"parameters": {
"type": "object",
"properties": {
"location": {
"type": "string",
"description": "The city and state, e.g. San Francisco, CA"
},
"format": {
"type": "string",
"enum": ["celsius", "fahrenheit"],
"description": "The temperature unit to use. Infer this from the users location."
}
},
"required": ["location", "format"]
}
}
}
],
"tool_choice": "get_current_weather"
}'
// {"id":"","object":"text_completion","created":1709051640,"model":"HuggingFaceH4/zephyr-7b-beta","system_fingerprint":"1.4.3-native","choices":[{"index":0,"message":{"role":"assistant","tool_calls":{"id":0,"type":"function","function":{"description":null,"name":"tools","parameters":{"format":"celsius","location":"New York"}}}},"logprobs":null,"finish_reason":"eos_token"}],"usage":{"prompt_tokens":157,"completion_tokens":19,"total_tokens":176}}Tools used in example below
tools = [
{
"type": "function",
"function": {
"name": "get_current_weather",
"description": "Get the current weather",
"parameters": {
"type": "object",
"properties": {
"location": {
"type": "string",
"description": "The city and state, e.g. San Francisco, CA",
},
"format": {
"type": "string",
"enum": ["celsius", "fahrenheit"],
"description": "The temperature unit to use. Infer this from the users location.",
},
},
"required": ["location", "format"],
},
},
},
{
"type": "function",
"function": {
"name": "get_n_day_weather_forecast",
"description": "Get an N-day weather forecast",
"parameters": {
"type": "object",
"properties": {
"location": {
"type": "string",
"description": "The city and state, e.g. San Francisco, CA",
},
"format": {
"type": "string",
"enum": ["celsius", "fahrenheit"],
"description": "The temperature unit to use. Infer this from the users location.",
},
"num_days": {
"type": "integer",
"description": "The number of days to forecast",
},
},
"required": ["location", "format", "num_days"],
},
},
}
]Text Generation Inference Client
TGI provides a client library to interact with the Messages API and Tool functions. The client library is available in both synchronous and asynchronous versions.
from text_generation import AsyncClient
# NOTE: tools defined above and removed for brevity
# Define an async function to encapsulate the async operation
async def main():
client = AsyncClient(base_url="http://localhost:3000")
# Use 'await' to wait for the async method 'chat' to complete
response = await client.chat(
max_tokens=100,
seed=1,
tools=tools,
presence_penalty=-1.1,
messages=[
{
"role": "system",
"content": "You're a helpful assistant! Answer the users question best you can.",
},
{
"role": "user",
"content": "What is the weather like in Brooklyn, New York?",
},
],
)
# Once the response is received, you can process it
print(response.choices[0].message.tool_calls)
# Ensure the main async function is run in the event loop
if __name__ == "__main__":
import asyncio
asyncio.run(main())
# {"id":"","object":"text_completion","created":1709051942,"model":"HuggingFaceH4/zephyr-7b-beta","system_fingerprint":"1.4.3-native","choices":[{"index":0,"message":{"role":"assistant","tool_calls":{"id":0,"type":"function","function":{"description":null,"name":"tools","parameters":{"format":"celsius","location":"New York"}}}},"logprobs":null,"finish_reason":"eos_token"}],"usage":{"prompt_tokens":157,"completion_tokens":20,"total_tokens":177}}
OpenAI integration
TGI exposes an OpenAI-compatible API, which means you can use OpenAI’s client libraries to interact with TGI’s Messages API and Tool functions.
However there are some minor differences in the API, for example tool_choice="auto" will ALWAYS choose the tool for you. This is different from OpenAI’s API where tool_choice="auto" will choose a tool if the model thinks it’s necessary.
from openai import OpenAI
# Initialize the client, pointing it to one of the available models
client = OpenAI(
base_url="http://localhost:3000/v1",
api_key="_",
)
# NOTE: tools defined above and removed for brevity
chat_completion = client.chat.completions.create(
model="tgi",
messages=[
{
"role": "system",
"content": "Don't make assumptions about what values to plug into functions. Ask for clarification if a user request is ambiguous.",
},
{
"role": "user",
"content": "What's the weather like the next 3 days in San Francisco, CA?",
},
],
tools=tools,
tool_choice="auto", # tool selected by model
max_tokens=500,
)
called = chat_completion.choices[0].message.tool_calls
print(called)
# {
# "id": 0,
# "type": "function",
# "function": {
# "description": None,
# "name": "tools",
# "parameters": {
# "format": "celsius",
# "location": "San Francisco, CA",
# "num_days": 3,
# },
# },
# }