​
Overview

Instructor supports several ways to extract data from the response:

  • Mode::Tools - uses OpenAI-style tool calls to get the language model to generate JSON following the schema,
  • Mode::JsonSchema - guarantees output matching JSON Schema via Context Free Grammar, does not support optional properties,
  • Mode::Json - JSON mode, response follows provided JSON Schema,
  • Mode::MdJson - uses prompting to get the language model to generate JSON following the schema.

Note: not all modes are supported by all models or providers.

Mode can be set via parameter of Instructor::response() or Instructor::request() methods.

​
Example

<?php

$loader = require 'vendor/autoload.php';

$loader->add('Cognesy\\Instructor\\', __DIR__ . '../../src/');



use Cognesy\Instructor\Enums\Mode;

use Cognesy\Instructor\Instructor;



class User {

    public int $age;

    public string $name;

}



$text = "Jason is 25 years old and works as an engineer.";



print("Input text:\n");

print($text . "\n\n");



$instructor = new Instructor;



// CASE 1 - Mode::Tools

print("\n1. Extracting structured data using LLM - Mode::Tools\n");

$user = $instructor->respond(

    messages: $text,

    responseModel: User::class,

    mode: Mode::Tools,

);

check($user);

dump($user);



// CASE 2 - Mode::JsonSchema

print("\n2. Extracting structured data using LLM - Mode::JsonSchema\n");

$user = $instructor->respond(

    messages: $text,

    responseModel: User::class,

    mode: Mode::JsonSchema,

);

check($user);

dump($user);



// CASE 3 - Mode::Json

print("\n3. Extracting structured data using LLM - Mode::Json\n");

$user = $instructor->respond(

    messages: $text,

    responseModel: User::class,

    mode: Mode::Json,

);

check($user);

dump($user);



// CASE 4 - Mode::MdJson

print("\n4. Extracting structured data using LLM - Mode::MdJson\n");

$user = $instructor->respond(

    messages: $text,

    responseModel: User::class,

    mode: Mode::MdJson,

);

check($user);

dump($user);



function check(User $user) {

    assert(isset($user->name));

    assert(isset($user->age));

    assert($user->name === 'Jason');

    assert($user->age === 25);

}

?>
Handling errors with `Maybe` helper classMaking some fields optional