​
Overview

How can we constrain model outputs through prompting alone?

To constrain a model’s response to fit the boundaries of our task, we can specify a style.

Stylistic constraints can include:

  • writing style: write a flowery description
  • tone: write a dramatic description
  • mood: write a happy description
  • genre: write a journalistic description

​
Example

<?php
$loader = require 'vendor/autoload.php';
$loader->add('Cognesy\\Instructor\\', __DIR__.'../../src/');

use Cognesy\Instructor\Extras\Sequence\Sequence;
use Cognesy\Instructor\Instructor;
use Cognesy\Instructor\Utils\Arrays;

class Company {
    public string $name;
    public string $country;
    public string $industry;
    public string $websiteUrl;
    public string $description;
}

class GenerateCompanyProfiles {
    public function __invoke(array $criteria, array $styles) : array {
        $criteriaStr = Arrays::toBullets($criteria);
        $stylesStr = Arrays::toBullets($styles);
        return (new Instructor)->respond(
            messages: [
                ['role' => 'user', 'content' => "List companies meeting criteria:\n{$criteriaStr}\n\n"],
                ['role' => 'user', 'content' => "Use following styles for descriptions:\n{$stylesStr}\n\n"],
            ],
            responseModel: Sequence::of(Company::class),
        )->toArray();
    }
}

$companies = (new GenerateCompanyProfiles)(
    criteria: [
        "insurtech",
        "located in US, Canada or Europe",
        "mentioned on ProductHunt"
    ],
    styles: [
        "brief", // "witty",
        "journalistic", // "buzzword-filled",
    ]
);

dump($companies);
?>

​
References

  1. Bounding the Capabilities of Large Language Models in Open Text Generation with Prompt Constraints
Clarify Ambiguous InformationEmotional Stimuli