​
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