Overview¶

Easily integrate Large Language Models into your Python code. Simply use the @prompt and @chatprompt decorators to create functions that return structured output from the LLM. Mix LLM queries and function calling with regular Python code to create complex logic.

Features¶

Structured Outputs using pydantic models and built-in python types.
Chat Prompting to enable few-shot prompting with structured examples.
Function Calling and Parallel Function Calling via the FunctionCall and ParallelFunctionCall return types.
Formatting to naturally insert python objects into prompts.
Asyncio. Simply use async def when defining a magentic function.
Streaming structured outputs to use them as they are being generated.
Vision to easily get structured outputs from images.
LLM-Assisted Retries to improve LLM adherence to complex output schemas.
Multiple LLM providers including OpenAI and Anthropic. See Configuration.
Type Annotations to work nicely with linters and IDEs.

Installation¶

pip install magentic

or using uv

uv add magentic

Configure your OpenAI API key by setting the OPENAI_API_KEY environment variable. To configure a different LLM provider see Configuration for more.

Usage¶

@prompt¶

The @prompt decorator allows you to define a template for a Large Language Model (LLM) prompt as a Python function. When this function is called, the arguments are inserted into the template, then this prompt is sent to an LLM which generates the function output.

from magentic import prompt


@prompt('Add more "dude"ness to: {phrase}')
def dudeify(phrase: str) -> str: ...  # No function body as this is never executed


dudeify("Hello, how are you?")
# "Hey, dude! What's up? How's it going, my man?"

The @prompt decorator will respect the return type annotation of the decorated function. This can be any type supported by pydantic including a pydantic model.

from magentic import prompt
from pydantic import BaseModel


class Superhero(BaseModel):
    name: str
    age: int
    power: str
    enemies: list[str]


@prompt("Create a Superhero named {name}.")
def create_superhero(name: str) -> Superhero: ...


create_superhero("Garden Man")
# Superhero(name='Garden Man', age=30, power='Control over plants', enemies=['Pollution Man', 'Concrete Woman'])

See Structured Outputs for more.

@chatprompt¶

The @chatprompt decorator works just like @prompt but allows you to pass chat messages as a template rather than a single text prompt. This can be used to provide a system message or for few-shot prompting where you provide example responses to guide the model's output. Format fields denoted by curly braces {example} will be filled in all messages (except FunctionResultMessage).

from magentic import chatprompt, AssistantMessage, SystemMessage, UserMessage
from pydantic import BaseModel


class Quote(BaseModel):
    quote: str
    character: str


@chatprompt(
    SystemMessage("You are a movie buff."),
    UserMessage("What is your favorite quote from Harry Potter?"),
    AssistantMessage(
        Quote(
            quote="It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live.",
            character="Albus Dumbledore",
        )
    ),
    UserMessage("What is your favorite quote from {movie}?"),
)
def get_movie_quote(movie: str) -> Quote: ...


get_movie_quote("Iron Man")
# Quote(quote='I am Iron Man.', character='Tony Stark')

See Chat Prompting for more.

FunctionCall¶

An LLM can also decide to call functions. In this case the @prompt-decorated function returns a FunctionCall object which can be called to execute the function using the arguments provided by the LLM.

from typing import Literal

from magentic import prompt, FunctionCall


def search_twitter(query: str, category: Literal["latest", "people"]) -> str:
    """Searches Twitter for a query."""
    print(f"Searching Twitter for {query!r} in category {category!r}")
    return "<twitter results>"


def search_youtube(query: str, channel: str = "all") -> str:
    """Searches YouTube for a query."""
    print(f"Searching YouTube for {query!r} in channel {channel!r}")
    return "<youtube results>"


@prompt(
    "Use the appropriate search function to answer: {question}",
    functions=[search_twitter, search_youtube],
)
def perform_search(question: str) -> FunctionCall[str]: ...


output = perform_search("What is the latest news on LLMs?")
print(output)
# > FunctionCall(<function search_twitter at 0x10c367d00>, 'LLMs', 'latest')
output()
# > Searching Twitter for 'Large Language Models news' in category 'latest'
# '<twitter results>'

See Function Calling for more.

@prompt_chain¶

Sometimes the LLM requires making one or more function calls to generate a final answer. The @prompt_chain decorator will resolve FunctionCall objects automatically and pass the output back to the LLM to continue until the final answer is reached.

In the following example, when describe_weather is called the LLM first calls the get_current_weather function, then uses the result of this to formulate its final answer which gets returned.

from magentic import prompt_chain


def get_current_weather(location, unit="fahrenheit"):
    """Get the current weather in a given location"""
    # Pretend to query an API
    return {
        "location": location,
        "temperature": "72",
        "unit": unit,
        "forecast": ["sunny", "windy"],
    }


@prompt_chain(
    "What's the weather like in {city}?",
    functions=[get_current_weather],
)
def describe_weather(city: str) -> str: ...


describe_weather("Boston")
# 'The current weather in Boston is 72°F and it is sunny and windy.'

LLM-powered functions created using @prompt, @chatprompt and @prompt_chain can be supplied as functions to other @prompt/@prompt_chain decorators, just like regular python functions. This enables increasingly complex LLM-powered functionality, while allowing individual components to be tested and improved in isolation.