Guidance.Net

Guidance.Net is a library that makes it easy and fun to write and run Guidanceprograms from C# and .Net.

Guidance.Net DSL

Guidance.Net.DSL is a powerful and type-safe Domain Specific Language (DSL) library for C# developers that simplifies the process of creating guidance programs, which are templates for chatbots and other generative language models. The library provides a collection of building blocks, allowing you to create structured and maintainable interactive dialogs.

Features:

• Concise syntax: shorter and more readable than handlebars guidance templates
• Automatic pretty-printing
• Compile-checked variable references

Basic Example

using static GuidanceNet.DSL.GuidanceBuilder;

string question = null!;
string response = null!;

var program = Guidance(
    SystemRole("You are a helpful assistant."),
    UserRole(Var(question)),
    AssistantRole(Generate(response)),
    SystemRole(Text($"The answer to {question} is {response}."))
);

var template = program.ToString();
Console.WriteLine(template);

Generated guidance template:

{{#system~}}
You are a helpful assistant.
{{~/system}}
{{#user~}}
{{question}}
{{~/user}}
{{#assistant~}}
{{gen 'response'}}
{{~/assistant}}
{{#system~}}
The answer to {{question}} is {{response}}.
{{~/system}}

Advanced example

var isConversationMode = false;
string userInputType = null!;
string command = null!;
var program = Guidance(
    SystemRole(
        "You are a helpful assistant. ",
        If(isConversationMode)
            .Then(@"Conversation mode is enabled. This enables TTS. 
Use pronounceable words only. Please insert a <break> tag after each sentence, phrase or line.")
            .Else("Conversation mode is disabled.")
    ),
    AssistantRole("Hi, I'm your assistant. Ask me anything."),
    SystemRole(
        "Determine whether the following user input is a question, statement or command. Return a single word, being either 'question', 'statement' or 'command'."),
    UserRole(Text($"User input: {userInput}")),
    AssistantRole(Generate(userInputType)),
    SystemRole( "You have determined that the user input is a: ", Var(userInputType)),
    If.Equals(userInputType, "command").Then(
        SystemRole(
            "Which of the following commands is the user trying to invoke?\n",
            "/task create\n/task delete\n/calendar list\n/calendar create\n/calendar delete\n"
        ),
        AssistantRole(Generate(command))
    ));

{{#system~}}
You are a helpful assistant. {{#if isConversationMode~}}
Conversation mode is enabled. This enables TTS.
Use pronounceable words only. Please insert a <break> tag after each sentence, p
hrase or line.{{else}}Conversation mode is disabled.
{{~/if}}
{{~/system}}
{{#assistant~}}
Hi, I'm your assistant. Ask me anything.
{{~/assistant}}
{{#system~}}
Determine whether the following user input is a question, statement or command.
Return a single word, being either 'question', 'statement' or 'command'.
{{~/system}}
{{#user~}}
User input{{userInput}}
{{~/user}}
{{#assistant~}}
{{gen 'userInputType'}}
{{~/assistant}}
{{#system~}}
You have determined that the user input is a: {{userInputType}}
{{~/system}}
{{#if (== userInputType "command")~}}
{{#system~}}
Which of the following commands is the user trying to invoke?
/task create
/task delete
/calendar list
/calendar create
/calendar delete
{{/system}}{{#assistant~}}
{{gen 'command'}}
{{~/assistant}}
{{~/if}}

Syntax

Guidance.NET	Guidance	Description
SystemRole(...)	{{#system}}...{{/system}}	Add a system message to the conversation.
UserRole(...)	{{#user}}...{{/user}}	Add a user input to the conversation.
AssistantRole(...)	{{#assistant}}...{{/assistant}}	Add the assistant's response to the conversation.
"hello"	hello	Static text within a message.
Text("Hello", "!")	hello!	Static text inside a message.
string name = null; Text($"User name: {name}")	User name: {{name}}	Text with dynamic content. If the variable has no value, a placeholder variable is generated, which will be filled in when executing the guidance program.
string name = "Jay"; Text($"User name: {name}")	User name: Jay	Text with dynamic content. If the variable has a value, it will be inserted immediately.
Var(name)	{{name}}	Access and include variables and their values in the conversation.
Generate(outputVar)	{{gen 'outputVar'}}	Instruct the language model to generate text, and store inside the specified variable.
If(condition).Then(...)	{{#if condition}}...{{/if}}	Add conditional logic to the conversation with specific blocks to be included if a condition is met. Can be defined inside or outside of messages.
If(condition).Then(...).Else(...)	{{#if condition}}...{{else}}...{{/if}}	Add an else block to an if block.
If.Equals(example, "value").Then(...)	{{#if (== example "value")}}...{{/if}}	Add conditional logic to the conversation with specific blocks to be included if two values are equal.