instructor

structured outputs for llms

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Instructor is a tool that provides structured outputs from Large Language Models (LLMs) in a reliable manner. It simplifies the process of extracting structured data by utilizing Pydantic for validation, type safety, and IDE support. With Instructor, users can define models and easily obtain structured data without the need for complex JSON parsing, error handling, or retries. The tool supports automatic retries, streaming support, and extraction of nested objects, making it production-ready for various AI applications. Trusted by a large community of developers and companies, Instructor is used by teams at OpenAI, Google, Microsoft, AWS, and YC startups.

README:

Instructor: Structured Outputs for LLMs

Get reliable JSON from any LLM. Built on Pydantic for validation, type safety, and IDE support.

import instructor
from pydantic import BaseModel


# Define what you want
class User(BaseModel):
    name: str
    age: int


# Extract it from natural language
client = instructor.from_provider("openai/gpt-4o-mini")
user = client.chat.completions.create(
    response_model=User,
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "John is 25 years old"}],
)

print(user)  # User(name='John', age=25)

That's it. No JSON parsing, no error handling, no retries. Just define a model and get structured data.

Why Instructor?

Getting structured data from LLMs is hard. You need to:

Write complex JSON schemas
Handle validation errors
Retry failed extractions
Parse unstructured responses
Deal with different provider APIs

Instructor handles all of this with one simple interface:

Without Instructor

With Instructor

response = openai.chat.completions.create(
    model="gpt-4",
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "..."}],
    tools=[
        {
            "type": "function",
            "function": {
                "name": "extract_user",
                "parameters": {
                    "type": "object",
                    "properties": {
                        "name": {"type": "string"},
                        "age": {"type": "integer"},
                    },
                },
            },
        }
    ],
)

# Parse response
tool_call = response.choices[0].message.tool_calls[0]
user_data = json.loads(tool_call.function.arguments)

# Validate manually
if "name" not in user_data:
    # Handle error...
    pass

client = instructor.from_provider("openai/gpt-4")

user = client.chat.completions.create(
    response_model=User,
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "..."}],
)

# That's it! user is validated and typed

Install in seconds

pip install instructor

Or with your package manager:

uv add instructor
poetry add instructor

Works with every major provider

Use the same code with any LLM provider:

# OpenAI
client = instructor.from_provider("openai/gpt-4o")

# Anthropic
client = instructor.from_provider("anthropic/claude-3-5-sonnet")

# Google
client = instructor.from_provider("google/gemini-pro")

# Ollama (local)
client = instructor.from_provider("ollama/llama3.2")

# With API keys directly (no environment variables needed)
client = instructor.from_provider("openai/gpt-4o", api_key="sk-...")
client = instructor.from_provider("anthropic/claude-3-5-sonnet", api_key="sk-ant-...")
client = instructor.from_provider("groq/llama-3.1-8b-instant", api_key="gsk_...")

# All use the same API!
user = client.chat.completions.create(
    response_model=User,
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "..."}],
)

Production-ready features

Automatic retries

Failed validations are automatically retried with the error message:

from pydantic import BaseModel, field_validator


class User(BaseModel):
    name: str
    age: int

    @field_validator('age')
    def validate_age(cls, v):
        if v < 0:
            raise ValueError('Age must be positive')
        return v


# Instructor automatically retries when validation fails
user = client.chat.completions.create(
    response_model=User,
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "..."}],
    max_retries=3,
)

Streaming support

Stream partial objects as they're generated:

from instructor import Partial

for partial_user in client.chat.completions.create(
    response_model=Partial[User],
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "..."}],
    stream=True,
):
    print(partial_user)
    # User(name=None, age=None)
    # User(name="John", age=None)
    # User(name="John", age=25)

Nested objects

Extract complex, nested data structures:

from typing import List


class Address(BaseModel):
    street: str
    city: str
    country: str


class User(BaseModel):
    name: str
    age: int
    addresses: List[Address]


# Instructor handles nested objects automatically
user = client.chat.completions.create(
    response_model=User,
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "..."}],
)

Used in production by

Trusted by over 100,000 developers and companies building AI applications:

3M+ monthly downloads
10K+ GitHub stars
1000+ community contributors

Companies using Instructor include teams at OpenAI, Google, Microsoft, AWS, and many YC startups.

Get started

Basic extraction

Extract structured data from any text:

from pydantic import BaseModel
import instructor

client = instructor.from_provider("openai/gpt-4o-mini")


class Product(BaseModel):
    name: str
    price: float
    in_stock: bool


product = client.chat.completions.create(
    response_model=Product,
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "iPhone 15 Pro, $999, available now"}],
)

print(product)
# Product(name='iPhone 15 Pro', price=999.0, in_stock=True)

Multiple languages

Instructor's simple API is available in many languages:

Python - The original
TypeScript - Full TypeScript support
Ruby - Ruby implementation
Go - Go implementation
Elixir - Elixir implementation
Rust - Rust implementation

Learn more

Documentation - Comprehensive guides
Examples - Copy-paste recipes
Blog - Tutorials and best practices
Discord - Get help from the community

Why use Instructor over alternatives?

vs Raw JSON mode: Instructor provides automatic validation, retries, streaming, and nested object support. No manual schema writing.

vs LangChain/LlamaIndex: Instructor is focused on one thing - structured extraction. It's lighter, faster, and easier to debug.

vs Custom solutions: Battle-tested by thousands of developers. Handles edge cases you haven't thought of yet.

Contributing

We welcome contributions! Check out our good first issues to get started.

License

MIT License - see LICENSE for details.

Built by the Instructor community. Special thanks to Jason Liu and all contributors.

For Tasks:

Click tags to check more tools for each tasks

extract structured data validate and type data stream partial objects handle nested objects automatically retry failed validations

For Jobs:

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