Output Formatting (JSON, Structured)

Structured Output from LLMs

Why Structure Matters

Unstructured text is hard to process programmatically. Structured output enables:

JSON Output

Prompt Template: "Extract the following information and return as JSON: { "name": "...", "email": "...", "company": "..." }"

Techniques

1. Schema Definition Provide the exact schema you want.

2. Examples Show input → output pairs.

3. Explicit Instructions "Return ONLY valid JSON, no other text."

4. Structured Outputs API OpenAI and others now offer guaranteed JSON mode.

Common Formats