promptkit/docs/formats.md

Framework Format Reference

Purpose

This document is the canonical contract for Promptkit prompt-definition, profile, and schema files. The Go package consumer guide explains how to select these sources and invoke the engine. The OpenAI-compatible integration contract owns the resulting outbound wire behavior.

Prompt and profile sources recursively discover files ending in .yaml or .yml. YAML decoding is strict: unknown fields are errors for the selected definition. Definitions are selected by their YAML id, not their file name or directory.

Prompt Definitions

A prompt definition describes inputs, Go-template messages, an optional default profile, and an output contract.

id: meeting.summary
version: "1.0.0"
default_profile: local-summary
description: Summarize a synthetic meeting note.
session_id: '{{.session}}'
inputs:
  - name: note
    required: true
    content_type: text/plain
    description: Meeting note to summarize.
messages:
  - role: system
    content: Return a concise summary.
    cache_control:
      type: ephemeral
      ttl: 1h
  - role: user
    content_file: ./summary.user.md
output:
  format: markdown
  validation_mode: basic
  repair_attempts: 0

Field	Required	Meaning
id	yes	Non-empty prompt identifier used by RunRequest.PromptID.
version	yes	Non-empty version selected by an optional RunRequest.PromptVersion.
default_profile	no	Non-empty profile ID used when the request omits ProfileID.
description	no	Human-readable description.
session_id	no	Go template rendered from request variables and input helpers.
inputs	no	Declared input metadata.
messages	yes	One or more chat-message templates.
output	yes	Output format and validation settings.

When a request omits a version, the selected prompt ID must identify exactly one definition. When it supplies a version, the ID and version pair must be unique.

Inputs

Each inputs item has these fields:

Field	Required	Meaning
name	yes	Non-empty name used by the request input map and input template helper. Names must be unique.
required	no	When true, preparation fails if the request omits the input. The default is false.
content_type	no	Expected media-type metadata.
description	no	Human-readable input description.

Requests supply inputs as inline or file-backed ArtifactRef values. Declared required inputs must be present. A template reference also requires the named input to exist, whether or not it was declared. Extra request inputs are allowed.

Messages And Templates

Each message has a non-empty role and exactly one of:

• content, containing an inline Go template; or
• content_file, naming a file whose contents are the Go template.

For directory and fs.FS prompt sources, content_file resolves relative to the prompt file and remains within the source root. WithPromptFile also resolves it relative to that file.

Request variables are the template data, so a variable named audience is referenced as {{.audience}}. The {{input "note"}} helper renders the body of a named input. Missing variables and input references are errors.

The optional session_id uses the same template data and input helper. Its rendered value is trimmed, omitted when empty, and limited to 256 Unicode code points.

Cache Control

cache_control is optional and has these fields:

Field	Required	Values
type	yes	ephemeral
ttl	no	Empty or 1h

Promptkit preserves cache-control metadata on the rendered message. The outbound integration determines its wire representation.

Output Contract

Field	Required	Values or behavior
format	yes	text, markdown, or json.
validation_mode	yes	none, basic, json, or json_schema.
schema_path	for json_schema	Path to a schema in the configured schema source.
repair_attempts	no	Integer zero or greater; omitted means zero.

The validation modes behave as follows:

• none skips content validation;
• basic requires non-empty generated content;
• json requires valid JSON; and
• json_schema requires valid JSON that satisfies the selected schema.

format controls output artifact metadata. JSON Schema mode also supplies the schema to compatible model clients as structured-output metadata. The public engine does not install an output repairer, so its validation is single-pass even when a positive repair_attempts value is present.

A request-level OutputContract replaces the complete prompt output contract. It does not merge individual fields. If its format is empty, Promptkit uses text.

Profile Definitions

A profile supplies model execution settings:

id: local-summary
backend: openrouter
model: example-model
temperature: 0.2
max_tokens: 500
top_p: 0.95
timeout_seconds: 90
service_tier: flex
reasoning_effort: medium
extra_params:
  provider_option: enabled

Field	Required	Meaning
id	yes	Non-empty profile identifier. IDs must be unique within one source.
backend	unless endpoint is present	Backend registry ID. It is trimmed and registry membership is checked when the profile is prepared.
endpoint	unless backend is present	Non-empty OpenAI-compatible base URL, including an API version path when required. When both connection fields are present, this overrides the backend endpoint without changing backend identity.
model	yes	Non-empty provider model name.
temperature	no	Number from 0 through 2.
max_tokens	no	Integer zero or greater.
top_p	no	Number from 0 through 1.
timeout_seconds	no	Per-generation deadline in whole seconds; integer zero or greater.
service_tier	no	Provider-specific request tier.
reasoning_effort	no	Provider-specific reasoning setting.
api_key_env	no	Name of an environment variable containing the API key.
extra_params	no	JSON-compatible provider-specific outbound fields.

Raw api_key is prohibited in profile YAML. Store only an environment variable name in api_key_env.

Promptkit does not infer a backend from a model or endpoint. Endpoint-only profiles remain supported and have no effective backend ID.

extra_params accepts null, booleans, finite numbers, strings, arrays, and objects with string keys. Keys must be non-empty. With the built-in client, they also cannot collide with the standard fields listed in the outbound request contract.

Defaults And Overrides

Execution settings resolve in this order:

1. framework defaults;
2. the selected backend, when the profile names one;
3. the selected profile; and
4. request ExecutionTargetOverride values.

The framework defaults are:

Setting	Default
temperature	0
max_tokens	0
top_p	1
timeout_seconds	600

Numeric zero in a file or in-memory profile means that the profile does not replace the framework default. Numeric request overrides use pointers, so an explicit zero is preserved. In particular, an explicit request timeout_seconds of zero disables the per-generation deadline while leaving the caller context and transport timeout intact.

Non-empty profile strings replace backend defaults, and non-empty request strings replace both. Backend identity is retained when either layer overrides the endpoint. A non-empty extra_params map at each layer replaces the entire lower-precedence map rather than merging keys. The outbound integration contract defines how the effective settings are serialized.

Source And Profile Precedence

An explicit request profile ID takes precedence over the prompt's default_profile. If neither is present, preparation fails.

Profile sources resolve matching IDs in this order:

1. in-memory profiles supplied with WithProfiles;
2. a profile file, fs.FS, or configured profile directory; and
3. embedded built-in profiles.

A higher-precedence source falls back only when the profile is absent. An invalid matching profile is an error and does not fall back. In-memory Profile values follow the same ranges as YAML profiles. They use APIKeyRequired for request-scoped credentials instead of api_key_env.

Built-In Profile Catalog

Every built-in selects the openrouter backend. The engine's built-in backend registry supplies https://openrouter.ai/api/v1 and the environment-variable name OPENROUTER_API_KEY, so individual profiles contain only model and generation settings. A custom or in-memory profile with the same profile ID takes precedence.

Provider	ID	Model
aion-labs	aion-2	aion-labs/aion-2.0
anthropic	claude-fable-latest	~anthropic/claude-fable-latest
anthropic	claude-haiku-latest	~anthropic/claude-haiku-latest
anthropic	claude-opus-latest	~anthropic/claude-opus-latest
anthropic	claude-sonnet-latest	~anthropic/claude-sonnet-latest
deepseek	deepseek-3-2	deepseek/deepseek-v3.2
deepseek	deepseek-4-flash	deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash
deepseek	deepseek-4-pro	deepseek/deepseek-v4-pro
google	gemini-2-flash	google/gemini-2.5-flash
google	gemini-2-flash-lite	google/gemini-2.5-flash-lite
google	gemini-2-pro	google/gemini-2.5-pro
google	gemini-3-flash-lite	google/gemini-3.1-flash-lite
google	gemini-flash-latest	~google/gemini-flash-latest
google	gemini-pro-latest	~google/gemini-pro-latest
google	gemma-4-31b	google/gemma-4-31b-it:exacto
minimax	minimax-m2	minimax/minimax-m2.5
minimax	minimax-m3	minimax/minimax-m3
mistral	mistral-large-2512	mistralai/mistral-large-2512
mistral	mistral-medium-3-5	mistralai/mistral-medium-3-5
mistral	mistral-small-3	mistralai/mistral-small-3.2-24b-instruct
mistral	mistral-small-4	mistralai/mistral-small-2603
nvidia	nemotron-3-ultra	nvidia/nemotron-3-ultra-550b-a55b
openai	gpt-5-mini	openai/gpt-5.4-mini
openai	gpt-5-nano	openai/gpt-5.4-nano

Schemas

Schemas are JSON documents selected by a prompt or request schema_path. For a directory or fs.FS source, paths resolve within the configured source root. Referenced nested schemas resolve relative to the owning schema document. WithSchemaFile exposes one schema, addressed by its base name.

An unreadable, invalid, or unresolvable schema produces an operational validation error. Generated content that is valid JSON but does not satisfy the schema produces a failed validation result.

Credentials

Credential values belong at the request or environment boundary, never in prompt, profile, schema, or example files:

• a file profile names an environment variable with api_key_env;
• an in-memory profile may set APIKeyRequired;
• a request can provide a direct APIKey or override APIKeyEnv; and
• a direct request key takes precedence over environment lookup.

After a direct request key, the credential-source precedence is request APIKeyEnv, profile api_key_env, then the backend default. An in-memory profile with APIKeyRequired clears an inherited backend environment name and requires a direct key unless the request explicitly supplies APIKeyEnv. Promptkit validates required credential availability during preparation. Direct keys are excluded from JSON results and redacted by public string formatters. Environment-variable names may appear in prepared metadata, but their values do not.