thnk

Thnk – lightweight prompt manager

Thnk is a command-line tool and JS library that automates the process of generating files/content with LLMs, similar to how Make automates the building of software. It uses a configuration file, akin to a Makefile, to manage dependencies and determine the operations required to generate target files from source files.

Thnk can be used both as a command-line tool and programmatically via its JavaScript API. This enables a seamless workflow where you can iterate on your prompts and configurations independently, then use them directly in your application with all your settings preserved.

Breaking change in v3: The templating engine has been changed from Handlebars to LiquidJS, because it has more powerful features for transformations of data. Please migrate your templates to use the !liquid tag. Simple variable substitutions have the similar {{ variable }} syntax. For conditionals and iterations, see Liquid template documentation.

Breaking change in v2: Thnk no longer uses a Makefile-like syntax, but instead YAML, which makes the file format much more flexible.

Creating AI generation pipelines

Thnk allows you to create pipelines from subsequent prompts and generations, ensuring that only the necessary files are regenerated. This means that if a dependency changes, Thnk will determine which target files need to be updated, saving time and costs.

Supports OpenAI models' prediction feature, which speeds up re-generation of files with minor changes.

Version controlling prompts and outputs

Thnk also helps in version controlling of AI prompts with git, allowing you to track changes in your prompt files over time. By committing your prompts and the generated outputs, you can see how modifications to the prompts influence the generated text, aid collaboration and improve reproducibility.

Installation

To install Thnk, you need Node.js. Once Node.js is installed, you can install Thnk using npm:

npm install -g thnk

Ensure that you have set the OPENAI_API_KEY environment variable to use the OpenAI models:

export OPENAI_API_KEY='your_openai_api_key_here'

Usage

To use Thnk, you need to create a Thnkfile.yml in your project directory. This file defines the targets, dependencies, and the AI model configurations needed to generate your files.

Run Thnk in your terminal:

thnk

Thnk will read the Thnkfile.yml, check for changes in dependencies, and regenerate the target files if necessary.

Command-line Options

Thnk supports the following command-line options:

• -B, --always-thnk: Always regenerate files, even if dependencies haven't changed.
• -i, --interactive: Run in interactive mode (see Interactive Mode section below).

# Always regenerate files
thnk -B

Thnkfile.yml Syntax

A Thnkfile.yml uses YAML format to define targets, dependencies, and recipes. Here's a brief overview of its syntax:

• Targets and Dependencies: Each target is defined under the targets key with its dependencies listed under needs.

  targets:
    output.txt:
      needs:
        - dependency1.txt
        - dependency2.txt
  

• Prompts: The prompt can be specified directly in the Thnkfile.yml using the prompt key, or you can reference an external prompt file using the YAML tag syntax !file:

  targets:
    hello.txt:
      needs:
        - user.json
      prompt: |
        Greet the user
  

  targets:
    hello.txt:
      needs:
        - user.json
      prompt: !file greeting.prompt.md
  

• Templates: You can use Liquid templates for dynamic prompts with the !liquid YAML tag. In these, you can access variables from the data key, both global and per target. For backward compatibility, the !handlebars tag is still supported but uses LiquidJS internally.

  data:
    style: formal
  targets:
    hello.txt:
      needs:
        - users.json
      data:
        user:
          name: 'John Doe'
      prompt: !liquid |
        Greet the user {{ user.name }} in {{ style }} style
  

• Generation settings: You can specify global settings that apply to all targets at the top level, or override them per target:

  model: gpt-4o
  temperature: 0.7
  
  targets:
    output.txt:
      model: claude-3.7-sonnet
      temperature: 0.2
  
      needs:
        - dependency1.txt
  

• Schema files: For .json targets, you can specify a schema file using the YAML tag syntax !file:

  targets:
    output.json:
      needs:
        - data.txt
      prompt: |
        Generate a JSON file from data.txt
      schema: !file my.schema.json
  

• Computation without AI

  You can also use Thnk to perform non-generative computations locally, by using the content key to specify the content directly, usually with a template.

See the examples folder for sample Thnkfile.yml configurations.

targets:
  email.txt:
    data:
      username: 'John'
    content: !liquid |
      Hello {{ username }},

      Welcome to our service!

Generation settings

Here are the configuration options that can be used globally or per target:

Option	Description	Default
prompt	The prompt to use
schema	The JSON schema to use	no schema
model	The LLM model to use	gpt-4o-mini
temperature	Controls randomness (0.0-2.0)	0.0
data	Data to pass to the template. Will be merged per key.

Interactive Mode

Interactive mode allows you to repeatedly regenerate files without having to restart the command. This is particularly useful during development when iterating on prompts or templates.

# Run in interactive mode
thnk -i

In interactive mode:

• Thnk will run once initially
• Press Enter to re-run the thnking
• Press Ctrl+C to exit

Programmatic API

Thnk can be used programmatically in your JavaScript/Node.js applications. This allows you to use prompts and configurations defined in Thnkfile.yml from within your code. In this case, we are no longer talking about files per se, but in-memory entities whose generation logic is described in your Thnkfile.yml.

The main idea is that you can freely iterate on your prompts and configurations without your host application running. Then you can seamlessly use your prompts in your application with all the settings and pre-processigns you defined in your Thnkfile.yml.

Work in progress! Currently pipelines (consecutive generations that depend on each other) are not supported in the programmatic API.

Installation

For programmatic usage, install Thnk as a dependency in your project:

npm install thnk

Basic Usage

# Thnkfile.yml
targets:
  greeting:
    temperature: 0.7
    prompt: !handlebars |
      Write a friendly greeting to the person, according to the time of day.
      The time is {{time}}.
      The person's name is {{name}}.
  dataSheet.json:
    prompt: !handlebars |
      Make a data sheet in JSON for the following product:
      {{product}}
    schema: !file dataSheet.schema.json

import { Thnk } from 'thnk'

// Initialize Thnk with the path to your Thnkfile.yml
// (defaults to './Thnkfile.yml', read synchronously)
const thnk = new Thnk('./Thnkfile.yml')

// Generate text content
const greeting = await thnk.text('greeting', {
  data: {
    name: 'Jacob',
    time: '9:30PM',
  },
})
console.log(greeting)

// Generate JSON content
const dataSheet = await thnk.object('dataSheet.json', {
  data: {
    product: {
      product_name: 'Wakewake X123xi laptop 275G 512SSD i7',
      stock: 7,
    },
  },
})
console.log(dataSheet)

API Reference

new Thnk(thnkfileName)

Creates a new Thnk instance.

• thnkfileName (string): Path to your Thnkfile.yml (defaults to 'Thnkfile.yml')

async text(target, options)

Generates text content for the specified target.

• target (string): The target name as defined in your Thnkfile.yml
• options (object): Optional configuration overrides, see configuration options in Thnkfile.yml Syntax.
  • data (object): Optional data, shallow merged with the data defined in the Thnkfile.yml

Returns a Promise that resolves to the generated text content.

async object(target, options)

Generates JSON content for the specified target and parses it into a JavaScript object.

• target (string): The target name as defined in your Thnkfile.yml (must be a JSON target, so it must end with .json and the rule must have a schema)
• options (object): Optional configuration overrides, see configuration options in Thnkfile.yml Syntax.
  • data (object): Optional data, shallow merged with the data defined in the Thnkfile.yml

Returns a Promise that resolves to the parsed JavaScript object.