convo-lang (u/convo-lang)

convo-lang commented on Convo-Lang: LLM Programming Language and Runtime learn.convo-lang.ai/... · Posted by u/handfuloflight

pryelluw · 13 days ago

Like terraform for prompts.

Put that on the landing page.

convo-lang · 11 days ago

You sparked an idea that I started working on today. It's more like `make` than `terraform` but will share principals from both.

---

The idea is that convo files will serve as decencies of target outputs and those outputs could be anything from React components to generated images or videos.

---

This should make for a declarative way of defining generated application and content in a way that is repeatable and easy to modify.

---

I'll implement the same caching strategy that `make` uses to minimize the number of tokens consumed as changes to convo files are made.

---

Anybody have any thoughts or suggestions?

convo-lang commented on Convo-Lang: LLM Programming Language and Runtime learn.convo-lang.ai/... · Posted by u/handfuloflight

convo-lang · 13 days ago

Hi everybody, I'm Scott, the creator of Convo-Lang. I created Convo-Lang to solve a lot of my personal needs while building AI applications.

Convo-Lang originally started off as a prompt templating and conversation state management system. It gave me a way to load a prompt template into a chat interface and reuse the same code to handle sending messages between the user and an LLM. This was in the early days of OpenAI when DaVinci was the top model.

As Convo-Lang grow in complexity I created a VSCode extension for syntax highlighting to make templates easier to read and write. And as new patterns like RAG, JSON Mode and tool calling hit the scene I added support for them. Before long I had a pretty decent framework that was easy to integrate into TypeScript applications and solved most of my AI needs.

As I built more applications that used tool calling I realized that I was writing less TypeScript, and a good amount of the TypeScript I as writing was basic callback functions called by tools the LLM decided to invoke. At that point I realized if I created a simple scripting language that could do basic things like make an HTTP requests I could build the majority of my agents purely in Convo-Lang and encapsulate all of its logic a single file.

I found the idea of single file that encapsulated an agent in a simple text file very appealing, and then I did as I do. I ignore all of my other responsibilities as a developer for the next few days and built a thing \(ᵔᵕᵔ)/

After those few sleepless nights I had a full fledge programming language and a runtime and CLI that could execute it. It's been about a year and a half since then and I've continued to improve and refine the language.

Links:

Convo-Lang Docs - https://learn.convo-lang.ai/

GitHub - https://github.com/convo-lang/convo-lang

Core NPM package - https://www.npmjs.com/package/@convo-lang/convo-lang

All NPM package - https://www.npmjs.com/~convo-lang

VSCode extension - https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=iyio.con...

r/ConvoLang sub Reddit - https://www.reddit.com/r/ConvoLang/

Any stars on GitHub would be much appreciated, thank you.

convo-lang commented on Convo-Lang: LLM Programming Language and Runtime learn.convo-lang.ai/... · Posted by u/handfuloflight

aurumque · 13 days ago

This is a really great experiment that gets a lot of things right!

convo-lang · 13 days ago

Thank you. I created Convo-Lang out of my needs as a developer building AI into applications so a lot of it features were driven by real world needs.

convo-lang commented on Convo-Lang: LLM Programming Language and Runtime learn.convo-lang.ai/... · Posted by u/handfuloflight

Disposal8433 · 14 days ago

The new COBOL. The next step is obviously to add syntax when you need to specify the type of the variables: put the type first, then the name and its value, and finish with a semicolon because it's fun, like "int n = 0;"

convo-lang · 13 days ago

I remember seeing comments like this when React and JSX first hit the scene. It's different for sure, but it solves a real problem.

convo-lang commented on Convo-Lang: LLM Programming Language and Runtime learn.convo-lang.ai/... · Posted by u/handfuloflight

brainless · 14 days ago

I have thought of this issue quite a few times. I use Claude Code, Gemini CLI, etc. for all my new projects. Each of the typical CLAUDE.md/GEMINI.md file exists. I do not use MCPs. I ask agents to use `gh` command, all my work happens around Git/GitHub.

But text is just that, while scripts are easier to rely on. I can prompt and document all mechanisms to, say, check code format. But once I add something, say a pre-commit hook, it becomes reliable.

I am looking for a human readable (maybe renderable) way to codify patterns.

convo-lang · 13 days ago

I very much agree with you. I wanted to minimal scripting language that worked with LLMs and had as few abstractions as possible.

I'm actually working on a system that uses Convo-Lang scripts as form "sub-agents" that are controls by a master Convo-Lang script.

And regarding your "maybe renderable" comment, Convo-Lang scripts are parsed and stored in memory as a set of message objects similar to a DOM tree. The ConversationView in the @convo-lang/convo-lang-react NPM package uses the message objects to render a conversation as a chat view and can be extended to render custom components based on tags / metadata that is attached to the messages of the conversation.

convo-lang commented on Convo-Lang: LLM Programming Language and Runtime learn.convo-lang.ai/... · Posted by u/handfuloflight

pryelluw · 13 days ago

Like terraform for prompts.

Put that on the landing page.

convo-lang · 13 days ago

I like that :) thank you

convo-lang commented on Convo-Lang: LLM Programming Language and Runtime learn.convo-lang.ai/... · Posted by u/handfuloflight

machiaweliczny · 14 days ago

Why not library?

convo-lang · 13 days ago

Its both a library and a language. You can use it directly in TypeScript and Javascript using the `convo` tagged template literal function from the @convo-lang/convo-lang NPM package.

https://www.npmjs.com/package/@convo-lang/convo-lang

Here is an example of using in TypeScript: ``` ts import {convo} from "@convo-lang/convo-lang"

const categorizeMessage=convo`

    > define
    UserMessage = struct(
        sentiment: enum("happy" "sad" "mad" "neutral")
        type: enum("support-request" "complaint" "compliment" "other")
        # A an array of possible solutions for a support-request or complaint
        suggestedSolutions?: array(string)
        # The users message verbatim
        userMessage: string
    )

    @json UserMessage
    > user
    Categorize the following user message:

    <user-message>
    ${userMessage}
    </user-message>

`

console.log(categorizeMessage)

```

And for a userMessage that looks something like:

---- My Jackhawk 9000 broke in half when I was trying to cut the top of my 67 Hemi. This thing is a piece of crap. I want my money back!!! ----

The return JSON object would look like: ``` json

{

    "sentiment": "mad",

    "type": "complaint",

    "suggestedSolutions": [

        "Offer a full refund to the original payment method",

        "Provide a free replacement unit under warranty",

        "Issue a prepaid return shipping label to retrieve the broken item",

        "Offer store credit if a refund is not preferred",

        "Escalate to warranty/support team for expedited resolution"

    ],

    "userMessage": "My Jackhawk 9000 broke in half when I was trying to cut the top of my 67 Hemi. This thing is a piece of crap. I want my money back!!!"

}

```

convo-lang commented on Convo-Lang: LLM Programming Language and Runtime learn.convo-lang.ai/... · Posted by u/handfuloflight

meindnoch · 14 days ago

  @on user
  > onAskAboutConvoLang() -> (
      if(??? (+ boolean /m last:3 task:Inspecting message)
          Did the user ask about Convo-Lang in their last message
      ???) then (
  
          @ragForMsg public/learn-convo
          ??? (+ respond /m task:Generating response about Convo-Lang)
              Answer the users question using the following information about Convo-Lang
          ???
      )
  )
  
  > user

Who in their right mind would come up with such a "syntax"? An LLM?

convo-lang · 13 days ago

Sometimes I feel like an LLM . I takes a little getting used to, but that is the same for any new language. And the Convo-Lang syntax highlighter helps to.

The triple questions marks (???) are used to enclose natural language that is evaluated by the LLM and is considered an inline-prompt since it is evaluated inline within a function / tool call. I wanted there to be a very clear delineation between the deterministic code that is executed by the Convo-Lang interpreter and the natural language that is evaluated by the LLM. I also wanted there to be as little need for escape characters as possible.

The content in the parentheses following the triple question marks is the header of the inline-prompt and consists of modifiers that control the context and response format of the LLM.

Here is a breakdown of the header of the first inline-prompt: (+ boolean /m last:3 task:Inspecting message)

----

- modifier: +

- name: Continue conversation

- description: Includes all previous messages of the current conversation as context

----

- modifier: /m

- name: Moderator Tag

- description: Wraps the content of the prompt in a <moderator> xml tag and injects instruction into the system describing how to handle moderator tags

----

- modifier: last:{number}

- name: Select Last

- description: Discards all but the last three messages from the current conversation when used with the (+) modifier

----

- modifier: task:{string}

- name: Task Description

- description: Used by UI components to display a message to the user describing what the LLM is doing.

----

Here is a link to the Convo-Lang docs for inline-prompts - https://learn.convo-lang.ai/#inline-prompts

convo-lang commented on Convo-Lang: LLM Programming Language and Runtime learn.convo-lang.ai/... · Posted by u/handfuloflight

croes · 14 days ago

Next step, an LLM that writes convo-lang programs to programs with an LLM

convo-lang · 13 days ago

I've already done that LOL