roberto-mello/lavra/dspy-ruby

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Build type-safe LLM applications with DSPy.rb. Use when implementing AI features, LLM signatures, agent systems, or prompt optimization in Ruby.

Install

npx vskill@latest install roberto-mello/lavra/dspy-ruby

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SKILL.md

DSPy.rb

Build LLM apps like you build software. Type-safe, modular, testable.

DSPy.rb brings software engineering best practices to LLM development. Instead of tweaking prompts, define what you want with Ruby types and let DSPy handle the rest.

Overview

DSPy.rb is a Ruby framework for building language model applications with programmatic prompts. It provides:

  • Type-safe signatures — Define inputs/outputs with Sorbet types
  • Modular components — Compose and reuse LLM logic
  • Automatic optimization — Use data to improve prompts, not guesswork
  • Production-ready — Built-in observability, testing, and error handling

Core Concepts

1. Signatures

Define interfaces between your app and LLMs using Ruby types:

ruby
class EmailClassifier < DSPy::Signature
description "Classify customer support emails by category and priority"
class Priority < T::Enum
enums do
Low = new('low')
Medium = new('medium')
High = new('high')
Urgent = new('urgent')
end
end
input do
const :email_content, String
const :sender, String
end
output do
const :category, String
const :priority, Priority # Type-safe enum with defined values
const :confidence, Float
end
end
2. Modules

Build complex workflows from simple building blocks:

  • Predict — Basic LLM calls with signatures
  • ChainOfThought — Step-by-step reasoning
  • ReAct — Tool-using agents
  • CodeAct — Dynamic code generation agents (install the dspy-code_act gem)
3. Tools & Toolsets

Create type-safe tools for agents with comprehensive Sorbet support:

ruby
# Enum-based tool with automatic type conversion
class CalculatorTool < DSPy::Tools::Base
tool_name 'calculator'
tool_description 'Performs arithmetic operations with type-safe enum inputs'
class Operation < T::Enum
enums do
Add = new('add')
Subtract = new('subtract')
Multiply = new('multiply')
Divide = new('divide')
end
end
sig { params(operation: Operation, num1: Float, num2: Float).returns(T.any(Float, String)) }
def call(operation:, num1:, num2:)
case operation
when Operation::Add then num1 + num2
when Operation::Subtract then num1 - num2
when Operation::Multiply then num1 * num2
when Operation::Divide
return "Error: Division by zero" if num2 == 0
num1 / num2
end
end
end
# Multi-tool toolset with rich types
class DataToolset < DSPy::Tools::Toolset
toolset_name "data_processing"
class Format < T::Enum
enums do
JSON = new('json')
CSV = new('csv')
XML = new('xml')
end
end
tool :convert, description: "Convert data between formats"
tool :validate, description: "Validate data structure"
sig { params(data: String, from: Format, to: Format).returns(String) }
def convert(data:, from:, to:)
"Converted from #{from.serialize} to #{to.serialize}"
end
sig { params(data: String, format: Format).returns(T::Hash[String, T.any(String, Integer, T::Boolean)]) }
def validate(data:, format:)
{ valid: true, format: format.serialize, row_count: 42, message: "Data validation passed" }
end
end
4. Type System & Discriminators

DSPy.rb uses sophisticated type discrimination for complex data structures:

  • Automatic `_type` field injection — DSPy adds discriminator fields to structs for type safety
  • Union type support — T.any() types automatically disambiguated by _type
  • Reserved field name — Avoid defining your own _type fields in structs
  • Recursive filtering — _type fields filtered during deserialization at all nesting levels
5. Optimization

Improve accuracy with real data:

  • MIPROv2 — Advanced multi-prompt optimization with bootstrap sampling and Bayesian optimization
  • GEPA — Genetic-Pareto Reflective Prompt Evolution with feedback maps, experiment tracking, and telemetry
  • Evaluation — Comprehensive framework with built-in and custom metrics, error handling, and batch processing

Quick Start

ruby
# Install
gem 'dspy'
# Configure
DSPy.configure do |c|
c.lm = DSPy::LM.new('openai/gpt-4o-mini', api_key: ENV['OPENAI_API_KEY'])
end
# Define a task
class SentimentAnalysis < DSPy::Signature
description "Analyze sentiment of text"
input do
const :text, String
end
output do
const :sentiment, String # positive, negative, neutral
const :score, Float # 0.0 to 1.0
end
end
# Use it
analyzer = DSPy::Predict.new(SentimentAnalysis)
result = analyzer.call(text: "This product is amazing!")
puts result.sentiment # => "positive"
puts result.score # => 0.92

Provider Adapter Gems

Two strategies for connecting to LLM providers:

Per-provider adapters (direct SDK access)
ruby
# Gemfile
gem 'dspy'
gem 'dspy-openai' # OpenAI, OpenRouter, Ollama
gem 'dspy-anthropic' # Claude
gem 'dspy-gemini' # Gemini

Each adapter gem pulls in the official SDK (openai, anthropic, gemini-ai).

Unified adapter via RubyLLM (recommended for multi-provider)
ruby
# Gemfile
gem 'dspy'
gem 'dspy-ruby_llm' # Routes to any provider via ruby_llm
gem 'ruby_llm'

RubyLLM handles provider routing based on the model name. Use the ruby_llm/ prefix:

ruby
DSPy.configure do |c|
c.lm = DSPy::LM.new('ruby_llm/gemini-2.5-flash', structured_outputs: true)
# c.lm = DSPy::LM.new('ruby_llm/claude-sonnet-4-20250514', structured_outputs: true)
# c.lm = DSPy::LM.new('ruby_llm/gpt-4o-mini', structured_outputs: true)
end

Events System

DSPy.rb ships with a structured event bus for observing runtime behavior.

Module-Scoped Subscriptions (preferred for agents)
ruby
class MyAgent < DSPy::Module
subscribe 'lm.tokens', :track_tokens, scope: :descendants
def track_tokens(_event, attrs)
@total_tokens += attrs.fetch(:total_tokens, 0)
end
end
Global Subscriptions (for observability/integrations)
ruby
subscription_id = DSPy.events.subscribe('score.create') do |event, attrs|
Langfuse.export_score(attrs)
end
# Wildcards supported
DSPy.events.subscribe('llm.*') { |name, attrs| puts "[#{name}] tokens=#{attrs[:total_tokens]}" }

Event names use dot-separated namespaces (llm.generate, react.iteration_complete). Every event includes module metadata (module_path, module_leaf, module_scope.ancestry_token) for filtering.

Lifecycle Callbacks

Rails-style lifecycle hooks ship with every DSPy::Module:

  • `before` — Runs ahead of forward for setup (metrics, context loading)
  • `around` — Wraps forward, calls yield, and lets you pair setup/teardown logic
  • `after` — Fires after forward returns for cleanup or persistence
ruby
class InstrumentedModule < DSPy::Module
before :setup_metrics
around :manage_context
after :log_metrics
def forward(question:)
@predictor.call(question: question)
end
private
def setup_metrics
@start_time = Time.now
end
def manage_context
load_context
result = yield
save_context
result
end
def log_metrics
duration = Time.now - @start_time
Rails.logger.info "Prediction completed in #{duration}s"
end
end

Execution order: before → around (before yield) → forward → around (after yield) → after. Callbacks are inherited from parent classes and execute in registration order.

Fiber-Local LM Context

Override the language model temporarily using fiber-local storage:

ruby
fast_model = DSPy::LM.new("openai/gpt-4o-mini", api_key: ENV['OPENAI_API_KEY'])
DSPy.with_lm(fast_model) do
result = classifier.call(text: "test") # Uses fast_model inside this block
end
# Back to global LM outside the block

LM resolution hierarchy: Instance-level LM → Fiber-local LM (DSPy.with_lm) → Global LM (DSPy.configure).

Use configure_predictor for fine-grained control over agent internals:

ruby
agent = DSPy::ReAct.new(MySignature, tools: tools)
agent.configure { |c| c.lm = default_model }
agent.configure_predictor('thought_generator') { |c| c.lm = powerful_model }

Evaluation Framework

Systematically test LLM application performance with DSPy::Evals:

ruby
metric = DSPy::Metrics.exact_match(field: :answer, case_sensitive: false)
evaluator = DSPy::Evals.new(predictor, metric: metric)
result = evaluator.evaluate(test_examples, display_table: true)
puts "Pass Rate: #{(result.pass_rate * 100).round(1)}%"

Built-in metrics: exact_match, contains, numeric_difference, composite_and. Custom metrics return true/false or a DSPy::Prediction with score: and feedback: fields.

Use DSPy::Example for typed test data and export_scores: true to push results to Langfuse.

GEPA Optimization

GEPA (Genetic-Pareto Reflective Prompt Evolution) uses reflection-driven instruction rewrites:

ruby
gem 'dspy-gepa'
teleprompter = DSPy::Teleprompt::GEPA.new(
metric: metric,
reflection_lm: DSPy::ReflectionLM.new('openai/gpt-4o-mini', api_key: ENV['OPENAI_API_KEY']),
feedback_map: feedback_map,
config: { max_metric_calls: 600, minibatch_size: 6 }
)
result = teleprompter.compile(program, trainset: train, valset: val)
optimized_program = result.optimized_program

The metric must return DSPy::Prediction.new(score:, feedback:) so the reflection model can reason about failures. Use feedback_map to target individual predictors in composite modules.

Typed Context Pattern

Replace opaque string context blobs with T::Struct inputs. Each field gets its own description: annotation in the JSON schema the LLM sees:

ruby
class NavigationContext < T::Struct
const :workflow_hint, T.nilable(String),
description: "Current workflow phase guidance for the agent"
const :action_log, T::Array[String], default: [],
description: "Compact one-line-per-action history of research steps taken"
const :iterations_remaining, Integer,
description: "Budget remaining. Each tool call costs 1 iteration."
end
class ToolSelectionSignature < DSPy::Signature
input do
const :query, String
const :context, NavigationContext # Structured, not an opaque string
end
output do
const :tool_name, String
const :tool_args, String, description: "JSON-encoded arguments"
end
end

Benefits: type safety at compile time, per-field descriptions in the LLM schema, easy to test as value objects, extensible by adding const declarations.

Schema Formats (BAML / TOON)

Control how DSPy describes signature structure to the LLM:

  • JSON Schema (default) — Standard format, works with structured_outputs: true
  • BAML (schema_format: :baml) — 84% token reduction for Enhanced Prompting mode. Requires sorbet-baml gem.
  • TOON (schema_format: :toon, data_format: :toon) — Table-oriented format for both schemas and data. Enhanced Prompting mode only.

BAML and TOON apply only when structured_outputs: false. With structured_outputs: true, the provider receives JSON Schema directly.

Storage System

Persist and reload optimized programs with DSPy::Storage::ProgramStorage:

ruby
storage = DSPy::Storage::ProgramStorage.new(storage_path: "./dspy_storage")
storage.save_program(result.optimized_program, result, metadata: { optimizer: 'MIPROv2' })

Supports checkpoint management, optimization history tracking, and import/export between environments.

Rails Integration

Directory Structure

Organize DSPy components using Rails conventions:

This is the start of the file. Read the full SKILL.md on GitHub.

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Source

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Extension points

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