ThinkLang Examples

This page provides an overview of the example programs shipped with ThinkLang. Each example demonstrates a different language feature or pattern. Source files are in the examples/ directory.

---

Hello Think

The simplest AI call. Sends a prompt and prints the result.

let greeting = think<string>("Say hello to the world in a creative way")
print greeting

Source: examples/01-hello-think.tl

---

Classification

Uses a structured type to classify an email into a category with a confidence score.

type Classification {
  @description("The category of the email")
  category: string
  @description("Confidence score from 0 to 1")
  confidence: float
  @description("Brief explanation")
  reason: string
}

let email = "Congratulations! You've won a FREE iPhone!"

let result = think<Classification>("Classify this email as spam, promotional, personal, or work")
  with context: email

print result

Source: examples/02-classification.tl

---

Data Extraction

Extracts structured entities from unstructured text.

type Person {
  name: string
  role: string
  company: string?
}

type ExtractionResult {
  @maxItems(10)
  people: Person[]
  @description("Brief summary of the document")
  summary: string
}

let document = "Meeting notes: John Smith (CEO of Acme Corp) met with Jane Doe..."

let extracted = think<ExtractionResult>("Extract all people and summarize")
  with context: document

print extracted

Source: examples/03-extraction.tl

---

Sentiment Analysis

Analyzes sentiment with a Confident wrapper that tracks the model's self-assessed confidence.

type Sentiment {
  @description("positive, negative, or neutral")
  label: string
  @description("Intensity from 1-10")
  intensity: int
}

let review = "This product is absolutely amazing!"

let sentiment = think<Confident<Sentiment>>("Analyze the sentiment of this review")
  with context: review

print sentiment

Source: examples/05-sentiment.tl

---

Multi-Step Processing

Chains multiple think calls, feeding the output of one into the context of the next.

let entities = think<Entities>("Extract technologies, applications, and challenges")
  with context: report

let analysis = think<Analysis>("Analyze the landscape based on these entities")
  with context: {
    entities,
    report,
  }

print analysis

Source: examples/10-multi-step.tl

---

Pipeline

Chains expressions using the |> operator for left-to-right data flow.

let result = inputData
  |> think<Summary>("Summarize this")
  |> think<Translation>("Translate to French")

Source: examples/09-pipeline.tl

---

Infer

Lightweight classification and transformation without a full prompt.

let category = infer<string>("urgent: server is down!", "Classify priority as low, medium, high, or critical")
print category

let language = infer<string>("Bonjour le monde", "Detect the language")
print language

Source: examples/06-infer-basic.tl

---

Guards

Validates AI output with guard constraints. Retries automatically on failure.

let result = think<Translation>("Translate to Spanish")
  with context: sourceText
  guard {
    length: 5..500
  }
  on_fail: retry(3)

print result

Source: examples/13-guards.tl

---

Reason Blocks

Multi-step reasoning with explicit numbered steps.

let analysis = reason<InvestmentAnalysis> {
  goal: "Analyze this investment portfolio and provide recommendations"
  steps:
    1. "Evaluate the current asset allocation"
    2. "Assess market conditions impact on each asset class"
    3. "Identify risks and opportunities"
    4. "Formulate a recommendation"
  with context: {
    portfolio,
    marketConditions,
  }
}

print analysis

Source: examples/12-reason-block.tl

---

Match Patterns

Pattern matching on AI results based on confidence or field values.

let sentiment = think<Confident<Sentiment>>("Analyze the sentiment")
  with context: review

let response = match sentiment {
  { confidence: >= 0.9 } => "High confidence result"
  { confidence: >= 0.5 } => "Moderate confidence result"
  _ => "Low confidence -- manual review needed"
}

print response

Source: examples/14-match-expression.tl

---

Try/Catch

Error handling for AI operations. Catches specific runtime error types.

try {
  let result = think<Summary>("Summarize this text in detail")
    with context: text
  print result
} catch SchemaViolation (e) {
  print "Schema error occurred"
} catch ConfidenceTooLow (e) {
  print "Confidence too low for reliable result"
}

Source: examples/15-try-catch.tl

---

If/Else

Conditional logic based on AI results.

if sentiment.isConfident(0.8) {
  print "High confidence result"
} else {
  print "Low confidence -- needs review"
}

---

Confident Types

Working with Confident<T> -- unwrapping, checking confidence, and using fallbacks.

let classified = think<Confident<Category>>("Classify this product")
  with context: item

print classified

The uncertain modifier enforces safe access at compile time:

let uncertain category = think<Category>("Classify this product")
  with context: text

let safeName = category.unwrap()
let highConf = category.expect(0.8)

Sources: examples/08-confident-values.tl, examples/11-uncertain.tl

---

Context and Privacy

Using with context to provide data and without context to exclude sensitive fields.

let recommendation = think<Recommendation>("Suggest products based on interests")
  with context: {
    profile,
    sensitiveData,
  }
  without context: sensitiveData

print recommendation

Source: examples/16-without-context.tl

---

Testing

ThinkLang includes a built-in test framework with value assertions and semantic assertions.

test "classification produces a valid category" {
  let result = think<Category>("Classify as food or drink")
    with context: "orange juice"
  assert result.name == "drink"
}

test "summary is relevant" {
  let summary = think<Summary>("Summarize this article")
    with context: article
  assert.semantic(summary, "mentions key financial metrics")
}

Run tests with:

npx tsx src/cli/index.ts test
npx tsx src/cli/index.ts test --update-snapshots
npx tsx src/cli/index.ts test --replay

---

Modules (Imports)

Split code across files using import. Types and functions are automatically importable from other .tl files.

// types.tl
type Sentiment {
  label: string
  score: float
}

fn analyzeSentiment(text: string): Sentiment {
  let result = think<Sentiment>("Analyze the sentiment")
    with context: text
  print result
}

// main.tl
import { Sentiment, analyzeSentiment } from "./types.tl"

let result = analyzeSentiment("Great product!")
print result

No export keyword needed. Paths are relative. Circular imports are detected.

---

Example Index

#	File	Feature
01	01-hello-think.tl	Basic think call
02	02-classification.tl	Structured types, with context
03	03-extraction.tl	Nested types, arrays, @maxItems
04	04-summarization.tl	@description annotations
05	05-sentiment.tl	Confident<T>
06	06-infer-basic.tl	infer expression
07	07-with-context.tl	Context blocks with multiple variables
08	08-confident-values.tl	Confident<T> methods
09	09-pipeline.tl	Pipeline |> operator
10	10-multi-step.tl	Chaining multiple think calls
11	11-uncertain.tl	uncertain modifier, .unwrap(), .expect()
12	12-reason-block.tl	reason blocks with goals and steps
13	13-guards.tl	Guard constraints, on_fail: retry(n)
14	14-match-expression.tl	match expression with patterns
15	15-try-catch.tl	try/catch error handling
16	16-without-context.tl	without context for privacy
17	17-cache-demo.tl	Exact-match caching