Guards

Guards constrain AI outputs with validation rules. When a guard fails, ThinkLang can retry the AI call or fall back to a default value.

Basic Guard

Add a guard clause after a think, infer, or reason expression:

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

If the AI's response does not satisfy the guard, a GuardFailed error is thrown.

Guard Rules

length

Constrain the character length of the output (or its JSON serialization):

guard {
  length: 50..300
}

The range 50..300 means the output must be between 50 and 300 characters.

contains_none

Ensure the output does not contain any of the forbidden strings:

guard {
  contains_none: ["TODO", "placeholder", "lorem ipsum"]
}

Numeric Range Guards

For named fields, you can validate numeric ranges:

guard {
  score: 0..100
}

on_fail

Specify what happens when a guard fails.

Retry

Retry the AI call up to N times:

let result = think<Summary>("Summarize this article")
  with context: article
  guard {
    length: 100..500
  }
  on_fail: retry(3)

Retries use exponential backoff (500ms base delay).

Retry with Fallback

If all retries fail, use a fallback value:

let result = think<Summary>("Summarize this article")
  with context: article
  guard {
    length: 100..500
  }
  on_fail: retry(3) then fallback({ headline: "Summary unavailable", keyPoints: [] })

Multiple Guard Rules

Combine multiple rules in a single guard block:

let result = think<string>("Write a product description")
  with context: product
  guard {
    length: 50..300
    contains_none: ["click here", "buy now", "limited time"]
  }
  on_fail: retry(2)

All rules must pass for the guard to succeed.

Guard Failure Errors

When a guard fails and no retry/fallback is configured, a GuardFailed error is thrown:

try {
  let result = think<string>("Generate text")
    guard { length: 10..50 }
} catch GuardFailed (e) {
  print "Guard failed — output did not meet constraints"
}

The GuardFailed error includes the guard name, the constraint that was violated, and the actual value that caused the failure.