Structured output
Also known as: JSON mode · schema-constrained output
Structured output constrains the model to produce a response that strictly matches a schema — usually JSON — so your code can parse it reliably instead of scraping free text.
Most APIs now offer:
- JSON mode — forces valid JSON.
- Schema-constrained — forces JSON that matches your exact schema.
It’s the backbone of reliable agent pipelines.
The professional move: never regex-parse a model's prose. Define a schema and ask for structured output. Your code gets clean data, not best-guess string surgery.