Templates

This article provides an overview of how prompt instructions and policies can be tailored to a user, through the use of templates. For instance, instructions can be customized for the user's language, the device they are using, their plan type, and so on.

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Introduction to templates

Markprompt uses Handlebars, which is a simple templating language that allows you to embed expressions in your content. It is used to dynamically generate content by merging templates with a context object. Handlebars provides a clean and concise syntax for injecting variables and managing conditional content.

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Using variables

The simplest use of templates is via variables, which act as placeholders for content that can be provided on a per-user basis.

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Basic variable insertion

Variables are placeholders that are wrapped in double curly braces ({{}}). These variables are replaced with corresponding values from the context provided during template rendering.

Example

1Hello, {{name}}!

If the context passed is:

1{
2  "name": "Steve Jobs"
3}

this template will be rendered as:

1Hello, Steve Jobs!

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Accessing object properties

To organize information, nested properties within an object are also supported. You can use dot notation to access these properties.

Example

1- The user is on the {{user.plan}} plan.
2- Their main region is {{user.region}}.

If the context passed is:

1{
2  "user": {
3    "plan": "Pro",
4    "region": "Canada"
5  }
6}

this template will be rendered as:

1- The user is on the Pro plan.
2- Their main region is Canada.

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Conditional statements

Conditional statements allow you to introduce logical branching within your instructions, such as providing different chunks of instructions depending on the user.

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Basic conditional rendering

Handlebars allows you to conditionally render content using the {{#if}} block. The content within the {{#if}} block is rendered if the condition evaluates to true.

Example

1{{#if markprompt.isMobile}}
2  The user is on mobile, do not include images in the response.
3{{/if}}

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Using alternative content

You can use the {{else}} block to define alternative content that is rendered when the condition in {{#if}} evaluates to false.

1{{#if markprompt.isMobile}}
2  - The user is on mobile.
3  - Do not include images in the response.
4  - Write short answers (max 50 words).
5{{else}}
6  - The user is on desktop.
7  - Include images in the response whenever relevant.
8  - Write comprehensive, richly formatted answers (but no longer than 300 words).
9{{/if}}

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Helpers

Markprompt provides helper functions enabling you to interact with your project data.

Specifically, Markprompt currently supports a source helper, which allows you to include the content of an file inside of your prompts and policies. It used as follows:

1Here is our pricing:
2
3{{source name="Help Center" path="/guides/pricing"}}

The source helper expects two parameters:

• name: the name of the source
• path: the path of the file under that source

You can grab this information when you open the file in the Data tab.

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Playground testing

In order to test your templates, the playground allows you to pass a mock context object. This can be provided by hitting the arrow next to the Send button:

The context can be set here, as a JSON-formatted object, e.g.:

1{
2  "user": {
3    "name": "Steve Jobs",
4    "role": "owner",
5    "plan": "Pro",
6    "region": "Canada"
7  },
8  "business": {
9    "id": "apple-inc"
10  }
11}

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Reserved variables

In addition to the variables you pass explicitly via context, Markprompt also passes system variables and thread metadata, nested under the markprompt and threadMetadata objects respectively.

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System variables

System variables are provided automatically, so that you do not need to worry about passing them explicitly. These variables are accessible via the markprompt object. They are currently:

To use it, simply refer to the properties under the markprompt object:

1{{#if markprompt.isMobile}}
2  The user is on a mobile device.
3{{/if}}

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Thread metadata

Likewise, when you pass thread metadata alongside a chat request, the payload is accessible via the threadMetadata object. To use thread metadata, simply refer to the properties under the threadMetadata object:

1{{#if threadMetadata.country}}
2  The user is located in {{threadMetadata.country}}.
3{{/if}}