Request a structured response

To request an answer in a specific response format, pass an OpenAI-style responseFormat object to the answer method. The returned result.answer contains a JSON string matching your schema instead of Markdown. Inline citations no longer appear in the answer text. The result.citations field is returned regardless of the response format. If the responseFormat is malformed, it is rejected before the request is billed, and an error is raised as SeltzAPIError.

Answer does not validate the model’s output against your schema before returning it. A request can succeed with a 200 and still return an answer that is cut off partway through if, for example, generation is truncated, in which case the response does not parse as valid JSON. Always wrap your parse call in a try/catch or equivalent rather than assuming answer is well-formed.

import { Seltz } from "seltz";

const client = new Seltz();

const result = await client.answer({
  query: "Who is going to be Apple's next CEO?",
  responseFormat: {
    type: "json_schema",
    json_schema: {
      name: "leadership_change",
      schema: {
        type: "object",
        properties: {
          successor: { type: "string" },
          effective_date: { type: "string" },
        },
        required: ["successor", "effective_date"],
        additionalProperties: false,
      },
      strict: true,
    },
  },
});

try {
  const change = JSON.parse(result.answer);
  console.log(change.successor, change.effective_date);
} catch {
  console.log("Answer was not valid JSON. It may have been truncated.");
}

import json

from seltz import Seltz

client = Seltz()

response = client.answer(
    "Who is going to be Apple's next CEO?",
    response_format={
        "type": "json_schema",
        "json_schema": {
            "name": "leadership_change",
            "schema": {
                "type": "object",
                "properties": {
                    "successor": {"type": "string"},
                    "effective_date": {"type": "string"},
                },
                "required": ["successor", "effective_date"],
                "additionalProperties": False,
            },
            "strict": True,
        },
    },
)

try:
    change = json.loads(response.answer)
    print(change["successor"], change["effective_date"])
except json.JSONDecodeError:
    print("Answer was not valid JSON. It may have been truncated.")

curl -X POST https://api.seltz.ai/v1/answer \
  -H "x-api-key: $SELTZ_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "query": "Who will be the next CEO of Apple?",
    "response_format": {
      "type": "json_schema",
      "json_schema": {
        "name": "leadership_change",
        "strict": true,
        "schema": {
          "type": "object",
          "properties": {
            "successor": {"type": "string"},
            "effective_date": {"type": "string"}
          },
          "required": ["successor", "effective_date"],
          "additionalProperties": false
        }
      }
    }
  }'

The response’s answer field is a JSON string matching the schema above:

{
  "answer": "{\"successor\":\"John Ternus\",\"effective_date\":\"2026-09-01\"}",
  "citations": [
    {
      "url": "https://in.mashable.com/tech/100649/inside-apples-boardroom-who-will-succeed-tim-cook-as-ceo"
    },
    {
      "url": "https://www.newsgram.com/science/2026/04/21/apple-tim-cook-steps-down-who-is-john-ternus"
    },
    {
      "url": "https://fool.com/investing/2021/04/10/who-will-be-apples-next-ceo"
    },
    {
      "url": "https://www.mactrast.com/2026/07/tim-cook-thanks-shareholders-who-have-put-there-trust-in-us-for-so-many-years/"
    },
    {
      "url": "https://www.macrumors.com/2026/07/30/tim-cook-thanks-apple-shareholders/"
    },
    {
      "url": "https://www.inkl.com/news/apples-next-ceo-inherits-a-product-empire-hungry-for-its-next-breakthrough"
    },
    {
      "url": "https://www.macrumors.com/2026/08/03/apple-john-ternus-hiring-retired-vp/"
    },
    {
      "url": "https://www.explosion.com/207823/tim-cooks-final-earnings-call-hes-all-in-on-john-ternus/"
    },
    {
      "url": "https://9to5mac.com/2026/07/30/tim-cook-marks-final-earnings-call-as-apple-ceo-confirms-ternus-will-take-over-calls/"
    },
    {
      "url": "https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/technology/tech-news/tim-cook-thanks-shareholders-in-last-earnings-call-as-apple-ceo-says-we-have-a-bright-future-ahead/articleshow/132772693.cms"
    }
  ]
}

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