Guidance

Interleave control and generation

LLM / RAG frameworkConstrained generation libraryMITCloud-optionalPythonAdvanced

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What is Guidance?

Guidance is a programming paradigm for steering LLMs that interleaves control flow with generation, with constrained decoding and rich templating.

Why people choose Guidance

Fine control interleaved with generation
Constrained decoding cuts token waste
Works with local and hosted models

Guidance at a glance

Category	LLM / RAG framework
Type	Constrained generation library
License	MIT
Runs locally	Cloud-optional
Built with	Python
Skill level	Advanced
Best for	developers scripting complex generation logic

Open-source alternatives to Guidance

Other open-source llm / rag framework tools worth comparing:

LangChainCompose chains, tools and agents

LlamaIndexThe data framework for RAG

HaystackProduction pipelines for search and RAG

DSPyProgram — not prompt — language models

txtaiAll-in-one embeddings database

RAGFlowDeep-document-understanding RAG

Semantic KernelMicrosoft's enterprise agent framework

GraphRAGRAG that builds a knowledge graph first

LiteLLMOne API for 100+ LLM providers

InstructorReliable structured outputs from LLMs

OutlinesGuarantee valid JSON and grammars

LLMWareEnterprise RAG with small specialised models

FlashRankUltra-light reranking for better RAG

Sentence TransformersThe standard way to make embeddings

RagasMeasure whether your RAG is any good

PromptfooUnit tests for your prompts

LangfuseSee what your LLM app actually did

PhoenixTrace, evaluate and debug LLM apps

Guidance head-to-head

Guidance vs LangChain Guidance vs LlamaIndex Guidance vs Haystack Guidance vs DSPy Guidance vs txtai Guidance vs RAGFlow Guidance vs Semantic Kernel Guidance vs GraphRAG Guidance vs LiteLLM Guidance vs Instructor Guidance vs Outlines Guidance vs LLMWare Guidance vs FlashRank Guidance vs Sentence Transformers Guidance vs Ragas Guidance vs Promptfoo Guidance vs Langfuse Guidance vs Phoenix

FAQ

Is Guidance free?

Guidance is free and open-source (MIT license), so you can use, self-host and modify it at no cost.

Can I run Guidance locally?

Guidance can be used locally or in the cloud depending on your setup.

What is the best alternative to Guidance?

Popular open-source alternatives include LangChain, LlamaIndex, Haystack. See the comparisons above to choose.

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