Try text prompts

Use Vertex AI to send a text prompt to Google's PaLM 2 Large Language Model (LLM) and to receive a response. Test and customize prompts to meet the needs of your application.

Before you begin

Before you can try the text prompts, you must do the following:

1. Set up a project and a development environment. The project ID is needed to run the sample code.
2. Familiarize yourself with the text parameters that you must replace before running the sample code.
3. Review the text use cases to help you identify which type of sample to create.

Try text prompts

Select a tab, and follow the instructions to run the sample.

REST

To test a text prompt by using the Vertex AI API, send a POST request to the publisher model endpoint.

Before using any of the request data, make the following replacements:

• PROJECT_ID: Your project ID.
• PROMPT: A prompt is a natural language request submitted to a language model to receive a response back. Prompts can contain questions, instructions, contextual information, examples, and text for the model to complete or continue. (Don't add quotes around the prompt here.)
• TEMPERATURE: The temperature is used for sampling during response generation, which occurs when topP and topK are applied. Temperature controls the degree of randomness in token selection. Lower temperatures are good for prompts that require a less open-ended or creative response, while higher temperatures can lead to more diverse or creative results. A temperature of 0 means that the highest probability tokens are always selected. In this case, responses for a given prompt are mostly deterministic, but a small amount of variation is still possible.

  If the model returns a response that's too generic, too short, or the model gives a fallback response, try increasing the temperature.

• MAX_OUTPUT_TOKENS: Maximum number of tokens that can be generated in the response. A token is approximately four characters. 100 tokens correspond to roughly 60-80 words.

  Specify a lower value for shorter responses and a higher value for potentially longer responses.

• TOP_P: Top-P changes how the model selects tokens for output. Tokens are selected from the most (see top-K) to least probable until the sum of their probabilities equals the top-P value. For example, if tokens A, B, and C have a probability of 0.3, 0.2, and 0.1 and the top-P value is 0.5, then the model will select either A or B as the next token by using temperature and excludes C as a candidate.

  Specify a lower value for less random responses and a higher value for more random responses.

• TOP_K: Top-K changes how the model selects tokens for output. A top-K of 1 means the next selected token is the most probable among all tokens in the model's vocabulary (also called greedy decoding), while a top-K of 3 means that the next token is selected from among the three most probable tokens by using temperature.

  For each token selection step, the top-K tokens with the highest probabilities are sampled. Then tokens are further filtered based on top-P with the final token selected using temperature sampling.

  Specify a lower value for less random responses and a higher value for more random responses.

HTTP method and URL:

POST https://us-central1-aiplatform.googleapis.com/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/locations/us-central1/publishers/google/models/text-bison:predict

Request JSON body:

{
  "instances": [
    { "prompt": "PROMPT"}
  ],
  "parameters": {
    "temperature": TEMPERATURE,
    "maxOutputTokens": MAX_OUTPUT_TOKENS,
    "topP": TOP_P,
    "topK": TOP_K
  }
}

To send your request, choose one of these options:

curl

Note: The following command assumes that you have logged in to the gcloud CLI with your user account by running gcloud init or gcloud auth login , or by using Cloud Shell, which automatically logs you into the gcloud CLI . You can check the currently active account by running gcloud auth list.

Save the request body in a file named request.json, and execute the following command:

curl -X POST \
     -H "Authorization: Bearer $(gcloud auth print-access-token)" \
     -H "Content-Type: application/json; charset=utf-8" \
     -d @request.json \
     "https://us-central1-aiplatform.googleapis.com/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/locations/us-central1/publishers/google/models/text-bison:predict"

PowerShell

Note: The following command assumes that you have logged in to the gcloud CLI with your user account by running gcloud init or gcloud auth login . You can check the currently active account by running gcloud auth list.

Save the request body in a file named request.json, and execute the following command:

$cred = gcloud auth print-access-token
$headers = @{ "Authorization" = "Bearer $cred" }

Invoke-WebRequest `
    -Method POST `
    -Headers $headers `
    -ContentType: "application/json; charset=utf-8" `
    -InFile request.json `
    -Uri "https://us-central1-aiplatform.googleapis.com/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/locations/us-central1/publishers/google/models/text-bison:predict" | Select-Object -Expand Content

You should receive a JSON response similar to the following.

Response

{
  "predictions": [
    {
      "content": "RESPONSE"
      "citationMetadata": {
        "citations": []
      },
      "safetyAttributes": {
        "scores": [],
        "blocked": false,
        "categories": []
      }
    }
  ],
  "metadata": {
    "tokenMetadata": {
      "inputTokenCount": {
        "totalBillableCharacters": ,
        "totalTokens": 
      },
      "outputTokenCount": {
        "totalBillableCharacters": ,
        "totalTokens": 
      }
    }
  }
}

Python

To learn how to install or update the Vertex AI SDK for Python, see Install the Vertex AI SDK for Python. For more information, see the Python API reference documentation.

import vertexai
from vertexai.language_models import TextGenerationModel


def interview(
    temperature: float,
    project_id: str,
    location: str,
) -> str:
    """Ideation example with a Large Language Model"""

    vertexai.init(project=project_id, location=location)
    # TODO developer - override these parameters as needed:
    parameters = {
        "temperature": temperature,  # Temperature controls the degree of randomness in token selection.
        "max_output_tokens": 256,  # Token limit determines the maximum amount of text output.
        "top_p": 0.8,  # Tokens are selected from most probable to least until the sum of their probabilities equals the top_p value.
        "top_k": 40,  # A top_k of 1 means the selected token is the most probable among all tokens.
    }

    model = TextGenerationModel.from_pretrained("text-bison@002")
    response = model.predict(
        "Give me ten interview questions for the role of program manager.",
        **parameters,
    )
    print(f"Response from Model: {response.text}")

    return response.text

C#

Before trying this sample, follow the C# setup instructions in the Vertex AI quickstart using client libraries. For more information, see the Vertex AI C# API reference documentation.

To authenticate to Vertex AI, set up Application Default Credentials. For more information, see Set up authentication for a local development environment.

using Google.Cloud.AIPlatform.V1;
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using Value = Google.Protobuf.WellKnownTypes.Value;

public class PredictTextPromptSample
{
    public string PredictTextPrompt(
        string projectId = "your-project-id",
        string locationId = "us-central1",
        string publisher = "google",
        string model = "text-bison@001"
    )
    {
        // Initialize client that will be used to send requests.
        // This client only needs to be created
        // once, and can be reused for multiple requests.
        var client = new PredictionServiceClientBuilder
        {
            Endpoint = $"{locationId}-aiplatform.googleapis.com"
        }.Build();

        // Configure the parent resource
        var endpoint = EndpointName.FromProjectLocationPublisherModel(projectId, locationId, publisher, model);

        // Initialize request argument(s)
        var prompt = "Give me ten interview questions for the role of program manager.";

        var instanceValue = Value.ForStruct(new()
        {
            Fields =
            {
                ["prompt"] = Value.ForString(prompt)
            }
        });

        var instances = new List<Value>
        {
            instanceValue
        };

        var parameters = Value.ForStruct(new()
        {
            Fields =
            {
                { "temperature", new Value { NumberValue = 0.2 } },
                { "maxOutputTokens", new Value { NumberValue = 256 } },
                { "topP", new Value { NumberValue = 0.95 } },
                { "topK", new Value { NumberValue = 40 } }
            }
        });

        // Make the request
        var response = client.Predict(endpoint, instances, parameters);

        // Parse and return the content.
        var content = response.Predictions.First().StructValue.Fields["content"].StringValue;
        Console.WriteLine($"Content: {content}");
        return content;
    }
}

Node.js

Before trying this sample, follow the Node.js setup instructions in the Vertex AI quickstart using client libraries. For more information, see the Vertex AI Node.js API reference documentation.

To authenticate to Vertex AI, set up Application Default Credentials. For more information, see Set up authentication for a local development environment.

/**
 * TODO(developer): Uncomment these variables before running the sample.\
 * (Not necessary if passing values as arguments)
 */
// const project = 'YOUR_PROJECT_ID';
// const location = 'YOUR_PROJECT_LOCATION';
const aiplatform = require('@google-cloud/aiplatform');

// Imports the Google Cloud Prediction service client
const {PredictionServiceClient} = aiplatform.v1;

// Import the helper module for converting arbitrary protobuf.Value objects.
const {helpers} = aiplatform;

// Specifies the location of the api endpoint
const clientOptions = {
  apiEndpoint: 'us-central1-aiplatform.googleapis.com',
};

const publisher = 'google';
const model = 'text-bison@001';

// Instantiates a client
const predictionServiceClient = new PredictionServiceClient(clientOptions);

async function callPredict() {
  // Configure the parent resource
  const endpoint = `projects/${project}/locations/${location}/publishers/${publisher}/models/${model}`;

  const prompt = {
    prompt:
      'Give me ten interview questions for the role of program manager.',
  };
  const instanceValue = helpers.toValue(prompt);
  const instances = [instanceValue];

  const parameter = {
    temperature: 0.2,
    maxOutputTokens: 256,
    topP: 0.95,
    topK: 40,
  };
  const parameters = helpers.toValue(parameter);

  const request = {
    endpoint,
    instances,
    parameters,
  };

  // Predict request
  const response = await predictionServiceClient.predict(request);
  console.log('Get text prompt response');
  console.log(response);
}

callPredict();

Java

Before trying this sample, follow the Java setup instructions in the Vertex AI quickstart using client libraries. For more information, see the Vertex AI Java API reference documentation.

To authenticate to Vertex AI, set up Application Default Credentials. For more information, see Set up authentication for a local development environment.

import com.google.cloud.aiplatform.v1.EndpointName;
import com.google.cloud.aiplatform.v1.PredictResponse;
import com.google.cloud.aiplatform.v1.PredictionServiceClient;
import com.google.cloud.aiplatform.v1.PredictionServiceSettings;
import com.google.protobuf.Value;
import com.google.protobuf.util.JsonFormat;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.List;

public class PredictTextPromptSample {

  public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException {
    // TODO(developer): Replace these variables before running the sample.
    // Details of designing text prompts for supported large language models:
    // https://cloud.google.com/vertex-ai/docs/generative-ai/text/text-overview
    String instance =
        "{ \"prompt\": " + "\"Give me ten interview questions for the role of program manager.\"}";
    String parameters =
        "{\n"
            + "  \"temperature\": 0.2,\n"
            + "  \"maxOutputTokens\": 256,\n"
            + "  \"topP\": 0.95,\n"
            + "  \"topK\": 40\n"
            + "}";
    String project = "YOUR_PROJECT_ID";
    String location = "us-central1";
    String publisher = "google";
    String model = "text-bison@001";

    predictTextPrompt(instance, parameters, project, location, publisher, model);
  }

  // Get a text prompt from a supported text model
  public static void predictTextPrompt(
      String instance,
      String parameters,
      String project,
      String location,
      String publisher,
      String model)
      throws IOException {
    String endpoint = String.format("%s-aiplatform.googleapis.com:443", location);
    PredictionServiceSettings predictionServiceSettings =
        PredictionServiceSettings.newBuilder().setEndpoint(endpoint).build();

    // Initialize client that will be used to send requests. This client only needs to be created
    // once, and can be reused for multiple requests.
    try (PredictionServiceClient predictionServiceClient =
        PredictionServiceClient.create(predictionServiceSettings)) {
      final EndpointName endpointName =
          EndpointName.ofProjectLocationPublisherModelName(project, location, publisher, model);

      // Initialize client that will be used to send requests. This client only needs to be created
      // once, and can be reused for multiple requests.
      Value.Builder instanceValue = Value.newBuilder();
      JsonFormat.parser().merge(instance, instanceValue);
      List<Value> instances = new ArrayList<>();
      instances.add(instanceValue.build());

      // Use Value.Builder to convert instance to a dynamically typed value that can be
      // processed by the service.
      Value.Builder parameterValueBuilder = Value.newBuilder();
      JsonFormat.parser().merge(parameters, parameterValueBuilder);
      Value parameterValue = parameterValueBuilder.build();

      PredictResponse predictResponse =
          predictionServiceClient.predict(endpointName, instances, parameterValue);
      System.out.println("Predict Response");
      System.out.println(predictResponse);
    }
  }
}

Console

To try a text prompt by using Vertex AI Studio in the Google Cloud console, perform the following steps:

1. In the Vertex AI section of the Google Cloud console, go to the Vertex AI Studio page.

   Go to Vertex AI Studio

2. If your project hasn't been selected, select your project.
3. Click the Get started tab.
4. Click Text Prompt.

5. Select the method for inputting your prompt:

   • Freeform is recommended for zero-shot prompts or enter the few-shot prompts.
   • Structured is recommended for designing few-shot prompts in Vertex AI Studio.

   Freeform

   Enter your prompt in the Prompt text field.

   Structured

   The structured method for inputting prompts separates the components of a prompt into different fields:

   • Context: Enter instructions for the task that you want the model to perform, and include any contextual information for the model to reference.
   • Examples: For few-shot prompts, add input-output examples that exhibit the behavioral patterns for the model to imitate. Adding a prefix such as input or output is optional. Optional: If you choose to add prefixes, make them consistent across all examples.
   • Run: In the Input field, enter the input of the prompt that you want to get a response for. Adding a prefix for the test input and output is optional. If your examples have prefixes, the test should have the same prefixes.

6. Configure the model and parameters.

7. Click Submit.
8. Optional: To save your prompt to My prompts, click Save.
9. Optional: To get the Python code or a curl command for your prompt, click View code.

Stream response from text model

To view sample code requests and responses using the REST API, see Examples using the REST API.

To view sample code requests and responses using the Vertex AI SDK for Python, see Examples using Vertex AI SDK for Python.

What's next

• Learn about designing text prompts. and text chat prompts.
• Learn how to test prompts in Vertex AI Studio.
• Learn about text embeddings.
• Try to tune a language foundation model.
• Learn about responsible AI best practices and Vertex AI's safety filters.