schema

One declaration that works as an object type, an AI response parser, and a database table.

Defining a schema

schema Person:
    name: text
    age:  number

Each field has a name and a type. The available types are text, number, boolean, list, dict, and any.

As an object type

Call the schema like a task to build a record — positionally or with keyword arguments:

schema Person:
    name: text
    age:  number

let alice = Person("Alice", 30)
let bob = Person(name="Bob", age=25)

show alice["name"]
show bob["age"]

A number field is stored as a decimal, so age=25 reads back as 25.0.

As an AI parser

Pass the schema's name to think ... as and the response is validated and coerced into its fields. If the model's answer doesn't fit, NEKOVA re-prompts instead of handing you malformed data.

schema Review:
    verdict: text
    score:   number

let r = think "Review the film Inception" as Review
show r["verdict"]
show r["score"]

With no API key configured, the mock provider fills in placeholder values, so this runs offline. The result also carries a __schema__ entry naming the schema it was parsed against.

As a database table

db_create_from_schema builds a table straight from a schema's fields, so you never spell out column types by hand:

use database

schema Person:
    name: text
    age:  number

db_connect(":memory:")
db_create_from_schema(Person, "people")
db_insert("people", "Alice, 30")
show db_find("people", "all")

A boolean field becomes a boolean column. Passing something that isn't a schema raises a clear error.

schema or shape?

NEKOVA has both, and they are deliberately separate:

schema uses the same type names as the inline form think "..." as schema {"name": "text"}, so the two read consistently. think ... as Name finds either kind. Use the inline form for a one-off extraction, and a declared schema when you want to name the structure and reuse it.

schema is a soft keyword

schema only means "start a definition" when a name and a colon follow it. Anywhere else it's an ordinary identifier, so existing code that uses it as a variable name keeps working:

let schema = "just a variable"
show schema