React to elements in a JSON stream

Start processing JSON before the entire JSON document is available.

• crate
• documentation

Concepts

The library uses the streaming JSON parser RJiter.

The scan function checks for registered handlers (actions) at the begin and end of every JSON key. The check is performed by a matcher. Together, a matcher plus an action form a trigger.

An action gets two RefCell references as arguments:

• baton_cell: A black box for side effects by the action
• rjiter_cell: RJiter parser object. An action can interfere with JSON parsing by consuming the value of the current key

Example of a trigger

The trigger matches the key content and calls the on_content function.

The action's black box contains a Write trait object. The action writes the string value of the current JSON key content to this writer.

Getting the value requires using the RJiter parser to consume the next token. The action returns StreamOp::ValueIsConsumed to inform the caller that it has consumed the value, so that the caller can update its internal state.

The type annotation Trigger<BoxedAction<dyn Write>> is not needed in this code fragment, but it is often required when using closure handlers and several triggers.

use scan_json::{Name, Trigger, BoxedAction, StreamOp, rjiter::RJiter};
use std::cell::RefCell;
use std::io::Write;


let content_trigger: Trigger<BoxedAction<dyn Write>> = Trigger::new(
  Box::new(Name::new("content".to_string())),
  Box::new(on_content)
);

fn on_content(rjiter_cell: &RefCell<RJiter>, writer_cell: &RefCell<dyn Write>) -> StreamOp {
    let mut rjiter = rjiter_cell.borrow_mut();
    let mut writer = writer_cell.borrow_mut();
    let result = rjiter
        .peek()
        .and_then(|_| rjiter.write_long_bytes(&mut *writer));
    match result {
        Ok(_) => StreamOp::ValueIsConsumed,
        Err(e) => StreamOp::Error(Box::new(e)),
    }
}

Complete example

Summary:

• Initialize the parser
• Create the black box with a Vec, which is used as dyn Write in actions
• Create triggers for message, content, and a trigger for the end of message
• Combine all together in the scan function

The example demonstrates that scan can be used to handle LLM streaming output:

• The input is several JSON objects on the top-level, without being wrapped in an array
• The server-side-events tokens are ignored

use std::cell::RefCell;
use std::io::Write;
use scan_json::scan;
use scan_json::{Name, ParentAndName, BoxedAction, BoxedEndAction, StreamOp, Trigger, rjiter::RJiter};


fn scan_llm_output(json: &str) -> RefCell<Vec<u8>> {
    let mut reader = json.as_bytes();
    let mut buffer = vec![0u8; 32];
    let rjiter_cell = RefCell::new(RJiter::new(&mut reader, &mut buffer));
    let writer_cell = RefCell::new(Vec::new());

    let begin_message: Trigger<BoxedAction<dyn Write>> = Trigger::new(
        Box::new(Name::new("message".to_string())),
        Box::new(|_: &RefCell<RJiter>, writer: &RefCell<dyn Write>| {
            let result = writer.borrow_mut().write_all(b"(new message)\n");
            match result {
                Ok(_) => StreamOp::None,
                Err(e) => StreamOp::Error(Box::new(e)),
            }
        }),
    );
    let content: Trigger<BoxedAction<dyn Write>> = Trigger::new(
        Box::new(Name::new("content".to_string())),
        Box::new(
            |rjiter_cell: &RefCell<RJiter>, writer_cell: &RefCell<dyn Write>| {
                let mut rjiter = rjiter_cell.borrow_mut();
                let mut writer = writer_cell.borrow_mut();
                let result = rjiter
                    .peek()
                    .and_then(|_| rjiter.write_long_bytes(&mut *writer));
                match result {
                    Ok(_) => StreamOp::ValueIsConsumed,
                    Err(e) => StreamOp::Error(Box::new(e)),
                }
            },
        ),
    );
    let end_message: Trigger<BoxedEndAction<dyn Write>> = Trigger::new(
        Box::new(Name::new("message".to_string())),
        Box::new(|writer: &RefCell<dyn Write>| {
            writer.borrow_mut().write_all(b"\n")?;
            Ok(())
        }),
    );

    scan(
        &vec![begin_message, content],
        &vec![end_message],
        &vec!["data:", "DONE"],
        &rjiter_cell,
        &writer_cell,
    )
    .unwrap();

    writer_cell
}

// ---------------- Sample LLM output

let json = r#"{
  "id": "chatcmpl-Ahpq4nZeP9mESaKsCVdmZdK96IrUH",
  "object": "chat.completion",
  "created": 1735010736,
  "model": "gpt-4o-mini-2024-07-18",
  "choices": [
    {
      "index": 0,
      "message": {
        "role": "assistant",
        "content": "Hello! How can I assist you today?",
        "refusal": null
      },
      "logprobs": null,
      "finish_reason": "stop"
    }
  ],
  "usage": {
    "prompt_tokens": 9,
    "completion_tokens": 10,
    "total_tokens": 19,
    "prompt_tokens_details": {
      "cached_tokens": 0,
      "audio_tokens": 0
    },
    "completion_tokens_details": {
      "reasoning_tokens": 0,
      "audio_tokens": 0,
      "accepted_prediction_tokens": 0,
      "rejected_prediction_tokens": 0
    }
  },
  "system_fingerprint": "fp_0aa8d3e20b"
}"#;

let writer_cell = scan_llm_output(json);
let message = String::from_utf8(writer_cell.borrow().to_vec()).unwrap();
assert_eq!(message, "(new message)\nHello! How can I assist you today?\n");

// ---------------- Sample LLM output (streaming)
let json = r#"
data: {"choices":[{"index":0,"delta":{"role":"assistant","content":"","refusal":null},"logprobs":null,"finish_reason":null}],"id":"chatcmpl-AgMB1khICnwswjgqIl2X2jr587Nep","object":"chat.completion.chunk","created":1734658387,"model":"gpt-4o-mini-2024-07-18","system_fingerprint":"fp_d02d531b47"}

data: {"choices":[{"index":0,"delta":{"content":"Hello"},"logprobs":null,"finish_reason":null}],"id":"chatcmpl-AgMB1khICnwswjgqIl2X2jr587Nep","object":"chat.completion.chunk","created":1734658387,"model":"gpt-4o-mini-2024-07-18","system_fingerprint":"fp_d02d531b47"}

data: {"choices":[{"index":0,"delta":{"content":"!"},"logprobs":null,"finish_reason":null}],"id":"chatcmpl-AgMB1khICnwswjgqIl2X2jr587Nep","object":"chat.completion.chunk","created":1734658387,"model":"gpt-4o-mini-2024-07-18","system_fingerprint":"fp_d02d531b47"}

data: {"choices":[{"index":0,"delta":{"content":" How"},"logprobs":null,"finish_reason":null}],"id":"chatcmpl-AgMB1khICnwswjgqIl2X2jr587Nep","object":"chat.completion.chunk","created":1734658387,"model":"gpt-4o-mini-2024-07-18","system_fingerprint":"fp_d02d531b47"}

data: {"choices":[{"index":0,"delta":{"content":" can"},"logprobs":null,"finish_reason":null}],"id":"chatcmpl-AgMB1khICnwswjgqIl2X2jr587Nep","object":"chat.completion.chunk","created":1734658387,"model":"gpt-4o-mini-2024-07-18","system_fingerprint":"fp_d02d531b47"}

data: {"choices":[{"index":0,"delta":{"content":" I"},"logprobs":null,"finish_reason":null}],"id":"chatcmpl-AgMB1khICnwswjgqIl2X2jr587Nep","object":"chat.completion.chunk","created":1734658387,"model":"gpt-4o-mini-2024-07-18","system_fingerprint":"fp_d02d531b47"}

data: {"choices":[{"index":0,"delta":{"content":" assist"},"logprobs":null,"finish_reason":null}],"id":"chatcmpl-AgMB1khICnwswjgqIl2X2jr587Nep","object":"chat.completion.chunk","created":1734658387,"model":"gpt-4o-mini-2024-07-18","system_fingerprint":"fp_d02d531b47"}

data: {"choices":[{"index":0,"delta":{"content":" you"},"logprobs":null,"finish_reason":null}],"id":"chatcmpl-AgMB1khICnwswjgqIl2X2jr587Nep","object":"chat.completion.chunk","created":1734658387,"model":"gpt-4o-mini-2024-07-18","system_fingerprint":"fp_d02d531b47"}

data: {"choices":[{"index":0,"delta":{"content":" today"},"logprobs":null,"finish_reason":null}],"id":"chatcmpl-AgMB1khICnwswjgqIl2X2jr587Nep","object":"chat.completion.chunk","created":1734658387,"model":"gpt-4o-mini-2024-07-18","system_fingerprint":"fp_d02d531b47"}

data: {"choices":[{"index":0,"delta":{"content":"?"},"logprobs":null,"finish_reason":null}],"id":"chatcmpl-AgMB1khICnwswjgqIl2X2jr587Nep","object":"chat.completion.chunk","created":1734658387,"model":"gpt-4o-mini-2024-07-18","system_fingerprint":"fp_d02d531b47"}

data: {"choices":[{"index":0,"delta":{},"logprobs":null,"finish_reason":"stop"}],"id":"chatcmpl-AgMB1khICnwswjgqIl2X2jr587Nep","object":"chat.completion.chunk","created":1734658387,"model":"gpt-4o-mini-2024-07-18","system_fingerprint":"fp_d02d531b47"}

data: [DONE]
"#;

let writer_cell = scan_llm_output(json);
let message = String::from_utf8(writer_cell.borrow().to_vec()).unwrap();
assert_eq!(message, "Hello! How can I assist you today?");

Limitations

The library is not a generic SAX-like interface: It does not provide callbacks for arrays and character data.

The library does not support async operations.

Colophon

License: MIT

Author: Oleg Parashchenko, olpa@ https://uucode.com/

Contact: via email or Ailets Discord

scan_json is a part of the ailets.org project.