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Few-shot prompting is a powerful technique where you provide a small number of sample interactions (typically 2 to 5) to guide your agent’s behavior. This method helps the agent understand the desired output format and task requirements by learning from the given examples, thereby improving performance without writing extensive instructions.

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Crafting Effective Examples

  • Provide Task Demonstrations: Use examples that clearly illustrate the tasks that your agents will perform.
  • Use Realistic Scenarios: Include interactions that mirror actual conversations that your agent will handle.
  • Use Preferred Tone and Style: Ensure the agent’s replies in your examples match your desired brand voice.

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Defining Few-Shot Examples

In Agency Swarm, few-shot examples are earlier messages that show the style you want. Put them in instructions as plain text or pass them as message history to get_response / get_response_stream. Optional fields like attachments and metadata can be included in message history but are not required for basic examples.

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Using Few-Shot Examples

Pick one of these ways: 
from agency_swarm import Agency, Agent

support_agent = Agent(
    name="CustomerSupportAgent",
    instructions="You assist customers with troubleshooting.",
)
agency = Agency(support_agent)

examples = [
    {"role": "user", "content": "My device won't turn on."},
    {"role": "assistant", "content": "Please hold the power button for 10 seconds to restart the device."},
]
new_message = {"role": "user", "content": "It still won't start."}

response = await agency.get_response(examples + [new_message])
Message history is more scalable. Instructions are best for short examples. See more advanced features in Agent Class